On Thursday July 18th, the 2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray made its international debut at a live stream event hosted in Tustin, California. 471,000 people tuned in, and in the 24 hours following the reveal, Chevrolet.com was inundated with five times the amount of traffic it typically receives.
Corvette Web Traffic Hits a Historic High Water Mark
On Friday, July 19th of 2019, Chevrolet.com was struggling to keep up with the influx of web traffic generated in the wake of the 2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray reveal. According to Steve Majoros, Director of Passenger Car and Crossover Marketing for Chevrolet, Corvette related web searches and traffic reached an all-time high signaling the immense interest consumers have in the new C8.
“With a pretty rabid and passionate base, we knew we’d take 24 hours of grief. The majority of people got the full [configurator] experience, which is the full 3D experience. We do have a way that the system throttles to what we’re calling a 2D experience [to speed load time]. Once we hit thresholds, we worked with Amazon Web Services very quickly to double our server capacity.”
C8 Fans Can’t Get Enough of the Corvette Visualizer
By the end of July, the 2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray’s homepage on Chevrolet.com had been visited more than 2.4 million times, with 750,000 of those stopping by within the first 3 days after the July 18th debut. One of the most active areas of the Stingray’s website was the Configurator Visualizer tool which allows consumers to create their dream car and manipulate extremely life-like 3D models of it.
“We want to be able to show customers what their ideal Corvette will look like before they order it,” said Majoros. “They’ll be able to experiment with different wheels, brakes, fabrics, color samples and much more as they craft their dream Corvette. This is the most extreme level of detail we’ve ever offered at reveal and it will only improve over time.”
In the month of July, C8 fans configured 940,000 Corvettes, logging over 152,000 hours creating 2020 Corvette Stingrays. To put these numbers in contrast, consider that the 2019 C7 Corvette only sold 18,791 models last year.
“With the 2020 Corvette, the introduction of the new customer experience is just as important as the reveal of the actual car,” said Steve Majoros. “We will give customers unparalleled access to learn from and engage with Chevrolet, our dealers and enthusiasts on their terms, in a manner that’s convenient for them.”
One of the unique takeaways Chevrolet has culled from the interest in the Corvette’s online Visualizer tool is which types of builds fans are most excited about. Unlike many other cars in Chevrolet or GM’s lineup, the 2020 Corvette can be personalized in a truly astonishing number of ways. Corvette fans love to be able to create their own, completely personalized cars. The Corvette Visual Configurator Tool offered them a taste of this thrilling experience.
“Corvette, as a vehicle, has always been about personalization and bespoke and customization — making it yours. We wouldn’t be having this call if this was [a] Malibu or Equinox, right? [With those vehicles] we’ve got like 40 build combinations, said Majoros. We have probably infinite build combinations [with Corvette], because that’s what customers want. They want a car that’s uniquely theirs … it’s not a surprise that people are building and saving multiple versions.”
Corvette Visualizer Reveals the Top Online Color Choices for the C8
Right now, it looks like C8 fans are gravitating towards two top color choices when it comes to configuring their dream Corvettes online: Rapid Blue (new) and Elkhart Lake Blue Metallic. For the interior, the most popular choices are Two-Tone Blue and Natural Dipped (tan).
GM sales data does not reflect a direct correlation between the color choices consumers make in the visual configurator and actual sales performance. Majoros suggests that consumers enjoy trying things on the website that they might not actually purchase. Nonetheless, it’s quite obvious Corvette fans around the world are extremely excited about the 2020 Corvette Stingray.
Source: CNET