Whether your website has been live for a week, or a year, it’s important to think about your manufacturer product lines. How are you representing the brands you carry?

After the lights go out at the dealership at the end of the day (and even while they’re still on), your website is your viewers’ link to your business–available to them 24/7 with no sick days, and no lunch breaks. Displaying the complete product catalog and fully representing the brands you carry eliminates any need to send your potential customers to a different website – and onto the lots of your competitors!
While sending your customers to the manufacturers’ site might seem logical, you have to ask yourself, “What happens when that dealer is ready to buy?” Sending them to the manufacturers website, doesn’t always mean that they’ll come back to place their order on your site; most manufacturers have “dealer locators”, asking the viewer to enter their address, thus pairing them with the dealer closest to them. Providing complete information on the line you carry on your site eliminates this problem because the customer will NEVER leave your site, and it guarantees that their business comes directly to you!

If a customer walked into your dealership and asked about a product you carry, you wouldn’t send them out the door with directions to the factory, would you? Of course not! You’d provide the information right then and there, and your website should provide the same service.  Even if the customer is interested in something from the manufacturer catalog that isn’t in stock on your lot, you’re still engaging the customer and getting the first crack at their business. After all, just because it’s not on the lot doesn’t mean you can’t get it, right?

There are other benefits to providing complete manufacturer line information on your website as well:

• Search engines will pick up on the data and drive qualified customers to your site. If the product web users are searching for doesn’t appear on your web site, why would a search engine ever suggest your site as a destination?
• When your site contains information on an entire manufacturer line, you present yourself and your business as an expert on those products. Sending a customer away from your site to get information might come across negatively.

Investing in the addition of a complete manufacture lines to your website is a sure-fire way to turn your ‘visitors’ into ‘customers’, while increasing your brand integrity, and building your online reputation. This is why Commercial Web Services is proud to offer complete manufacturer showrooms to the members of our dealer network.

The next time a customer walks through the door and asks a question about a product you sell, imagine yourself sending them out the door to find the information somewhere else. It doesn’t make sense in your dealership, and it certainly doesn’t make sense on your website.