Accessibility Page Navigation
Style sheets must be enabled to view this page as it was intended.
Print Header
  • Harwoods
  • Harwoods
  • Harwoods
  • Harwoods

HarwoodsHarwoods Group

IntrodutionIntroduction

Harwoods have been the leading motor group in the South of England for over 50 years and proudly represent Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Jaguar and Land Rover.

With showrooms located throughout the South of England in Hampshire, West Sussex and Kent they can serve large areas of the country.

The ChallengeThe Challenge

The biggest challenge Harwoods faced was their requirement to modernise their group website to compete with other retailers and meet the ever changing needs of consumers, whilst retaining a clean, corporate and stylish look. The balance of this is evident when you look at the website and see that they continue to invest in new features and functionality to improve and evolve their website.

 

The SolutionThe Solution

The site boasts market leading functionality and features including a finance and insurance product to provide consumers with real time financial services through their website. They have also integrated a presence aware messaging service, allowing users to interact with sales staff through the website. Customers are able to ask questions about specific vehicles or book a service. This feature alone represented 26% of enquiries Harwoods received in February 2010.

http://www.harwoods.uk.com/

Moving ForwardMoving Forward

Harwoods recently launched a mobile website, initially supporting the 500 iPhone users who visit their website each month. From there, they can browse the used stock, book a service or contact the dealerships. In the coming months, this will be rolled out to all leading smart phone handsets.

Harwoods are also in the process of launching the ‘Harwoods Car Club’ programme, an exclusive online membership area for their customers. This will provide customers with access to a number of other products and services as well as promote group events, offers and promotions.

They are completing a bespoke service booking module to provide site users with fixed price servicing deals complete with an integrated online booking system using technologies for vehicle search and postcode verification. Phase two of this development will see the integration of a payment gateway, allowing their customers to not only book, but to pay for their service online through the website.

ResultsResults

  • 4 months from website rebuild to SEO launch, leads increased by over 400% and traffic increased by over 290%
  • The Christmas email campaign for Harwoods was highly successful and generated nearly 200 visits to the website and 14 leads at a conversion rate of 7.11%
  • In November 2009, the group received 65% of their website traffic through natural search. This increase of 12% has been a key contributor to traffic and leads into the business
  • Harwoods Group saw a total of 937 ‘web’ leads in February 2010 (not including telephone calls.) This was a record month for the site, more than doubling the 434 received in November 2009
  • The increase in leads has reflected positively on the ‘cost per lead’ showing a reduction from £9.21 per lead in November 2009 to just £4.27 per lead in February 2010