How do Irish people use the internet to buy cars? A report by consultancy firm Amas, commissioned by Carzone.ie, finds four- fifths of car buyers typically engage in "showrooming" – going online to check prices or read product reviews before buying items offline.

Carzone.ie, part of the UK-based Trader Media Group, has been the beneficiary of this "extended search" stage on the road from research to purchase, with visitors spending an average of 12.2 minutes on the site per desktop visit, compared with an average of 3.2 minutes per visit to car manufacturer sites.

"We know that visitors search by make and model, then make and model and year, then they might try make, model, year and price," says Tracey Kenny, Carzone.ie's head of display advertising.

Researching the purchase of a used car is the most common reason for visiting Carzone.ie, cited by 73 per cent of the 2,585 users surveyed by Amas for the study.

This was followed by checking car prices, which was the motivation of 64 per cent, and reading car reviews, mentioned by 30 per cent. Selling a car, researching a new car, comparing specifications and looking for information on dealers were cited less frequently.

BMW, followed by Volkswagen and Audi, are the top car brands searched on Carzone.ie, which attracts 35 million searches per month.

“Users are learning a lot more about what they’re buying before they buy it,” says Kenny. Although more of Carzone.ie’s traffic still comes from desktop than from mobile, the growth of app usage cannot be ignored, she says. The rising popularity of mobile also has the advantage of driving growth in phone call response rates to the dealers that advertise on the site.

Carzone.ie’s traffic is strongest on weekdays, peaking on moribund Mondays. The busiest times of the day for the site align with peak television viewing times, with an acceleration from 6pm, a peak shortly after 8pm and a tailing off from about 10pm.

This suggests the purchase process is influenced by “media meshing”, or the rather efficient pattern of behaviour whereby consumers watch an advertisement or editorial on one screen while seeking further information on the product on another screen.