Montreal, QC — iPerceptions Inc. (TSX-V: IPE), a leading provider of web-focused Voice of Customer (VoC) analytics based on actual visitor feedback, recently announced the release of its Automotive Industry Report for Q2 2011. Although spotty demand and cautious spending by consumers are contributing to a delayed recovery in the automotive industry, the report shows imminent vehicle purchases are on the rise.

Throughout the first 6 months of the year, overall U.S. sales have been projected at less than 13 million vehicles for the entire year. Despite being a considerable improvement over the 11.6 million vehicles sold in 2010, it is not the recovery that many had anticipated.

“The economy continues to drag and enthusiasm for purchasing new cars isn’t as great as automakers would like,” said Claude Guay, President and CEO of iPerceptions. “Still, in Q2 there was an increase in the number of website visitors planning to purchase within a month. Even a modest improvement is noteworthy at a time when inventory levels are low, unemployment is high and purchase incentives are unimpressive.”
iPerceptions’ report shows that a greater proportion of visitors were close to making a purchase in Q2 2011. Specifically, those looking to make a purchase within the next month increased from 14.1% in Q1 to 15.1% in Q2. This increase was accompanied by a reduction in the proportion of visitors who reported being further out in the purchase process in Q2, i.e. looking to purchase in 6 months or more, from 34.6% in Q1 to 33.8% in Q2.

Other important findings from the report include:
- Visitors’ overall task completion increased from 69.8% in Q1 2011 to 72.0% in Q2 2011; task completion for visitors who came to research price increased from 67.9% to 71.8%.

- The percentage of visitors who said they plan to purchase within a month increased from 14.1% in Q1 2011 to 15.1% in Q2 2011.

- The interest in luxury vehicles increased from 23.7% in Q1 2011 to 27.1% in Q2 2011; luxury vehicle interest increased from 18.3% in Q2 2011.

- Interactive tools was, for the first time, the website attribute that had the greatest influence on in-market visitors’ overall experience.

The report analyzes real-time feedback from more than 50,000 people visiting 20 North American automotive brand websites and nearly 10,000 people visiting 91 international automotive retail websites to identify the most important issues and trends facing the industry.

Data contained in the Automotive Industry Report for Q2 2011 represents aggregated information obtained from iPerceptions’ webValidator and 4Q Suite surveys. The full report can be found on the iPerceptions website at www.iperceptions.com/resource-center.

Links:
http://www.iperceptions.com/resource-center