Online Retailing:

Success Starts Behind the Computer Screen

ho would have guessed that the Internet would have evolved over the past decade from a largely unknown realm of cyberspace populated by computer nerds to an essential, if not preferred, communications vehicle for a vast majority of homes and businesses in the U.S.
  Not since the invention of the television has the world seen such a versatile or powerful communications tool and such sweeping technological in our daily lives. And the purveyors of recreational vehicles, like virtually all other retail merchants across the country, are racing to leverage the cyberspace highway as a sales and marketing tool.
  We've all witnessed this rapid transition. As recently as the late 1990s, in fact, an RV dealer was considered progressive if he had a website with a few photos and an email address. Today, however, as many dealers have learned, such a simplistic approach is not worth the consumers' time.
  Today's RV buyers want to see attractive websites. They want lots of information, perhaps more than they would have ever asked of dealers in the past.. And they want information 24/7 to help shape their purchasing decisions.
  As with many innovation in technology, however there are bumps along the road, and the challenges for dealers are twofold. Not only do they have to build better websites that provide the kinds of information consumers seek, but they have to learn how to use email as a sales tool.

New Strategies for Turning Mouse Clicks Into Sales Closings

  As with any business, however, there are thresholds that have to be met for online success. Dealers have learned that it's not enough to merely post a few photos and contact information and wait for the phone calls and emails to come in.
  Successful websites are high maintenance. They have to be linked to search engines and other RV-related web pages so consumer can find a site. Skogebo finds it useful to pay search engines a fee, usually 15 cents a hit, to ensure that his dealership shows up on the first few pages of an Internet search. Information about search engines and pay-per-click fees can be found at www.payperclicksearchengines.com.
  RV dealer websites also must have detailed product information and photos — much of which has to be input on a daily basis — and deleted from the websites as sales take place. Successful websites often appear to include an easy-to-scan listing of available inventory or a search function to make it simple for the consumer to locate a product of interest to him. Dealers also have to have the ability — and assigned personnel — to keep the site up to date on a daily basis and have mechanisms in place to quickly track and respond to every lead. Dealers and website managers say the Internet can lead to a net increase in sales if these elements are handled effectively, but dealers may be disappointed if they are not.....

  .....Dealers say it's worth the time and effort to design an attractive, easy-to-use website because the look and feel of a website has an immediate effect on consumers.
  "It is your first impression," said Doug Lown, Vice President of Coachlight RV (www.coachlightrv.com) in Carthage, MO. "You pull up a nice clean website with good photos of the dealership, that's a good first impression."
  Turner of Wheeler's RV suggests designing a website that's informative and user-friendly for first time RVers. Dealers also need to provide extensive information about new and used products they have for sale.
  "Customers want you to be very detailed and they want pictures," Lown said. "They want to know about the floor-plan. Let's face it, I know what every Dutch Star looks like. But our customers don't. They want to look at exterior photos. They want to see interiors, too. They want to see what color it is and how it's laid out. You're in Missouri and you've got a customer looking at your product in Florida. You've got to be detailed."
  At least initially, people want to walk through the units at home. Keeping inventory and price specials up to date, however, is one of the most challenging aspects of website management. "It's a lot more work than people imagine," Richardson said. "Trying to keep your site updated and make sure a special you had is not from 30 days ago."
  Dealers across the country recount incidents of posting incorrect product photos or failing to keep their online inventory listings up to date.
  Some companies, particular RV website hosting companies such as RV America and RV USA, have developed special online product information forms designed to help dealers keep their product information current. Dealers can simply check the appropriate boxes and attach relevant digital photos when they have a new or used item to sell.....

  .....Dealers are also seeing the benefits of posting their product information to multiple websites to further drive traffic to their websites and increase their chances of making sales. Internet-based classified advertising vendors, for their part, are also making it easier for dealers to post their information on multiple websites so they don't have to fill out the online forms more than one time for each unit.....

  .....All of this, of course, has created a need for someone to come up with a way to bridge the competitive differences between some of the online classified listing services. One company that has successfully bridged this divide is Fort Myers, FL.-based RV Data Inc., ( www.RVdata.com ) which has developed the ability to post each dealer's inventory to multiple websites including, RVTraderOnline.com, RVClassified.com, MoreRVs.com, SellRV.com, GreatVehicles.com, RVAmerica.com, RVSearch.com, RVSales.com, RVUSA.com, NorthAmericaRVs.com and RVTrader.com. With RV Data dealers simply have to post their inventory and photo's one time and it can be entered at multiple websites, RV Data President Allan Day explained. Similarly, he said when it comes time to edit, or remove inventory, they can do it instantly with one click of a button and it's done.

  The obvious synergies between online classified advertising and website hosting business also prompted RVTraderOnline.com to start hosting websites for dealers last year.
  Ultimately, however, no matter how easy a dealer makes it for a consumer to find his website, it can be all for naught if the dealer drops the ball by not having effective procedures in place for handling Internet leads.
  "If you do not respond to emails, people get mad and I think you do more damage than good." Richardson said.
  Richardson hired an employee specifically for the purpose of answering all incoming emails.
  "If there's any leads, she turns it over to our sales manager. If it is a service inquiry, we turn it over to our service department," he said.
  "You need a quarterback." he added. "Otherwise you get two people calling the same person back."
  Or worse, no one responding to the email at all.

RVBusiness Magazine - December 2003 Issue