Consumer car research spikes on Sundays, despite most dealers being closed, new carsales data reveals
Australian consumers do more of their car shopping on Sundays. That’s the clear message from up to date consumer trend data from carsales.
Tracking car shoppers’ behaviour on Australia’s #1 for cars, it’s clear consumers spend longer searching and viewing cars, and engaging with news, reviews and research content on a Sunday, than any other day.
In fact, Sunday now has the highest share of sessions across the week, even outpacing the traditional car shopping day of Saturday.
Pages viewed per session also peaks on a Sunday, while bounce rate was also at its lowest point – underscoring the quality of the consumer audience and engagement.
Time spent engaging with carsales Editorial news, review, and research content was also at its highest on a Sunday – around 8% higher than on its previous Friday peak.
“It’s very clear from our site data that Australian consumers undertake more high-quality, top of funnel car-buying actions on Sundays,” explains carsales Head of Digital, Caitlin Retell.
“These actions include saving dealer cars, saving brand and model searches and engaging with the latest carsales news, reviews and advice content.”
“We believe consumers are leveraging the extra spare time afforded they have on Sundays to establish a general understanding of the car market, figure out their needs, explore the full range of options available in the marketplace, and create a shortlist.”
While NSW has a strong tradition of car dealers opening their doors on a Sunday, consumers in other states and territories assume dealerships are closed. As a consequence, consumers submit a greater share of email and SMS enquiries on Sundays — as opposed to phone enquiries.
According to Retell, the consumer data underlines the importance for brands and dealers to remain highly visible on Sundays on carsales, and align with evolving consumer behaviour.
“With consumers out in force and highly motivated, Sunday is a great opportunity for brands to increase awareness and consideration, influence behaviour and drive conversion on site.
“The data also highlights the opportunity for dealers to put in place strategies to better engage Sunday car shoppers.”
Tips for dealers to maximise Sunday consumer car research:
1. Set up auto-responses
Auto Responses such as those via SMS and email, are a quick and cost-effective way to acknowledge an enquiry and set the expectation that you will be in contact as soon as possible. While this may be on Monday, consider ways of responding (via the same channel the lead was submitted) in real-time.
2. Nurture prospects instantly with A.I.
An AI solution like Conversica can nurture prospects with natural two-way conversation until it’s time for your sales team to take over, continue the discussion or organise a showroom appointment.
3. Ensure that all ads are up to date
Ensure that your pricing, comments and photos are updated to reflect your marketing strategy for the inventory item for the week ahead. Cars sold on Saturday should be removed prior to Sunday, and dealers that are open on Sundays should indicate this in their comments.
More dealer business tips:
How to sell via your virtual showroom
8 step checklist to selling cars virtually
How to generate more exposure on your inventory
