{"id":4249757,"date":"2021-03-15T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/how-digital-tech-will-change-the-buying-journey-for-homes-and-cars\/"},"modified":"2021-03-15T12:37:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:37:00","slug":"how-digital-tech-will-change-the-buying-journey-for-homes-and-cars","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-nl\/insight\/how-digital-tech-will-change-the-buying-journey-for-homes-and-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"How digital tech will change the buying journey for homes and cars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tHow digital tech will change the buying journey for homes and cars\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tKaty White\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t15 March 2021\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tIn 2020, consumerism saw the largest shift to digital purchasing in a decade, with\u00a0online sales growing 46% in 2020<\/a>, driven by the need to safely buy and sell goods. But even pre-pandemic, the preference to shop online was already becoming the norm, demonstrated by a\u00a0steady global increase in digital buyers<\/a>. The biggest investments people make in their lifetime, homes and cars, have always relied heavily on physical interactions at every stage of the buying journey. But as e-commerce becomes more ingrained in both our lives and, indeed, our devices, consumers will migrate from traditional, in-person methods of browsing and buying, even for these big-ticket items.\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tConsumers now actively choose to peruse and purchase everything from fashion and groceries, to tech and holidays online. Although some brands are a little late to the digital transformation party, waves are now being made in the real estate and automotive industries, as technology filters into the buying journey of these high value items. As momentum picks up, here\u2019s what we predict for the future commerce journey\u2026\u00a0
\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tAI chatbots foster a personal search\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tThe amount of information online is continually growing and, without assistance, online searches can seem endless. Consumers have become accustomed to relying on intelligent technology to refine searches and access the information they are looking for quickly. With\u00a089% of shoppers<\/a>\u00a0wanting to use instant messaging to communicate with brands and 66% favouring messaging over any other communication channel, chatbots are the way forward.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tDriven by artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent chatbots can help companies save time and money by digitising customer interactions; capturing customer queries and sharing relevant, instant information to address their needs. Having already gained strong levels of adoption, and a\u00a0predicted global market size of $1.3 billion<\/a>\u00a0by 2024, chatbots are evolving to have much more human-like characteristics; helping to establish deeper connections between brands and consumers and create more meaningful experiences.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tAs chatbots learn to be more \u201chuman,\u201d their abilities to answer more\u00a0complex questions<\/a>\u00a0and make pointed\u00a0 suggestions to the consumer also grows. For the real-estate and automotive sectors, instead of answering singular questions about size, colour, features, rooms or location, chatbots will participate in a dialogue to paint a real-life picture of the agent or dealer and their products. This conversational enhancement will allow chatbots to make accurate suggestions, while using the information from customer conversations to gently influence a sale. Instead of overwhelming the buyer with information they may not need or want, chatbots can connect the consumer to content, images and video that sell the lifestyle that accompanies the home or car.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tChatbots have a pivotal role to play in the research stage of home and car buying. Furthering discovery through intelligent conversations and engaging the customer with pointed suggestions ultimately meets the potential buyers\u2019 needs. From locating relevant properties to finding the perfect car to test drive, the evolution of AI will continue to shape the way consumers browse online.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tAR delivers an immersive experience\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tRefining the search is only the halfway point to closing a sale. Producing relevant suggestions isn\u2019t going to foster online sales alone, as the home and car buyers of the future will still want to view the product before making a significant, long-term investment.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tVirtual and augmented reality (VR\/AR) lend themselves perfectly to creating immersive experiences without the customer having to leave their home. The technology seems to be evolving from a trend to the new normal, with the market being predicted to reach\u00a0\u00a380 billion by 2025<\/a>. There\u2019s also appetite from consumers, with\u00a080% of online shoppers<\/a>\u00a0and 60% of mobile shoppers stating that new technologies and innovations improve their experience.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tThe forecast for the future suggests AR and VR will be the go-to tools for first stage viewing of\u00a0homes\u00a0and\u00a0cars<\/a>. Both technologies have the ability to create all encompassing, customised experiences, assisting in the decision making process by delivering huge amounts of visual data instantly. Deliberating between options that once took hours or even days, can be reduced to minutes.\u00a0\u00a0\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tToday, real estate agents and automotive dealers are increasingly turning to this technology.\u00a0By 2025, it is predicted that VR home tours<\/a>\u00a0will be the new standard of viewing for those entering the property market. DEPT\u00ae recently\u00a0worked with BPD<\/a>, the largest real estate developer in the Netherlands, to create an innovative digital service that enables customers to browse, customise and purchase homes online or through VR. Customer demand for the service was so high that leads doubled as a result of this solution.\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t