Dealers from all 50 states now are a part of AutoTrader.com’s Buy- Here Pay-Here Center as the site crossed the 1,000-store milestone before 2014 closed. Consumer traffic also is climbing significantly as site officials are seeing possible buyers from all 50 states looking over the more than 30,000 units currently listed within the platform.

Brett Kelly described the typical communication from a possible buyer. The director of independent dealer business at AutoTrader.com shared an example that would please just about any BHPH dealer.

“What we’ve found through a lot of the consumer contact is that this model is working,” Kelly said. “The consumers who are contacting dealers are sending an email saying, ‘I have $1,000 down and I have bad credit. Been at my job for five years. Can you help me?’

“That’s very typical of some of the communications that have been going through. What that tells us is that the site experience is doing exactly what we intended it to do, which was take consumers who need in-house financing and connect them with dealers who offer it,” Kelly continued.

AutoTrader.com also noted through its site observations that users of the Buy-Here, Pay-Here Center also are asking other kinds of questions that can help smooth a typical in-house financing deal, questions such as:

—How much down payment do I need for this car?

—What are the weekly payments on this car?

“We’re learning that consumers are engaged with the way we’ve set up this experience,” Kelly said. “That also tells us that the merchandising that we’ve been encouraging dealers to do is very important because it really resonates with what the consumers are looking for.”

Still a couple of months away from the platform’s first anniversary, Kelly likes the trajectory of AutoTrader.com’s specialized endeavor for BHPH operators. Along with the improved dialogue between possible buyer and dealer, AutoTrader.com also is taking feedback gathering from meeting with managers and owners since last May’s rollout, and the site team is working toward making improvements regularly.

For example, AutoTrader.com now has a revamped sign-up wizard for the Buy- Here, Pay-Here Center to make it as simple as possible for dealers to join.

Furthermore, BHPH operators can use their microsite on the Buy-Here, Pay- Here Center as their own website. Kelly explained all dealers have to do is buy a domain or point their current website address to that microsite and the platform automatically will strip away all of the AutoTrader Buy-Here, Pay-Here Center branding to make it look like a dealer’s own website.

“For dealers, especially the smaller ones, it will certainly save them time and expense from operating a website and then needing to distribute inventory elsewhere,” Kelly said.

And dealers still can use the AutoTrader Buy-Here, Pay-Here Center for free through May 31.

“The dealer feedback on the site and on the tools provided has been really positive,” Kelly said. “It’s always been optimistic because we’ve been hearing from dealers for years that they wanted an environment that would let them display their inventory utilizing down payment and weekly payments while looking for better ways to target individuals who need inhouse financing, bad credit individuals. We’re feeling really good about the model based on dealer feedback.”

AutoTrader.com intends to keep reaching out to dealers to enhance Buy-Here, Pay-Here Center participation. Along with its field sales team, the site also plans to be a part of industry events throughout 2015, similar to what AutoTrader.com did this past year.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm because there’s been this true gap that we have the opportunity to fill,” Kelly said. “There has been 10 percent of the entire used-car market that has been completely unrepresented. This is a big opportunity for Auto- Trader.com to step in and connect buyers and sellers in this space.

“This is really why AutoTrader.com was started — finding a new and better way of connecting buyers and sellers,” he continued. “All we’re really doing is doing that again, but for the buy-here, pay-here industry, filling that need. There’s enthusiasm and excitement about the notion of doing that, and so far, the plan is working. And we like it when the plan works.”