Car buyers turning away from online purchases
A declining share of car buyers plan to purchase their next car entirely online, according to new research by What Car?.
In its latest weekly survey, just 4.2% of 873 in-market consumers said they expect to buy their next car entirely online. This is down from 9.7% in June 2022. Meanwhile, 41.1% of buyers said they are comfortable with the idea of buying a car online, down from 49.9% in June 2022.
What Car? editor Steve Huntingford said: “Despite the growing presence of online-only retailers and a push from manufacturers towards online buying, the share of people set to buy their next car online has fallen over the past nine months. What is particularly striking is the disparity between the number of people who say they are comfortable with the idea of buying a car online and the number of buyers actually planning to do so. This suggests manufacturers have a lot of work to do in convincing buyers that they’d be better off buying online.”
