We are all learning to appreciate the advantages that we can have deciding to buy things online rather than entering a real shop. Both if you are looking for a nice pair of shoes and if you want to buy a house or an electronic device, you can be sure to find everything you need on the web. If many people prefer this type of purchase instead of a traditional one, this is due to many factors: the convenience of buying everything you want comfortably sitting on your armchair, the wider choice, the more advantageous offers and the reductions that you can often find online.
Among all the objects and goods that you can purchase online, used cars and vehicles in general stand out. The online car market, indeed, has grown a lot in recent times, in spite of the crisis that has affected also this sector, with a general decrease of new vehicles matriculation in the last few months. All over Europe, indeed, the number of new cars sales is decreasing in comparison to last year: in November sales have decreased by 3,5% in comparison to the same month of 2010, while the average decrease from January to November has been of 1,2% in comparison to last year. And in Italy these data are even worse than that: according to a study carried out by Centro Studi Promotor Gl Events together with Unrae, indeed, in November there has been a decrease by 9,2% in comparison to 2010.
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While the number of matriculations of new vehicles is decreasing, the market of used cars is increasing, and it is in this sector that internet and specialized websites are being more and more successful. The number of potential purchasers that browse the web to find the perfect car or simply to gather opinions and make comparisons before buying their car, indeed, seems to be increasing. However, at this moment in time the success of the websites specialized in online ads of used cars has not succeeded in deposing car dealerships from their throne, as they are still the main benchmark for those who decide to buy a used car (61% of people, according to a study carried out by Duepuntozero Research, keep going to car dealerships to get information about the used car to buy). The people who decide to gather information online usually choose specialised websites (55%), the websites of car dealerships (41%) and ads website (40%). This is what concerns the gathering of information; as far as car purchase is concerned, ads website are the most popular ones, with a percentage of 59%.
The online purchases of used cars are increasing, but this does not mean that car dealerships have to begin touching wood or waving the white flag: in the future there will probably be a collaboration rather than a competition between car dealerships and internet. You can see already that many used cars dealerships have understood that using the potentials of the web might be an excellent solution and are trying to make their website more and more visible.
