May 12, 2009

Hyundaicanada.com favourite site of Canadian buyers
Good website contributes to increased sales

Hyundai ranks highest among auto manufacturer websites in satisfying Canadian new-vehicle shoppers, a distinction that translates into increased brand consideration according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Canadian Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study released yesterday.

The study, which looks at Canadian automotive manufacturer websites from the perspective of shoppers who intend to purchase a new vehicle in the next 12 months, examines how four factors contribute to overall customer satisfaction -information/content, loading speed of pages, ease of navigation and appearance.

Hyundai’s score of 834 on a 1,000-point scale makes it the highest ranking site in terms of customer satisfaction, with its highest marks coming from page loading speed and ease of navigation.

"Hyundai's redesigned website demonstrates the manufacturer's keen focus on providing and enhancing those features that are of the greatest value to shoppers," said Ryan Robinson, senior manager of automotive research at J.D. Power and Associates. "Making critical information, such as pricing and vehicle specifications, immediately accessible is more important than adding extra bells and whistles, like videos or simulated test drives, which can be useful but tend to slow down the speed at which the pages load."

The study also found that high levels of satisfaction with manufacturer websites have a strong positive effect on new-vehicle buyer intentions. Among sites with overall satisfaction scores above the industry average, the number of new-vehicle shoppers who say they "definitely will" consider purchasing the brand increases by nearly 8 per cent after they visit the site, compared with an increase of less than 2 per cent among visitors to sites with satisfaction scores below the industry average.

"The improvement in brand consideration by new-vehicle shoppers after visiting a highly satisfying manufacturer website underscores the importance of building an informative and functional site," said Robinson. "Increasing satisfaction levels with manufacturer websites can ultimately translate into more dealership visits and vehicle sales."

The 2009 Canadian Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study, conducted in April 2009, is based on evaluations provided by 2,168 new-vehicle shoppers.

Toyota was a close second with a score of 833, with high marks for website appearance while Mazda ranks third with a score of 829.