Next-Gen Platforms Put Car Buyers in Control of Process

Different consumers like to shop for cars in different ways, but they all have one thing in common: they want to do the shopping on their own terms.

That means, for example, they don’t want to have to search multiple sites because each has a limited range of listings; they don’t want to spend a lot of time completing the transaction; and, throughout the process, they don’t want to receive unsolicited calls and emails from dealers.

“Next to buying a house, this is probably the most expensive purchase you make,” Eric Westphal, founder and CEO at OneRequest, told PYMNTS. “You’re spending all this money, but you have to do all this work and you lose control because you’re just at the mercy of getting calls whenever they decide to call.”

OneRequest offers an online car shopping platform that, for one thing, does not sell car shoppers’ data to dealerships. It offers a free plan that lets shoppers view nearly all U.S. inventory.

It also offers three paid plans that add such services as the ability to call and email dealers through an app without sharing contact information, a 30-minute consultation with a car expert and a Concierge service that handles everything from identifying cars that might meet the shoppers’ needs to arranging delivery of the vehicle.

Solving Common Pain Points for Car Shoppers

Westphal began developing OneRequest after finding that he had to go to multiple sites to find cars he was looking for. When sites charge dealers to list their inventory, the sites’ listings are incomplete, and they prioritize some listings over others, Westphal said.

“On average, consumers are shopping on just over four sites,” Westphal said. “It’s just inefficient to repeat your search over and over again.”

OneRequest gets its listings from a third party, then then normalizes the data to make it easier for shoppers to find and compare vehicles’ features. For example, if dealers use different names for a feature, the company makes them consistent.

Another common complaint about the car shopping process is unsolicited calls and emails from dealers. Some sites require shoppers to give their contact information in order to check vehicle availability or get more information, and some sell shoppers’ information to dealers the shopper has not even shown an interest in.

“You just start getting lit up with calls from the dealer you’re interested in and sometimes from other dealers because your information has been sold,” Westphal said.

To prevent unsolicited communication, OneRequest does not sell shoppers’ data. With the paid plans, it also enables shoppers to contact dealers to ask questions without having to share their phone number or email address.

Delivering the Experience Each Shopper Wants

Beyond that, different consumers have different preferences when it comes to car shopping, Westphal said. Each uses their own combination of online and offline shopping, with some wanting to look at the cars in a showroom and others wanting to just pick a car online and have it delivered.

“Car buyers want to do their research online, do the negotiation and even — to the extent that they can — get the paperwork and all the details figured out online, on their own time and in the comfort of their own home,” Westphal said. “They’re really trying to avoid the endless hours of sitting in the F&I manager’s office — all they want to do is get out, get the keys and enjoy their new car.”

There is still a good amount of demand for a test drive so that shoppers can experience the legroom and other amenities of the car, Westphal said. For that and other reasons, he said, an online car shopping resource should give each consumer a choice of what they want to do online and what they want to do offline, all the while enabling them to have control over the process and the communication.

“I’ve always felt that we as a consumer base would be better off finding a solution that works with the dealers, because people want to go and they want to see that car, they want to test drive it, they’re going to need to get it serviced and maybe they want to buy parts,” Westphal said. “So, having that relationship with the dealer and having that traditional dealer be a part of it is important to the overall success of the car-shopping process.”