Independent research has found that 85% of car buyers visit manufacturers' websites before purchasing.
However, customers' online experience varies widely between the leading luxury car companies, with many failing to provide the information and service customers are looking for online.
Customer experience benchmarking firm, Global Reviews, found that 80% use the internet to compare cars from different manufacturers.
Most significantly, 20% go online again just before making their final decision.
Global Reviews' 'Luxury Car Website Benchmark' measured customers' experience on ten of the top luxury car websites.
The sites were assessed against more than 475 objective criteria including the information available to prospective buyers, customer support, service offered to vehicle owners, and general site usability.
The study found that BMW offers the best customer online experience with 76%, against an industry average of 62%, followed by Jaguar (72%), Porsche (71%), Ford (69%), Mercedes (68%), VW (62%) Audi, Aston Martin and Subaru (54%) and Ferrari (44%) offer their customers a below average online experience.
Mercedes offers the best online experience for prospective buyers (66%), followed by Porsche (63%) and Jaguar (62%).
81% of customers say it is important to be able to find full features list online.
While most companies enable online ordering, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche do not.
Global Reviews director, Adam Goodvach said: "It is clear from this research that the vast majority of car buyers depend on websites.
"With so many customers returning to the sites just before making their final decision, car companies are missing a trick if they fail to offer potential buyers the information they are looking for online."
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