Online traffic and lead volume is growing amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – suggesting a rebound in the online RV market as dealers convert to fully virtual dealerships – according to data provided by RVTrader.com.
In its most recent fact sheet, released Wednesday (April 29), year-over-year traffic on RVTrader.com shows an increase in marketplace unique visitors of 10.6% over 2019. In addition, week-over-week leads are up an average of 18.2% vs. 2019 – including increases of 28.3% in telephone calls, 14.5% in emails, 39.8% in texts and 18.3% in chats. By region, the Midwest showed the largest increase in search impressions over the previous weekend at 5.8%. Other increases by region were Northeast, 3.7%, South, 3.4% and West, 3%.
RV Trader officials stated studies have shown that live chat can drive three to five times more conversions and that customers who use live chat are three times more likely to make a purchase than those who don’t.
From March 13 to April 9, RV Trader averaged 165,000 daily visits, maintained an average of 91.2% of traditional RV Trader traffic year over year, and averaged an 8.5% increase in traffic compared to 2019.
In total consumer leads year-over-year for the same period, RV Trader maintained 95.5% of traditional leads.Since the national COVID-19 emergency was declared on March 13, the company has seen growth in the daily rolling averages of all lead types, including phone call leads up 14.3%, email leads up 1.2%, chat leads up 2.6% and text leads up 9.4%. In market spotlights of key regional gains provided April 1, RV Trader reported Los Angeles grew 12.9% that week over the prior week in search impressions, driven by an 11.5% increase in Class C’s and a 10.5% increase in travel trailer search impressions.
Other week-over-week increases during the last week of March in Class A’s were Topeka, Kan., up 169.4%; El Paso, Texas, up 85.2%; and Wheeling, W.V. and Stuebenville, Ohio, up 66.4%. Other key regional gains for travel trailers included Prescott and Phoenix, Ariz., up 13.2%.
RV Trader also reported on April 1 that search Impressions were up 5.5% week-over-week. The company also reported a significant surge in impressions on park models, which grew 22.2% during the last week of March. RV Trader’s data also showed a healthy growth of an average of 5% across travel trailers and fifth-wheels in the towables category, while the motorized category saw slight gains with 5.5% for Class A, 7.2% for Class B and 5.3% gain for Class C.