Search Optics, a provider of digital marketing services to the automotive industry, has hired Ryan Soffa as vice president of global enterprise solutions. Soffa, who has more than 20 years of auto industry experience, will help further expand Search Optics’ international reach by helping auto dealerships strengthen their retail business.  “During his extensive experience in […] [Read More]

Revenue- and retention-building prepaid maintenance software Fidelis PPM acknowledged that more than 100 companies came to this year’s NADA Convention & Expo to marketed products and services aimed at making fixed operations more efficient and profitable.  Fidelis PPM said that the big question coming out of the dealer gathering in Las Vegas was this: did dealers […] [Read More]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: there’s a massive amount of used-car supply hitting the market this year. But the gobs of pre-owned inventory, particularly the off-lease variety, is a big story. And perhaps it gets oodles of attention because of just how stark the contrast is to a few years ago, when […] [Read More]

How popular, and ultimately impactful, is video in advertising and marketing? Consider some of the motion-based displays at exhibit hall booths at this year’s NADA Convention & Expo in Las Vegas. Or the host city itself, where brightly lit motion-based advertising sparkles in the desert skyline. Flick Fusion’s Gina Reuscher gave the example of the NADA […] [Read More]

The adoption of vAuto’s latest solution is even surprising the company’s founder, and it stems from two reasons. In less than 30 days, more than 1,000 franchise and independent dealers have signed up for Stockwave, an innovative tool that can make finding and purchasing wholesale vehicles easier and more efficient for dealers. “In all my […] [Read More]

There is a March piece on the Think With Google blog about a car shopper — 32-year-old Stacy — who had more than 900 “digital interactions” during three months of vehicle research. The story, written by Lisa Gevelber, considered interactions to be “searches, website visits, video views, and clicks.” The massive amounts of data points […] [Read More]

Imagine you’re a car shopper. Like many of your peers these days, you’re doing most of the car-shopping process — researching the vehicle, comparing prices, reading dealer reviews, checking out history reports, etc. — on your smartphone. You spot a dealership you want to look up. Which of the two URLs is going to be […] [Read More]

DealerRater announced the official release of CustomerConnect, a new product that aims to connect the in-market shopper and a top-reviewed dealership salesperson in real time — and before the showroom visit. DealerRater found through a recent survey that 97 percent of prospective car buyers would rather choose a salesperson or service advisor to work with […] [Read More]

When the automotive market came out of the recession’s tailspin, new-car demand picked back up quicker than used-car demand, a special report from TD Economics explains. Household balance sheets were getting healthy, consumer confidence and financing conditions were stronger. And there just wasn’t a whole lot of used-car supply, the report said. But now there […] [Read More]

The shopper is on your dealership lot. Game over, right? The shopping and research process: done and done.   Not anymore it isn’t. In an interview here at the NADA Convention & Expo, Jeni Pecard of Cars.com said that, “because of these mobile devices and having this information available to you at all times, the […] [Read More]