News Articles

Gilbert Chavez is Internet director for the Phil Long dealerships of Colorado, the largest privately-owned dealer group in that state. Gilbert frequently shares his responses to questions he gets from other Internet dealers on how to run better Internet departments and general best practices with the Dealix Dealer Newsletter. Here's the latest.

Dear Gilbert,

We’re thinking about getting a version of our dealership’s website in Spanish because our dealership is located in an area where there is a large Spanish-speaking community. Our management team has been discussing the idea of investing in a Spanish website for a while because we have been reading and seeing reports on TV about this growing market. We do have some sales people who speak Spanish, but the fact is that very few of the customers we deal with are unable to speak English – they can do a deal in English, no problem. What do you think? Should we invest in having our website in Spanish as well as in English?

Thanks,

Curious George

Dear Curious,

I get this question all the time. (Must be because of my Irish sounding last name.) This is obviously a loaded issue, so, let’s try to put politics aside, and focus on the fact that you’re just trying to “meet your market” on their terms and sell cars.

While I don’t have exhaustive demographic statistics at my disposal, I can tell you what I’ve learned from my own experience, and that is - the online Spanish speaking market is an emerging market – it’s not totally there yet, but it promises to be big. You need to assess your particular market today to decide just how much - and how soon - you want to invest in this. But first, you need to ask yourself – am I doing everything I can with Internet leads and search engine marketing to fully tap into my existing market?

Here’s an example of what I’ve experienced: Colorado, where our dealerships are located, has a significant Spanish-speaking population. Our dealer group has two Spanish language conversion sites, and I have seen little to no traffic on these sites. Additionally, our group has a Spanish language converter on our online used vehicles displays that gets essentially no play at all. Furthermore, I recently worked in an area of New Mexico where 44.3% of the population speaks Spanish, and experienced the same result.

However, I have heard from other dealers, particularly in areas like Houston and San Antonio, Texas, and they’ve gotten good traction by having web sites in Spanish.

Know Your Particular Market – Notable Stats

Here are some statistics I’ve found on the Web from e-Marketer.com and Internet World Stats.com, that may help you make the decision on when to invest in a Spanish-language site, if at all.

·         In most cases, second-generation Americans of Spanish-speaking parents are online; however, many are bilingual and surf English-language search engines and web sites.

·         The Spanish-speaking population is the largest and fastest-growing ethnic segment in the United States, and is expected to grow to 17% of the domestic population by 2010.

·         There were 15.7 million Spanish-speaking Internet users in the US in 2005. And, this total will rise to 16.7 million in 2006, and is expected to reach nearly 21 million by 2010.

·         The online Spanish-speaking population is young. In 2005, there were 9.1 million estimated Spanish-speaking Internet users under the age of 35, and this estimate is expected to rise to 12.1 million in 2010.

With a segment of the population that is growing this big and this fast, dealers should definitely continue to keep their ears close to the ground in order to make a sound assessment of how to best meet these consumers’ online car buying needs. For instance, in order to successfully target this demographic online - once the market is really ready - we must appreciate its intricacies. It is going to take more than traditional web sites simply translated into Spanish. The next generation web sites in Spanish will have to demonstrate the specific nuances of the language and culture as well as the needs of this growing marketing of car buyers.

The key here is to really know your market. But, above all, keep this in mind – you really only want to branch out to “emerging markets’ after you’ve full tapped your existing market. Is your dealership already doing all it can on the Internet (leads, search, etc.) to reach your current market? Master that first, then look to expansion.

George, thanks for the great question.

- Gilbert