This week digital car retailer ‘Rockar Hyundai’ will celebrate the 100,000th visitor to its flagship store in Kent’s Bluewater Shopping Centre since opening its doors just six months ago. Because of its unique location, Rockar Hyundai’s store can have more visitors on a single Saturday than many traditional dealerships would expect to see in a whole year. The www.rockar.com website has also received 78,000 web visitors since it was launched in November 2014.
Last year, the new car industry rose to a ten-year high with 2.47 million new cars registered. This factor combined with Hyundai’s partnership with Rockar has meant the business is seeing success early on.
Rockar Hyundai represents a completely new way of engaging with people and for them to buy a car. Unusually, customers can choose to complete the entire process online or in store. Rockar provides shoppers with a truly customer-focused experience that allows them to research, test-drive, sell their old car and purchase a new Hyundai all at the touch of a button. Rockar’s pricing policy is always transparent and competitive, which appeals to people who don’t want to negotiate for the best deal, and the entire buying process can be completed in less than five minutes.
For those customers who want advice before they purchase, Rockar Hyundai’s in-store team of ‘Angels’ are there to help. These are not salespeople on commission, they are product experts there to advise and lend a helping hand – should customers need one.
Tony Whitehorn, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor UK, said: “We are delighted that Rockar Hyundai has experienced such a successful start.This innovative retail proposition is challenging the existing automotive retail modelbecause it is taking the product to where the customer is. It’s raising brand awareness and importantly interrupting people who are not shopping at Bluewater with the intention of buying a new car.”
Simon Dixon, CEO and founder of Rockar, said: “Rockar is challenging every preconception about how buying and selling a car should be. The average age of a new car buyer is 56 years, but the average age of a Rockar customer is just 37. What’s also interesting is that on average 60 per cent of buyers, and 54 per cent of visitors to the Bluewater store, are female – Rockar’s key demographic. The brand conversion rate is impressive too, as 95 per cent of our customers have never owned a Hyundai before. When looking at the success of Rockar so far, it is clear that challenging the historical approach to car buying is the way forward.”
The successful new approach to car buying stretches to all aspects of the business, including the test drive. Rockar is putting convenience at the heart of its ‘YouDrive’ service, by allowing customers to book one of the 25 dedicated cars at the click of a button. For maximum convenience and availability, there is a section of Bluewater’s car park reserved for Rockar’s YouDrive service and customers can drive the car alone if they wish. With such ease, customers are comfortable booking multiple test drives, and those that do are then twice as likely to make a purchase. Approximately one third of test drives convert to purchase decisions.
