Under lockdown conditions, is live streaming a viable way for used car dealers to interact directly and successfully with potential customers?
The South China Morning Post* reported that dealers there have increased live streaming activity fifteenfold since the start of the year and engaged six times as many customers, suggesting there is considerable potential for its use when only remote sales are possible.
Tim Meadows, Vice President and Commercial Director at epyx, said that the technology could present a useful new option for dealers.
“Following government clarifications on vehicle delivery and potentially click-and-collect models, we are seeing some dealers looking to maximise their online activity as a way to keep selling cars and vans during lockdown. Finding ways to ‘humanise’ the experience of online sales is going to be important to making this work and live streaming is one method of dealing directly with the potential customer visually and in real time.”
Tim said that some dealers had already been making use of live streaming before the lockdown but that he now expectedly it to increase exponentially.
“Probably the most simple and effective strategy is to undertake a walkaround of the vehicle or a choice of vehicles with the sales person highlighting features but also allowing the customer to direct what is being shown in a natural fashion. It’s a very interactive process when it is done properly.
“There are various platforms available to do this and it can be done at relatively little cost, although it is perhaps useful to produce some kind of briefing for the sales team on how to present the vehicle in a professional manner using live video. This is something few of them will have done”
*https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/3080049/chinas-car-dealers-embraced-live-streaming-connect-consumers
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