Dealer website traffic analysis by Bluesky Interactive ‘paints a positive picture of industry recovery’.

The company analysed the website traffic of dealer clients in order to understand how the shopping habits of prospective car buyers have changed during lockdown – and how they are still changing.

The results, whilst reflecting the inevitable industry-wide drop-off, revealed some exciting signs of recovering market interest, says Bluesky Interactive.

Bluesky’s analysts compared traffic levels during the first four weeks of lockdown with those of the subsequent four weeks. They then compared these with data from the seven days since lockdown was eased, in order to understand how the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ has affected customer activity. Finally, they examined the rate of website visitors converting to enquiries, to get an understanding of future purchase intent.

Tony Hilton, operations director at Bluesky Interactive, said: “There is a very clear upward curve in visitor levels towards pre-lockdown levels. Whilst we’ve seen significant drop-offs since lockdown – with traffic more than halving in some instances – the outlook is now looking increasingly positive.

“The conversion rates last week were consistently higher than before lockdown, demonstrating that people are considering buying cars again. It definitely shows a strong willing – which bodes well for dealers in the run-up to opening again.”

While statistics are looking positive, Bluesky say that even after June 1, things are unlikely to return to normal.

Hilton said: “We’re likely to have social distancing measures for some time. That’s why so many clients are embracing our eCommerce solution, AutoTransact, and why we are introducing booking calendars and other useful tools to help facilitate dealership walk-ins.”