TheBuzz
TheBuzz
It seems Hawaii's automobile dealers take industry admonitions seriously, as many have established interactive, if not full-on e-commerce, Web sites. All that’s missing is
the new-car smellServcoautocenter.com has just added the Suzuki line of vehicles to its site, allowing a shopper to click either Toyota-Hawaii.com or Suzuki-Hawaii.com.
The site, launched in May, was created by long-time Hawaii tech firm Data House, which has designed other notable sites such as the HawaiianGreenhouse.com site once featured by IBM.
The Servco site has seen more than 20 sales per month, according to Internet General Manager Bryan Lee, hence the decision to add the Suzuki line.
In late 2000, the Virginia-based National Automobile Dealers Association encouraged all car dealers to get online "or risk losing customers to dealerships in their area that do have online operations," according to a study posted on its own Web site at nada.org. The study predicts that "in the next few years as many as 1 billion people will be connected to the Internet and by 2010 an estimated $1 trillion in retail business will be transacted over the Internet."
The association estimates that revenue generated online may equate to 5 percent to 8 percent of new vehicle dealers' retail sales.
"We increasingly recognize the Web as a key element of our business," said Servco Pacific Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Fukunaga. "Two-thirds of the contacts are new car buyers, so the Internet is achieving one of our business objectives of reaching out to new customers."
As with many auto dealers' Web sites, Servco's virtual visitors can choose the car they want with the features they want and desires are then matched with a vehicle in inventory. Price quotes are delivered and buyers are subsequently contacted by the company's Internet sales team -- which is also pictured online -- to confirm vehicle selection and complete the process.
Other prominent Hawaii auto dealers also have Web sites featuring varying degrees of interactivity, such as the Cutter Family Auto Centers site at cuttercars.com; the domestic to exotic pickings of Wholesale Motors at jnautomotive.com; and the newly designed site of the Tony Group at tony-hawaii.com.
Many Hawaii auto dealers' sites have links on the Kelly Blue Book site at www.kbb.com, but finding the Hawaii dealer list requires a bit of navigation. A click to the site map and another click on one of the "new car dealer" links seemed the quickest way to hit the mother lode.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com