Subaru Ireland have this week launched a new website that allows customers to complete the entire sales process online without the need to visit a dealership.
The website, available at Subaru.ie, allows customers to configure their new vehicle, organise a part exchange or trade-in valuation, apply for finance and organise collection or delivery of their new Subaru all from the comfort of their own home.
This new website, which has been in development for the past two years, integrates finance applications and trade-in valuations to ensure a seamless customer journey from start to finish. This sales process is estimated to take just thirty minutes to complete.
Like most industries, the automotive sector has experienced decreased dealership footfall this year due to increased Covid restrictions and an overall declining market.
Speaking earlier this week, Pat Ryan, Managing Director of Subaru Ireland commented: “Our new Subaru website revolutionises the online sales process. Just five years ago, customers visited a dealership on average three times before completing a purchase, this is now down to a single visit.
“Customers are increasingly researching their next vehicle online, but the sales journey can become fragmented and distorted by finance applications and trade-in negotiations that take place offline.
“At present, over 75% of new vehicle sales in Ireland are associated with a trade-in vehicle. We are delighted to be the first brand in Ireland to integrate online trade-in valuations with the sales and finance application to determine the true cost of change for the customer without the need for them to leave their home.
“The new Subaru digital sales journey brings together all stages of the buying journey under one trusted umbrella and is no doubt the future of online and contactless purchases in the motor industry.”
Commenting on the importance of physical dealerships in this digital process Mr Ryan continued: “The physical dealership still plays an integral part in the sales process to many people, however, we must also accept that for others it is seen as an unnecessary journey.
“Our new digital sales channel enables customers to visit their dealership as much or as little as required, this decision is down to the individual customer.
“Even for customers that complete the sales journey online, the vehicle handover will be conducted by the local dealer either at the dealership or via home delivery and the dealer will also follow up with the customer for all aftersales and service requirements.”
This new website includes a state-of-the-art online configurator, finance application plugin and trade-in valuation process. The purchase journey is very simple, once the customer configures their preferred vehicle they are brought to a summary page where they can save their configuration to view at a later date, or alternatively, proceed to order the vehicle.
Once the order command is triggered, customers are brought to a six-step process to complete the process.
Step 1 simply requires customer details to be entered, a dealer is selected in Step 2 while Step 3 allows customers to use their current vehicle as a part exchange. Step 4 allows the customer to choose between dealership collection or home delivery and Step 5 covers the final vehicle payment with options available to purchase in full or organise finance by PCP or HP.
To celebrate the launch of this new website, Subaru Ireland announced this week that they are offering customers an online discount voucher of €2,000 or a reduced PCP/HP finance APR rate of just 2.9% to encourage online custom.
Subaru customers can still contact their local dealer for assistance and sales support but the brand has confirmed that they expect 80% of future sales to come from this digital platform in 2021.
For more information see subaru.ie
