How can a color choosing with no extra charge attract people to online car purchases?

Experts of the analytical agency "AUTOSTAT" and Auto Mail.ru continue to find out the attitude of Russians to the process of buying a car online. Thus, when preparing a new report “Online car purchase: the opinion of Russian consumers” in August of 2020, a joint survey was conducted (more than 2 thousand respondents), during which the question was asked: “What would be the decisive factor for you to buy a car online?" No more than three options could be selected from the options.

The survey results are broken down by 17 car brands owned by the respondents at the time of the survey *. As it turned out, one of the decisive factors for buying a car online, according to survey participants, is the choice of its color, but without additional payment. Toyota car owners turned out to be the leaders - more than 30% of those confirmed that the ability to choose the color of the car without additional financial investments could push them to make a purchase via the Internet.

Almost every fourth owner of LADA (28.1%), Renault (27.4%), Mazda (25.6%), Mitsubishi (25.5%), Audi (23.7%) and Honda (23.3%), Ford (21%), BMW (20.5%) and Nissan (20%) also showed a fairly high percentage of those who could be encouraged by such a “bonus” to buy a car online. Among these brands, almost every fifth person expressed a willingness to change the usual mechanism of buying a car. Note that among the above brands there are both mass and premium (Audi, BMW).

As for the owners of the remaining seven brands included in our sample (Hyundai, KIA, Opel, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Skoda, Mercedes-Benz), it is obvious that for them the ability to choose a color without additional payment influences the decision on online buying a car (less than 20%). So, among those who drive Mercedes-Benz cars, this option would be able to attract only one in ten people to online, which is the lowest indicator among the respondents.

* The rating includes brands for which a representative sample was collected - at least 100 profiles per a brand.