50 p.c. cars buyers influenced by online search

BANGALORE, INDIA: With over 120 million Internet users in the country, the Internet is playing a major role in influencing the decision making of India's growing number of car buyers.

An offline study conducted by Nielsen on behalf of Google India at car showrooms of leading car makers in top 8 metros revealed that one in two car buyers had conducted research online before arriving at the dealership. The survey also revealed that of those who had researched their purchase online, over 50 per cent changed their choice of car brands after uncovering new information on the web.

Respondents reported that they used the web to research and compare prices, watch online videos and find images, do competitive analysis, find dealer contacts and read both expert and user reviews.

Most car buyers also rated OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) website as the most important and trustworthy source of information. Of the 50 per cent respondents who went online, 42 per cent said they used search engine as the first source of information, just behind the opinions of friends and relatives (47 per cent).

On average, car buyers spend 9-12 weeks researching before arriving at their final decision.

Speaking about the study's findings, Rajan Anandan, VP and managing director of Google India, said ''This offline study substantiates the growing number of auto-related searches we've seen on Google search in India. Auto is among the fastest growing vertical in terms of query volumes on Google. Most OEMs have not yet tapped the full potential of the digital medium and we hope this study will help them to understand and engage the Indian consumer online.''

These findings are consistent with query trends on Google Web Search. Auto is among the fastest growing vertical on Google, with query volume growth of over 70 per cent year on year. In addition, in 2011 mobile queries grew 125 per cent; from smartphones, the query volumes were almost double at 242 per cent.

In terms of query volume growth: SUVs was the fastest growing car segment growing at (83 per cent), followed by premium cars (82 per cent), sedans (75 per cent), luxury cars (74 per cent) and hatchback cars were growing at (53 per cent).

Top 10 most searched new car launches in 2011:

1. Hyundai Eon
2. Mahindra XUV 500
3. Honda Brio
4. Tata Manza
5. Maruti Kizashi
6. Toyota Liva
7. Hyundai Verna
8. Nissan Sunny
9. Skoda Rapid
10. Ford Fiesta

Methodology for Offline research:

The research was conducted outside the Car showrooms of India's leading OEMs namely: Maruti, Tata Motors, Ford, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Honda and Volkswagen. 234 dealership across top 8 cities were covered for the research. The top cities included dealerships at NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Kochi. The total sample size of the research was 2791 respondents. The research was conducted over two months Jan-Feb 2012.