Buy Now is here. This week Anewgo released the first design and Buy Now experience for the new construction industry. To help quiet the murmurings, the rumors, and the doubts here is a quick list of 5 things that Buy Now is certainly not:
1. Buy Now is not Buy Online
The industry seems to throw these words around interchangeably, mainly because the terms haven’t been well defined yet. However, there is one fundamental distinction. “Buy Now” is actually a subset of “Buy Online” because ultimately, all transactions will be done online, even when buyers are in-person. In other words financial and legal processes will be digitized, stored, and processed in the cloud. “Buy Now” offers the immediate self-checkout experience that today’s internet shopper expects while simplifying the complex and manual pieces of the transaction. This takes a multi-day in-person process down to a few minutes online. What’s even better is that buyers can take the next step anytime, anywhere.
2. Buy Now is not the end of the Salesperson
While the arrival Buy Now signals a large shift in how buyers will interact with builders, it is not the end of the salesperson. Rather, it is an enablement tool that builders can leverage uniquely to fit their current workflow. Almost half of builders think that the most natural shift would be to lean more on their OSCs as a part of the sales process. Which would create the rise of a new type of Salesperson. Another 30% of builders don’t see the Buy-Online feature changing their organization at all, while another 25% say the Buy-Online inquiries would go directly to their onsite sales team.
3. Buy Now is not a Contact Us button
The horror stories are already circulating of builders who have launched Buy Now buttons that do… nothing! There is no next step for a buyer except to wait for the builder to contact them. And in some cases, shoppers never even hear from the builder. This implementation of Buy Now comes across as a gimmick because, well, it is one. Gimmicks diminish a customer’s trust and can deter leads from moving further down the sales funnel. Don’t be fooled by pretenders of the Buy Now button – today’s buyers aren’t. Thanks to the internet, shoppers are smarter than ever before.
4. Buy Now is not simple
If it was simple, everyone would already be doing it. The truth of the Buy Now movement is that the complexities are holding it back. In a survey of 42 builders half of them say that their website can’t accommodate the feature and 42% feel like they don’t have the technology to implement the feature today. What makes the Buy Now feature so complex is that it must be able to dynamically capture each customer’s shopping journey, their selections, and pricing, while building trust.
As one builder put it, “We’d want to make sure the buyer is clear on exactly what they’re purchasing (every detail) along with our process and who we are. It’s about building a stable relationship from the beginning with a buyer which will become an obstacle with buying online. We’d really need to train our sales manager to adapt to this change in advance to prepare for this. Reading a contract is different from sitting with someone and explaining it.”
5. Buy Now is not the same for everyone
The age of the internet homebuyer requires for builders to make a shift in how their sales organization operate. An overwhelming majority of the builders we surveyed acknowledged this. Trying to adapt and understand the need changes can be a challenge.
No two builders are alike. That’s why it’s important to define what Buy Now means for your organization and ensure that your tool is robust enough to adapt to the uniqueness of your organization; whether that is the type of contracts you use, your deposit amounts, refund policies, or even the type of home you want to sell.
Anewgo’s Buy Now functions in three primary modes.
- Design and Buy – The ability for a buyer to find, design, price out, and then enter into contract all in one shopping journey.
- Inventory or Spec Home Buy – The ability for a buyer to find an inventory home, make a deposit, and enter into contract.
- Buy Land – The ability for a buyer to make a deposit and go under contract for infill lots or scattered lots.
Interested in learning more about what Buy Now/Buy Online means for you? Contact sales@anewgo.com. For a quick overview of Anewgo’s Buy Now Feature visit: anewgosell.com/Buy-Now
Full survey results
