Research shows that car shopping is women's least favourite type of shopping

UNITED KINGDOM, January 23, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A new survey has revealed that a trip to the car dealership is a women’s least favourite shopping trip.

The research found that a third of female respondents (33%) picked out car dealerships as offering the most boring type of shopping experience. This was in comparison to trips to: electrical goods stores (17%), fast food outlets (11%), supermarkets (9%), cosmetics stores/pharmacies (8%), bookshops (6%) and clothing/accessories stores (3%), none of which scored as highly on the ‘boring’ scale.

The study found that although women were more likely to have visited a car dealership or used car showroom (80%) than men (68%), the majority (93%) of female respondents said they didn’t like learning about different types of car technology.

Almost all females involved in the research (95%) felt they were given too much information by car dealership sales staff. Furthermore, nearly a quarter of women (22%) said they felt self-conscious when car shopping if they didn’t understand the technical terms that salespeople used.

The survey was commissioned by digital signage consultancy, Saturn Visual Solutions, and carried out by market research company, OnePoll, and asked 2000 UK-based, adult full-time and part-time workers about their experiences of car shopping.

The findings come against a backdrop of waning private consumer demand for new cars across Great Britain. Earlier this month, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) published figures showing that registrations by private buyers fell by -8.7 per cent in 2024.

Matthew Drury, Director and co-owner of Saturn Visual Solutions said: “The automotive industry is having a tough time at the moment. Demand from private car buyers has weakened, particularly in the EV market. The rising cost of living means that car purchases represent a significant investment. As such, the region’s car sales industry can’t ignore things like delivering a positive, memorable customer experience which enthuses all of its customers. ”

The research also looked at the experiences of people in different age groups and found that middle-aged people (35-54 yrs) are the most likely to think car shopping is ‘boring’ (27%), the least likely to enjoy learning about car technology (11%), and the most likely to be dealership neutral (74%).

Younger people (18-34 yrs) are the most likely to likely to enjoy learning about different cars (29%), but the most likely to feel overloaded with information (16%). They are the most likely to feel self-conscious if they don’t understand terminology used by salespeople (23%).

More than two thirds (69%) of people in the study that had been to a car dealership or showroom said they didn’t have a favourite dealership.

Matthew Drury added; “The experience of going car shopping at a dealership or showroom has hardly changed in the last 50 years, so it’s hardly surprising that so many people are saying it’s not their favourite shopping trip. Car dealerships and showrooms need to work harder at differentiating themselves by delivering a better customer experience.

“Our research shows that everyone has different preferences when it comes to car buying. Younger people tend to want more information, middle-aged people tend to want less. The more digital natives that join the UK’s car owners/buyers, the more out of date the current process of car buying at a showroom/dealership is going to feel very soon.”

Saturn Visual Solutions is a digital signage consultancy and works with automotive retail businesses to help them make their on-site shopping experience more engaging and positive to increase profitability.

Saturn has used the research to produce a white paper called ‘The Showroom Redemption’ for car sales businesses which can be found here.

E Radcliffe
Saturn Visual Solutions
emma.radcliffe@saturnvisual.com