In advance of the opening of the NADA Convention & Expo, eBay announced it has acquired Cargigi — a provider of online advertising and marketing services — in a move designed to leverage Cargigi’s technology to help push dealers’ inventory onto eBay.com.
According to a blog entry eBay made on Wednesday, financial terms were not disclosed.
Executives indicated Cargigi will replace eBay’s Dealer Center, providing sellers with the tools needed to streamline and enhance the vehicle selling process. They mentioned the addition of Cargigi will also enable eBay to build out its structured data capabilities for the vehicles industry.
Jay Hanson, vice president of merchandising of hard goods at eBay, said, “eBay continues to enable commerce through technology.
“With Cargigi’s state-of-the-art technology, our eBay Motors dealers will be able to easily grow and manage their business, and, importantly, create the best shopping experience for buyers,” Hanson continued.
Cargigi was founded in in 2009 by Tony Hoang. Prior to Cargigi, Hoang founded CDMdata, an automotive data collection and marketing company that was acquired by Kelley Blue Book.
Hoang and his team of more than 30 employees, including engineers and designers, will join the eBay Motors business unit.
“Cargigi was built with passion and a spirit of innovation that has helped power its success over the years. After making a significant impact on the automotive sector early on, Cargigi quickly became one of the top classified marketing service providers for thousands of dealerships nationwide. As Cargigi has continued to scale, it has remained singularly focused on innovating and creating great products,” Hoang said.
“With the company’s strong automotive DNA, Cargigi has evolved into a vertical support platform for major automotive classified websites globally,” he continued. “As an integral part of the eBay Motors vehicles business, Cargigi will bring greater value to its U.S. sellers and enhance the experience for eBay vehicles sellers.”
Data-mining and sales-generation platform AutoAlert expanded into the United Kingdom alongside a partnership with Manchester-based ASE Global.
The company highlighted on Tuesday that AutoAlert’s entrance into the U.K. market leads the way for continued growth opportunities and is supported by ongoing product innovation and enhanced consumer solutions.
AutoAlert said it is focused on creating and implementing cutting-edge products to give dealerships the edge they need in order to provide the best customer experiences.
“AutoAlert is committed to revolutionizing automotive software and providing global solutions to dealerships in order to offer increased opportunities for growth and success,” AutoAlert chief executive officer Mike Dullea said.
“We are focused on adapting our compatibility, utilization of information, and overall profitability for the U.K. automotive market, and our partnership with ASE makes our vision of global expansion a reality,” Dullea said.
Leading expansion efforts will be U.K. AutoAlert co-founder Jeff Cotton, who said, “ASE continues to provide dealers with pioneering automotive solutions, facilitating AutoAlert’s ability to equip dealers with automotive insights that will pave the way toward continued expansion in the U.K., as well as across the globe."
The company pointed out that AutoAlert’s partnership with ASE Global offers a unique opportunity to align itself with a company designed for performance tracking and improvement, as well as automotive-specific financial assurance services.
ASE Global’s commitment to enhance automotive retail performance, alongside AutoAlert's cutting-edge technology in the consumer experience management arena, is culminating in a global industry solution that can offer increased actionable dealership opportunities.
“With ASE’s mission to drive profitability across the global motor industry we are constantly searching for tools and best practices to support our goal,” ASE Global CEO Rob Jones said. “AutoAlert last year was demonstrably responsible for 450,000 vehicle sales in the U.S. and is delivering impressive results for in excess of 2,500 dealers who currently use it in the U.S. and Canada.
“After extensive research and piloting we know that combined with the expertise of our automotive profit optimization team it can do the same in the U.K. and the rest of Europe,” Jones said.
Both AutoAlert and ASE Global mentioned that they look forward to growing together throughout the U.K. and developing new global partnerships.
“By leveraging the expertise and experience of their dedicated professionals, the companies will continue to deliver progressive solutions to the European automotive industry,” the companies said.
AutoAlert professionals will be on-hand to demonstrate the company's most recent product developments and comprehensive solutions for dealerships at during this week’s NADA Convention and Expo in Las Vegas. The company is stationed at booth No. 2341C.
DRIVIN, a sourcing service that utilizes data from outlets such as Black Book to help find, acquire and deliver the right used vehicles to a dealer’s lot, announced the nationwide launch of DRIVIN Insights on Monday, pitching the possibility of dealers being able to use it for free.
The company explained DRIVIN Insights as a “first-of-its-kind” dealer tool that can turn 100 million data points into “actionable stories” for a dealer's lot and local market. Those “stories are based on:
— Consumer shopping trends
— Local market supply and demand
— Optimal inventory levels
— Unique dealer behavior.
“DRIVIN Insights provides powerful, valuable, relevant metrics and analysis about a dealer's lot, local market and competition to help them make better decisions about their inventory and pricing strategies to achieve a more optimal lot,” said Mahi Inampudi, the company’s vice president of product and technology.
“DRIVIN can then complete the process for dealer partners by finding and delivering the right vehicles directly to their dealership. We become an extension of their buying team,” Inampudi continued.
As recently announced in a previous report from Auto Remarketing, Black Book powers the vehicle valuation service available within the tool. DRIVIN Insights in now available to dealer partners without a subscription fee.
The company noted, however, there are a limited number of memberships available per market, and the tool is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Dealers interested in DRIVIN Insights can request access on a per market basis on the DRIVIN website.
"DRIVIN is truly disrupting the industry by helping dealers rethink their inventory strategy on the used-car side," said Mitch Golub, DRIVIN board member and investor who led Cars.com for several years.
“Insights further demonstrates that focus by helping dealers select vehicles for their lot based on consumer demand, local market analysis and profit margins. This is not a one-size-fits-all market tool, but a personalized resource for dealers, combined with DRIVIN's high-touch service model,” Golub added.
DRIVIN is an exhibitor at this week’s NADA Convention & Expo in Las Vegas. Insights, as well as their new DRIVIN Mobile app, will be available at booth No. 2276C.
The ongoing blending of Cox Automotive assets continued on Monday as dealers received what the company called “a powerful boost” with the integration of Dealer.com’s advertising solution and rich data sets from Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book
Three of the leading brands Cox Automotive teamed to deliver Audience Targeting through Dealer.com, giving dealers what the company believes is unprecedented ability to reach high-quality, in-market vehicle shoppers.
With Dealer.com Audience Targeting, dealers can reach the combined 38 million unique website visitors that Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book see each month, and direct them back to their dealership website through Dealer.com’s machine learning and real-time bidding automation.
Dealer.com senior vice president Wayne Pastore described this combination of technologies and audience data as the most powerful way to reach shoppers on their path to purchase.
“This revolution in online advertising will unlock enormous potential for our dealers and their car shoppers and help them capture existing demand in their markets,” Pastore said. “We are uniquely able to bring together the key ingredients to deliver the industry’s most effective digital ads that make the entire online-to-in store process seamless, efficient and enjoyable.”
Dealer.com’s Audience Targeting can reach relevant shoppers at critical moments on their path to the showroom. Data shows that 80 percent of Autotrader visitors are in market to purchase a vehicle, and 54 percent of those visitors will purchase in the next 60 days.
Meanwhile, 68 percent of in-market Kelley Blue Book visitors will purchase in the next 60 days.
Dealers will be able to view demonstrations at the National Automotive Dealers Association Convention & Exposition beginning on Thursday in Las Vegas at booth No. 1124C. To schedule a demonstration at NADA 2016, go to this website.
Dominion Dealer Solutions highlighted that its equity data mining solution — DealActivator — recently completed significant upgrades to its soft credit pull reporting capabilities, Priority Page mobile functionality and real-time notifications.
Last year, DealActivator released soft credit pull functionality to help dealers achieve conquest sales through equity opportunities in the service drive. With new equity mining processes at work in both the showroom and service lane, the company discovered the need for more visibility in the data behind soft credit pulls became clear.
New soft credit pull reports can offer dealers a complete process summary, enabling dealers to analyze and adjust for greater success. Dealers now have access to three additional reports:
—Soft credit pull summary report can supply dealers with a three-month soft credit roll-up report. This report includes a 90-day view of total pulls, total conversion rates, approval rates, tier charting and comparison views on batch versus manual pulls as well as partial versus complete pulls.
—Firm offer of credit report can keep the dealership compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act by providing the dealer with information that the dealer must have on hand to confirm that an offer of credit was provided to the customer.
—Soft credit pull report now gives dealers a review of the soft credit performance per customer pull.
With these new reports, DealActivator now can provide more in-depth reporting than some other soft credit pull equity software. Dealers can analyze performance at the user/customer level to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses within the dealership.
In addition to enhanced soft credit pull reporting, dealers using DealActivator can now work in the Priority Page directly from their mobile devices.
Similar to the desktop application, the mobile version of DealActivator’s Priority Page contains the dealership’s daily contact list with filtering categories. The mobile application can enable text, email, user voice and call features directly from the app, keeping even more of DealActivator’s sales or service drive functionality at dealers’ fingertips.
UserVoice Mobile enhancements also can provide a direct line for service issues or product development feedback.
“Two things have become increasingly evident over the past six months,” said Alan Andreu, general manager of equity solutions for Dominion Dealer Solutions.
“First, the interest in greater process reporting around soft credit pulls; and also, the ever-increasing need for dealers to experience the power of equity mining on-the-go,” Andreu contined. “These enhancements address both needs in a big way, painting an exciting road ahead for our current and future customers.”
DealActivator has also released real-time notifications for its dealers so that sales staff can contact fresh leads while those consumers are still in the car-buying mindset. The new real-time notifications feature alerts the dealership as soon as a potential car buyer opens the dealership’s email marketing communications.
Cloud-based customer engagement solutions provider GoMoto is rolling out a digital platform that will allow consumers to start the purchase process on the Web and then continue it inside the dealership walls.
This lets the dealer “capture” the consumer before they even set foot on the lot.
GoMoto Digital is set to roll out Thursday.
“Numerous auto industry surveys have found that many consumers want to complete the entire car buying process online and for auto dealerships to deliver advanced technologies that will get them in and out of the showroom in minimum time,” GoMoto chief executive officer and co-founder Todd Marcelle said in a news release. “GoMoto’s online and offline platforms deliver on those demands unlike any other product on the market today.”
Through GoMoto Digital, the customer can start online, then show their license at the store to continue the process. Whether the shopper is online or at the store, they can receive monthly payment options and fill out a credit-approval. They do not have to give out a Social Security number to do so.
The goal is to have the customer complete the buying process in under an hour.
In a follow email with Auto Remarketing, Marcelle points out that, “dealers need to provide transparency, simplicity and convenience for customers for new and used. It comes down to the customer experience, transaction time and dealers’ ability to adapt … like the used-car vendors have done. That process starts by clearly offering a path for consumers online that states the dealership’s transparent process and provides the consumer tools to control the sales experience.”
He adds: “Our platform allows that consumer to select their vehicle of interest by payment, gain credit qualification on our system using soft pull (no SSN and also provides dealership with the consumers full bureau) and customizes the payment based on the lender/OEM rates the dealerships can set up and can also include the equity trade value.
“This allows dealers to shorten the sales cycle in-store significantly, move away from race to bottom and win the customer for life which is what drives real value at the dealership. Second once the customer comes in the deal is brought up immediately upon the customer check in on our digital HUB,” he said. “The same functionality works in-store if a customer wants to gain approval and shop by payment, etc., on the Hub our any mobile device.”
In a move impacting a couple tentacles of the company, Cox Automotive said Thursday that the Dealertrack Service Pro fixed operations product will be blended into the Xtime customer engagement and retention solution.
The result is one integrated solution.
“Fixed operations is a dependable and growing source of revenue for our dealer clients, and the ownership lifecycle and experience is closely connected to it,” said Keith Jezek, president of software at Cox Automotive. “It makes perfect sense to merge the technologies that drive them to provide an efficient, engaging and effective system for both the vehicle owner and dealership.”
Cox Auto said in Thursday’s statement that the blending of the two service solutions “facilitates an intuitive relationship between service touch points with owners, service department operations, and the owner experience. The result is enhanced owner loyalty, and maximized potential of dealerships’ parts and service departments.”
LotLinx has rolled out a digital marketing tool called VIN View Optimizer through which dealers can monitor marketplace engagement at the vehicle level.
In essence, this tool can help them figure out which cars are getting some looks online, and which ones aren’t so that they can redistribute ad spend as needed.
In its news release, LotLinx explained how the process works:
— Dealers allow LotLinx access to Google Analytics as well as vAuto SRP and vehicle description VDP activity.
— LotLinx then puts together an interactive, customized data set with details of VIN view sources.
— Through their personalized dashboards, dealers can see exact VIN view distribution from various traffic sources.
“We know that 95 percent of low-funnel shoppers are searching for cars online. For dealers, attracting those shoppers to the VDPs for in-stock inventory is key to selling that inventory faster,” Denise Chudy, LotLinx chief executive officer, said in a news release. “If a dealer is failing to optimize their VIN views, they are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect motivated shoppers with available vehicles and maximize ad spend in the process.”
LotLinx founder Len Short added: “We’re excited to give dealers the ability to fine-tune their advertising spend down to the individual vehicle level. With the ability to promote inventory that otherwise may be neglected, dealers can optimize their marketing strategy and maximize turn rates and margins.”
Third-party automotive websites are improving satisfaction by capturing the attention of vehicle shoppers through increased use of the visual Web and its streamlined approach to site navigation, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Third-Party Automotive Website Evaluation Study released on Thursday.
The study, now in its fourth year, measures the usefulness of automotive third-party websites during the new- and used-vehicle shopping process by examining four key measures in order of importance:
— Information and content
— Appearance
— Navigation
— Speed
Satisfaction is measured on a 1,000-point scale.
While the impact of appearance on third-party auto website satisfaction has increased at a steady pace to 24 percent in 2016 from 21 percent in 2013, J.D. Power found there exists a significant 83-point gap in satisfaction between third-party sites and manufacturer sites (742 versus 825, respectively).
Appearance is the highest-scoring measure for auto manufacturer sites and second lowest for third-party sites, according to the study.
“The common bond among top-performing third-party auto sites is a heavy reliance on the ‘visual Web,’ with its very streamlined, easy-to-use site navigation features,” said Arianne Walker, senior director of marketing analytics at J.D. Power.
“Expectations continue to increase not only because auto manufacturers have such visually stimulating sites but because websites in many categories have focused on enhancing visual aesthetics and easy navigation,” Walker continued. “If third-party sites want to maintain and increase their usage among shoppers, they need to consider the impact appearance has on satisfaction and continually work to improve the look and feel of the website to keep up with the ever changing expectations of shoppers.”
J.D. Power highlighted a trio of other key findings of the 2016 study, including
1. Visual Web influences site preference
The study found that the highest-scoring third-party auto websites employ heavy use of visual Web design elements such as edge-to-edge imagery, cleaner spacing and aesthetically pleasing call-to-action colors.
2. Expert reviews must cover the basics
J.D. Power said content is king when it comes to satisfying shoppers on third-party sites, which includes ratings and reviews. Shoppers told J.D. Power the most important content to cover in an expert review is safety (38 percent), performance (24 percent) and functionality (11 percent).
3. Satisfaction drives loyalty and advocacy
The study determined that 83 percent of highly satisfied shoppers (overall satisfaction scores of 901 or higher) using third-party websites say they “definitely will” return to the website in the future, and 81 percent say they “definitely will” recommend the site, while only 3 percent of displeased shoppers (scores of 500 or less) say they “definitely will” return and only 2 perent say they “definitely will” recommend.
Study rankings
In 2016, overall satisfaction with automotive third-party websites averaged 751. TrueCar ranked highest at 795, followed by Carfax (793) and Cars.com (775).
The 2016 Third-Party Automotive Website Evaluation Study is based on evaluations from more than 5,000 new- and used-vehicle shoppers who indicate they will be in the market for a vehicle within the next 24 months. The study was fielded in January.
Websites evaluated in the study were selected based on meeting the following criteria:
— Must be an automotive third-party site
— Have the ability for consumers to shop for both new and used vehicles
— Be among the most frequently visited sites based on behavioral data.
Complete rankings were as follows:
TrueCar: 795
Carfax: 793
Cars.com: 775
CarGurus: 770
Autotrader: 768
Carsforsale.com: 760
NADAguides: 756
Edmunds.com: 755
The Car Connection: 755
Kelley Blue Book: 754
Industry average: 751
U.S. News Best Cars: 749
CarsDirect.com: 747
Car and Driver: 742
Autoblog; 739
Motor Trend: 739
Autobytel: 738
eBay Motors: 717
Autoguide: 710
InternetAutoGuide: 704
This week, MakeItMyAuto.com launched the MakeItMyAuto mobile solution for dealers; a Web-based tool that can offer store personnel what is being dubbed as a “simple way” to introduce accessory add-ons to customers and be able to track sales in a uniquely designed portal.
The company explained the MakeItMyAuto interface is custom designed to fit any device type, size, or operating system. At the point of sale, a dealer can hand an iPad or other portable device to the customer that will show details and custom pictures of compatible auto accessories that can be added on at the time of purchase of their vehicle.
With simple clicks on the screen, the customer can customize the buying experience by easily adding or removing accessory features to the vehicle at the point of sale. These add-ons can then be rolled up into the sum of their total purchase to be financed along with the cost of the vehicle, making it easier for both the customer and the dealer to reach a buying decision.
“With MakeItMyAuto we have simplified the decade’s old process of buying and customizing vehicles,” said Alec Foster chief executive officer and co-founder of Adworkz and MakeItMyAuto.
“We have created a product that is both simple for dealerships and consumers to use; thus, increasing customer engagement and improving the customers perception of their time spent in a dealership,” Foster continued. “The result? More sales, and happier customers.”
Foster emphasized that a key part of MakeItMyAuto is that it gives control over to the buyer to see the value in the accessories and to visualize them being added to their new vehicle. By giving the buying control to the customer, MakeItMyAuto believes the accessories can sell themselves.
Peter Chung, general manager of Magic Toyota in Edmonds, Wash., shared his assessment as to how MakeItMyAuto has improved engagement at the point of sale/
“The MakeItMyAuto accessories program has made an impact in our accessories sales as well as our customer satisfaction,” Chung said. “Due to the simplicity of the software, any one of my staff is able to present available accessories to all of our guests.
“We have found the engagement level of our customers to be much higher,” Chung added. “This has led to increased profitability as well as customer loyalty."
MakeItMyAuto is showcasing the tool at the upcoming National Automobile Dealers Association Convention & Expo in Las Vegas at booth No. 3357C.
