Gender Gap Drives Autobytel Effort

By ROBIN FIELDS

March 23, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Online car-sales leader Autobytel.com Inc. in Irvine has taken a bold but risky step to close its customer gender gap by adding a feature in its Web site tailored just for women.

The move is a first in the fast-growing online car industry and is being closely watched by rivals who wonder whether the gamble is worth the possible backlash it could set off.

Autobytel.com’s For Her feature is aimed at increasing its female customer base, which stood at a disappointing 23% when last measured, a share that is not uncommon in the masculine world of online car sales.

The Internet “has particular advantages for women, and we weren’t bringing them to it and realizing that potential,” said Ann Delligatta, chief operating officer at Autobytel.

Loaded with consumer tips and touchy-feely stories designed to boost female car buyers’ confidence, For Her has elicited grateful praise from dozens of the roughly 60,000 visitors it has drawn since its launch in January.

But it has turned off others, who call it just as patronizing as the auto industry’s 1960s experiments with cars painted powder pink and baby blue.

“I think that just the fact that you have this area is sexist and insulting,” wrote one.

Competitors, many of whom have raced into the increasingly competitive online auto market within the last year, are watching For Her avidly, some hoping it will succeed enough to attract women to all auto “dot-coms,” others hoping it will crash.

“It is dangerous marketing territory,” said Chris Denove, director of automotive retail and distribution analysis for J.D. Power & Associates. “You’re walking a line where you’re properly targeting a goal, but the way you’re doing it may alienate the people you’re trying to reach.”

Although women use the Internet in almost equal numbers as men, the disproportionately low share of women visiting online car sites indicates that, thus far, the Internet has not cashed in on its promise to alleviate many of the negative experiences women associate with shopping for cars, such as price discrimination and salesmen who ignore or belittle female customers.

Analysts speculate that the gender gap partly reflects the fact that men make up the majority of true car enthusiasts, who surf car sites even between purchases. And men generally have been quicker to buy things online; men account for 56% of all online purchases and dominate sales of electronics, software and hotel reservations.

But women were expected to embrace online auto sites more fervently than they have, analysts said.

“The whole idea was to avoid the crummy experience with a car dealer, so you’d imagine maybe women would be more enthusiastic,” said Jonathan Gaw, research manager at International Data Corp.

Autobytel’s rivals question whether gender-specific material will spark women’s interest--or their ire.

Just such concerns led Autoweb to reject a proposal for a women’s area on its Web site, said Jim Wolfe, Autoweb’s vice president of marketing.

But because three of four of its customers in 1998 were men, the Santa Clara, Calif., company rewrote its Web pages to be less technical and more consumer-oriented. It also launched an ad campaign featuring one commercial, “Dress Shop,” specifically geared to women.

“There’s a big risk of being condescending” Wolfe said, adding that Autoweb’s traffic is now about 42% female. “We haven’t felt the need to go that far.”

MSN CarPoint--bolstered by carry-over from the MSN portal, which features a women’s page, and a link to Women.com--also has about the same 60-40, men-over-women split found in traditional car shopping.

But other companies, including DriveOff.com and CarsDirect.com in Culver City, report gender gaps similar to Autobytel’s. They know that their sites, which allow consumers to do research, get price quotes and arrange financing without going to dealers, offer an unprecedented opportunity to reach women. Yet they are reluctant to risk Autobytel’s approach.

“Maybe Autobytel will develop an audience and we’ll all benefit,” said Andrea Clark, DriveOff’s executive director of marketing and public relations. Meanwhile, the Denver-based company, whose clientele is 80% men, continues to put most of its marketing dollars into male-oriented outlets such as ESPN radio, she said.

Autobytel acknowledges its approach is pretty radical.

“I’ve had people say, ‘Why don’t you have a short person’s site?’ ” Delligatta said.

So far, only about 5% of responses to For Her’s offerings--from credit advice for divorced women to tips on “groovin’, girl-drivin’ ” music--have been negative, company executives said.

Several users have credited For Her with giving them the confidence to buy cars on their own--or offering them a place to swap ideas with other female auto lovers.

It’s too soon to measure whether For Her will bring more women to Autobytel, but Delligatta thinks it may broaden the range of products the company can sell to however many it reaches.

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Top Auto Sales Sites

Number of online visitors in January, in millions, excluding specific company sites:

CarPoint.com: 2.32

KBB.com: 2.11

Edmunds.com: 1.28

Cars.com: 1.25

Autoweb.com: 1.04

AutoTrader.com: 0.76

Autobytel.com: 0.74

CarParts.com: 0.52

CarPrices.com: 0.51