How and why you should integrate a tire scanner in an online store
While online tire retail has certainly evolved significantly in the past decade, most customers still prefer going to a local tire shop to meet their needs. If they’re about to make an investment as significant as a new set of tires, they want to be sure of what they’re purchasing.
For this reason tire retail leaders aiming to boost online sales should consider innovative new technologies to improve customer confidence when buying tires online. One key new innovation is integrating a tire scanner directly into the online storefront.
Doing so is a great way to not only boost customers’ online experience when it comes to how they shop, but it can also help owners capitalize on current trends across the industry as well. But how to integrate a tire scanner in an online store?
What are the current trends in tire sales?
Whenever someone goes shopping for a new set of tires, there are a large number of factors they’ll need to pay attention to. Understanding what is the most important aspect of the process to a customer is the key to online tire store owners being able to give people precisely what they want each and every time.
The price must be right.
The number one factor that most people look at when buying tires is the price. In fact, one recent study revealed that about 65% of US consumers say that this is the most essential aspect when buying tires at all.
Tires are often a reactive purchase.
It’s equally important for tire shop owners to understand that for most, the decision to purchase new tires is not planned out in advance. Most people only change their tires when absolutely necessary.
The knowledge gap.
Another study discovered that about 3 out of every 5 consumers say that they have “no confidence” in their tire knowledge at all. Therefore, offering convenient, friendly service with as many educational resources as possible is key to instilling confidence in both current and potential tire customers.
Why should tire companies have online tire stores?
One of the great things about buying tires online is that it eliminates all of the issues outlined above. Purchasing online is generally cheaper for consumers due to lower overhead for the business and it’s easier to compare the quality of one set of tires to the next. It’s also a perfect chance to illustrate all of the features of a high quality set of tires, giving customers the information they need to make the best decision possible with their money.
Not only that, but online stores allow owners to increase revenue by attracting the attention of a far larger volume of people than a brick and mortar store ever could. An online tire store can also help digitize customer records in a way that makes following up with people after a purchase easier than ever.
What is the technology behind a tire scanner?
Tire scanning use an artificial intelligence-based technology called optical character recognition, known known as OCR for short. The tool itself has the ability to read tire identification numbers like the DOT TIN, along with other important elements like the tire size, serial numbers from the sidewall and more.
Anyline’s tire scanner, for example, dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to record tire sidewall information. What previously took minutes can now be completed in seconds.
Anyline’s tool is also able to effortlessly scan difficult to read information from the tire sidewall – numbers that are usually low contrast and hard to capture. Thanks to machine learning, you get fast, reliable and accurate scanning results every single time.
What benefits are there to a tire scanner?
All told, integration a tire scanner to an online tire store brings with it a number of essential benefits, including ones like:
- Accuracy. With OCR technology, an accuracy rate of 99% is guaranteed.
- Customer experience. Because tire scanning is so accurate, it removes a lot of the stress from your customers by eliminating any doubts they may have about online tire shopping. They can simply scan their own tires with their smartphone to browse through similar models available in your online store.
How can Anyline be integrated?
With Anyline’s solution, our tire scanning SDK can quickly and easily be integrated into your existing mobile app or website – all with just a few lines of code. Anyline’s SDK is easy to integrate and is always backed by hands-on support from a passionate team of people who are always ready to help. It works with both Android and iOS smartphones and is compatible with frameworks like Xamarin, React Native, Flutter and Cordova.
If you’d like to find out more information about tire scanning, or if you’d just like to determine if this is the type of solution you’ve been looking for, download our Mobile Data Capture Demo App to test its capabilities on your own terms. You can also read our guide on how to get started right away!
