That rectangular block of social media apps, text messages and podcasts you carry in your front pocket?

It may fit in the palm of your hand, but it’s one of the most powerful tools in car-buying today.

Forty-six percent of online auto shopping activity is done through the smartphone, according to results of a December VerstaResearch study shared by Cars.com.

But what about when they're at your dealership? Well, they don’t stop using the smartphones there, either.

The Mobile Car Shopper Survey revealed that over half of car-shoppers are on their phones when they’re at your store, searching for information.

Specifically, these folks are typically researching vehicle prices (64 percent) or doing make/model comparisons (51 percent), the VerstaResearch data indicates.

A quarter are checking out dealer reviews.

“The need for phone calls or emails to dealers during the research phase is dwindling,” Cars.com president and chief executive officer Alex Vetter said in a January news release. “Today’s car shoppers have all the information they need online to make a decision and show up on the lot unannounced.

“This creates an imperative for Cars.com to help our customers better understand, reach and influence their walk-in traffic, by tracking and understanding their mobile behavior.”

This pivot toward not just mobile, but on-the-lot mobile, is behind the efforts over the past year from Cars.com and its Lot Insights report, which was launched at the 2016 NADA Convention & Expo. The product was designed to give dealers a better picture of what consumers are doing on their mobile phones while they are at or near their dealership.

“The game has changed,” said Vetter. “The marketplace is more crowded than ever and there’s no shortage of data available, but it’s important to pay attention to and measure the right data. The insights we’re learning about mobile walk-in traffic and what’s truly driving sales is critical to succeeding in today’s environment.” 

Lot Insights continues growth

To get a sense of what Cars.com has learned since Lot Insights launched nearly a year ago, Auto Remarketing talked with Jeni Pecard — the company’s insights and analytics manager — and director of product marketing Brendan Dougherty at this year’s NADA Convention.

“I think some of the things that we’re learning that really surprised me are what they’re looking at and what they’re doing when they’re on dealership lots,” Pecard said. “We rolled out some new features this year around showing what VDPs they’re looking at while they’re on dealership lots. And we’re learning a lot about that whole buying process. “

She points out that there have assumptions in the past, both by Cars.com and the industry at large, that it was enough to know that the shoppers showed up at the dealership. But with dealers are craving more data, Cars.com is aiming, with Lot Insights, to drill down further to provide that information.

“So, some of those new features have really helped us to be able to just tell different stories about our consumers,” she said. “I think it’s really interesting, in terms of cross-lot visitation, we’re seeing a lot of interesting insights from cross-lot visitation and also just what indicators on the site are indicative of a lot visit.”

At NADA this year, Cars.com launched new features to Lot Insights, including a VDP Details function. The aim is to show not only the specific vehicle details pages that consumers are view on your lot, but what they’re viewing on the competition’s lot, as well.

“It’s really interesting because when you actually come down to your dealership lot, they’re not looking at your inventory … It’s intuitive. Why would they look at your inventory when they see the car physically right in front of them?” Pecard said. “They’re doing some last-minute, quick checking. And so we’re finding that a great majority of people, when they’re on the lot, are still looking at VDPs from other lots. So, there’s still opportunity for some persuasion there.”

Cars.com research found patterns among on-the-lot mobile shoppers “that clearly indicated they were shopping the competition,” Dougherty said.

They were doing things like viewing maps, photographs and dealership hours — all signs they’re probably looking at another store, he said.

The point is, Cars.com is looking to show dealers best practices for retaining that on-lot traffic, but also the opportunities to grab some share from other stores, Dougherty said. If the consumer is going to be shopping your competitor, it may be worthwhile to up your own appeal through things like clearly stated pricing and easy access to maps and reviews.

Cars.com has been able to shed some light on additional metrics, focusing on quality, not just quantity, Pecard said.

For example, on the new-car side, when a shopper has figured out which dealership they’re going to visit, he or she will often view special offers, which shows some intent and suggests the shopper might be lowest-funnel, she said.

Sharing another example, Dougherty added:  “I think in some of our earlier research, we’ve seen that CPO is one of the bigger indicators of on-the-lot shopping.”

Attribution partnership

During the interview, the Cars.com team honed in on openness and transparency around data, which has become a big focal point both at Cars.com and the industry at larger. 

A partnership between Cars.com and Clarivoy regarding attribution was announced at NADA. 

In a Jan. 28 post to a company blog, Cars.com chief revenue officer John Clavadetscher wrote: “Attribution is one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today and that is no different for our advertisers — particularly dealers … Today at NADA, Cars.com and Clarivoy announced a partnership that will move the conversation beyond first and last click attribution to answer the question dealers have been asking about their marketing investments: are they working?

“Through Clarivoy’s native Google Analytics integration, Cars.com customers will now be able to see a multi-touch view of the influence their marketing efforts have in today’s multi-touch world,” he continued. “Cars.com will be making our data available and transparent via Clarivoy, providing our customers the ability to see the influence Cars.com has on consumers throughout the car buying journey.”

The complete post can be found here.