DealerPeak has released the third quarter findings from their Peak Insight Report. The overall numbers show that while inventory is coming back to dealerships across the nation, supply is still very much in demand across the industry. 

After an analysis of thousands of CRM transactions running through the CRM system in the third quarter of 2022, manufacturer lead conversion rates continue to rise over recent quarters, with the growth coming from changing consumer behavior. Millennial buyers want to buy direct and online — and the OEMs actually prefer this as it gives them more control over the sale. The industry can continue to expect to see manufacturer lead conversion rates rise as more consumers opt to purchase direct.

But while showroom conversion rates rose, there was a reduction in showroom leads overall. “In Q3 2022, we saw inventory levels begin to rise again. This increase in available inventory essentially brings more bait into the market for consumers, and thus, we saw an increase in internet leads. On the other hand, we saw a reduction in showroom leads as fewer people are buying cars on impulse,” said Matt Moore, CEO of DealerPeak. 

Some other key insights contained within the report include: 

• Website provider conversion rates dropped slightly compared to previous quarters in 2022. DealerPeak believes this drop is only temporary, and website conversion rates will begin growing again as more and more dealer groups continue to invest in and maintain their websites.
• Comprehensive retailing tools like TradePending lead the pack as they provide valuable insights for consumers wanting to shop around and figure out the true value of their trade in this market environment. 
• The ever-growing SMS Opt-In rates from our dealer partners confirm consumers really do want to communicate through this channel.

“We share new information on SMS and email opt-in rates in this quarter’s report and it should come as no surprise to anyone that SMS rates are rising as email opt-ins continue to fall,” said Moore. “We believe dealerships that actively work to adopt SMS-based communication with their customers can expect greater levels of engagement moving forward.”

DealerPeak recently released comprehensive SMS marketing capabilities in its marketing automation suite. This allows dealers to easily create rule-based marketing campaigns with dynamic content for one-to-one and one-to-many SMS outreach. Now, without leaving CRM, dealers can market to customers with messaging based on where they are in the customer journey to automatically drive sales and service revenue.

DealerPeak’s best-in-class, enterprise-wide solutions automate the hard work of relationship building through real-time updates, customized workflows, desking solutions, and more. The aim is to bring joy back into the process, while helping each dealership contribute to a healthy bottom line. 

If you’d like to read more trends as discovered in the Peak Insight Report, or to download past reports, visit: https://www.dealerpeak.com/peak-insights-report/.