Carmigo, an innovative new website designed to improve the car shopping experience, is connecting buyers with multiple salespeople online in real time and putting car buyers in control of the shopping experience. Carmigo enables car buyers to shop from the comfort of their home, the hockey rink or ballet studio, at their desk, or on their phone for the car they want, with no fee.
“When you shop through Carmigo, you build your car online, choose which dealerships you would like to engage with and then salespeople from the selected dealerships will work with you to help you find the best price,” says Michael O’Connor, CEO, Carmigo. “You communicate through Carmigo without sharing your contact information until you choose to take the next step. This is especially important as Carmigo research shows that only 11% of Canadian car buyers trust a typical car salesperson.”
When it comes to purchasing a car, 62% of buyers worry they might not be able to negotiate the best deal, with significantly more women concerned than men (69% versus 54%). The part of the process that buyers find the most stressful is negotiating with salespeople to get the best price (59%). This was followed by the pressure to buy additional services (50%), having to buy the car on the spot and having to visit multiple dealers (both at 47%).
The current car buying process can be so agonizing for buyers that 74% say it makes them want to delay or put off shopping for a car. It is also very time consuming, with 43% spending 10 hours or more researching and negotiating the price.
“We think of Carmigo as your car buyer’s best friend as it improves the car shopping experience by saving customers both time and money,” says O’Connor. “Car buyers are already going online to research their car - what we are doing is providing a social communication platform to give buyers control over the car shopping process. Dealers also benefit from Carmigo, as our data shows that after customers connect with a dealer on Carmigo, in-store visits result in sales more than 90% of the time.”
How Carmigo works
Using Carmigo saves time and money. Car buyers can build their car by selecting the year, make, body type, price and options. Carmigo will then connect them directly with dealerships and salespeople in their area, eliminating the need to drive from dealership to dealership to find the best deal. Plus, when customers use Carmigo, salespeople put their best foot forward since they know those people are engaging with multiple dealerships. Communication with dealers is in real-time through an instant chat feature.
Canadians can register for free at Carmigo.com or download the app. The Carmigo app will be available in the Apple store by the end of April and the Android app will be available in the Google Play store in approximately 2 months.