The Aftermarket Business World 2013 Consumer Attitude Study Part 2 focused on consumers’ use of online tools to get information and purchase products, as well as their use of social media to follow repair shops, the aftermarket and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
In four of the six product category studies, consumers said the Internet was their preferred source of information on how to do a DIY repair. Vehicle service manuals were the second most popular source of information for consumers and auto parts retailers were third.
Consumers appear to be getting more comfortable purchasing products online as 40 percent or more said they have made such a purchase across all products surveyed. Approximately one-third say they have written an online review of one of the products they purchased.
While there can be no doubt about the increasing popularity of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, fewer than 16 percent of consumers surveyed in four of the six categories said they are using social media to follow repair shops, OEMs or aftermarket companies. Notable exceptions were in the air conditioning category where 57 percent of consumers said they use social media to follow repair shops and 71 percent use social media to follow OEMs or the aftermarket. Nearly 40 percent said they use social media to follow those three groups in the battery charger sector.
Click here to see the entire survey.
Methodology: The Consumer Attitude Study was fielded to 19,050 consumers via email with a response rate of 5.1 percent (1,522 responses). The survey has a +/- 2.1 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.
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