Online Retail Potential Greater than Thought: Delticom

According to Delticom, the number of potential online tyre purchasers is much higher than many experts previously thought. The online retailer has drawn this conclusion from the results of its “Reifen Online 2010” survey of 1,001 German motorists, which was conducted by renowned survey organisation forsa. The forsa survey revealed as many as a third of all German drivers can envision purchasing tyres online; for motorists between 18 and 30 years of age, this figure rises to 42 per cent.

“More and more consumers are apparently discovering the benefits of tyre purchase from the Internet,” commented Delticom CEO Rainer Binder. Survey results show that the number one reason why consumers purchase tyres online is to save time through comparing products online – 95 per cent of men and women stated this played a role in their decision to click and buy. In second place was the argument that tyres can be comfortably ordered from home – this benefit was a deciding factor for 89 per cent of men and 96 per cent of women who bought tyres online. Price advantage was revealed to be an important factor 84 per cent of men and 95 per cent of women.

Although the wish for the best possible price was a ‘top three’ reason for buying online, it was those from the higher income earning bracket that most frequently made internet tyre purchases. Some 39 per cent of higher earners with a household net income of over 3,000 euros said they could envision buying tyres online. In comparison: 32 per cent of respondents with a household net income between 1,500 and 3,000 Euros and 28 per cent of drivers with a household net income below 1,500 euros said would buy tyres online.

Half of those from the survey group who currently cannot envision buying tyres online stated they were as a rule reluctant to buy or order products online, and felt that personal advice was missing from the internet shopping experience. For this reason, Delticom says its online shops contain many interactive features to assist its customers in finding the right tyre. After entering in the required tyre size, the platform shows all suitable tyres, further sorting them according to criteria such as brand, speed index or price range upon request. The company also provides more than 100,000 consumer-written tyre test reports through its tyretest.com website.