As part of a collaboration with Google, Larry H. Miller Dealerships has launched an online platform to sell vehicle parts directly to consumers.
The e-commerce platform is currently available on 20 LHM dealership websites and will continue to debut on other dealership websites within the group throughout 2015, the company said in Tuesday’s announcement.
“Consumers are savvy when shopping online for the best deal and the best quality item,” said Dean Fitzpatrick, president of Larry H. Miller Dealerships. “We are committed to providing a seamless experience to our customers, and are proud to offer a quick and convenient way to purchase parts online; whether purchasing a single standalone item or in conjunction with an installation.”
As far as the group’s work with Google, the collaboration includes placing the product listings on Google’s search engine. Through this, customers can search the Web for parts inventory. They can buy the parts individually or priced with an install by the store, LHM said.
“Knowing that consumers are increasingly purchasing goods through their smartphones, we began by building the e-commerce parts platform mobile-first, which can be an afterthought for many when developing an online store,” said Miran Maric, vice president of digital strategy, Larry H. Miller Dealerships. “This platform gives customers the ability to order parts quickly and efficiently from their smartphones wherever they may be.”
Consumers can also access the parts websites on desktops and tablets, where they are formatted to those respective devices.
Edmunds.com has opened up dealer registration today for a used-car sales program known as Used+ that is designed to not only connect dealers with in-market used shoppers, but also close deals quicker with more peace-of-mind for the consumer.
All of this is happening amid an environment in which the leasing boom will likely keep adding used cars to the inventory pool “at unprecedented levels for years to come,” Edmunds says, giving dealers a whole host of profitable pre-owned sales opportunities.
With that in mind, Auto Remarketing caught up with Alison Anziska, director of product management at Edmunds, to discuss this new product and its benefits for dealers.
Interestingly enough, roughly 60 percent of traffic to Edmunds.com comes from folks who are interested in used cars, Anziska said. And Used+ aims to put more of those shoppers in front of dealers.
In fact, she said the biggest positive feedback the company received from dealers in pilot testing was the increase they received in total contacts received from Edmunds. And they’re high-quality leads, Anziska adds.
So, how does it work?
Say a shopper searches for a used vehicle on Edmunds.com. For dealers who have partnered with Edmunds on Used+, their inventory comes to the top of the list, Anziska said.
The consumer also sees a price strikethrough and call-outs for the bonuses in Used+.
The used-vehicle inventory is presented to shoppers with a Vehicle Protection Plan and a $200 gas card. Included in the Vehicle Protection Plan is a 30-day/1,000-mile warranty and a 12-month roadside assistance.
Edmunds underwrites and administers all of that through third-party providers. This means it’s “completely hands-free” for dealers, Anziska said, calling this the best perk for them.
One key benefit for dealers to note: shoppers are not eligible for those benefits until they submit a lead, Anziska said. And they can’t redeem them unless they purchase.
Edmunds pilot-tested in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Nevada the past six months, and said in the product’s news release that initial results were strong. On average, a dealer participating in the pilot got three times as much engagement as the company’s existing the used-car program would generate.
One optional element of the program is to offer guaranteed lowest prices. Pilot program dealers who took Edmunds up on this part generated seven times as much engagement, the company said.
Another element that dealers can choose to employ is Edmunds’ pricing tool (Price Promise) to help simplify the back-end process.
The sign-up period for Used+ starts today, and dealers can chose from a subscription model or cost-per-sale arrangement, where applicable. Marketing to shoppers is set to launch later this summer.
“Used+ helps dealers address used car shoppers’ biggest pain points: difficulty searching for and buying a used car, and fear of buying a lemon,” Edmunds.com president Seth Berkowitz said in a news release.
“Through this program, we’ll connect in-market shoppers with dealers, providing peace of mind and sweetening the deal for car shoppers so that the deal can close more quickly,” he added.
Online auto marketplace AutoWurld is now offering a free mobile service to sell used cars. The company contends the new tool allows dealers and consumers to list used cars for sale in 60 seconds or less.
AutoWurld Mobile — available for iOS and Android — enables smartphone and tablet users to scan the vehicle VIN, import vehicle data directly from Kelley Blue Book, enter a price, add images, and list their car.
After those five steps are taken, each vehicle is posted to AutoWurld.com as a retail and or wholesale listing.
AutoWurld is designed to centralize retail, wholesale and auction channels into one destination with no listing fees for consumers, and no transaction fees or auction fees for dealers.
Paul Dyke, general manager at El Cajon Ford, is already reaping the benefits of the tool.
"We like being part of a national network that provides wholesale and retail value to our dealership," said Dyke. "AutoWurld is constantly introducing new tools and technology to improve profitability. Every week AutoWurld has more dealers and they just launched a mobile app to give us access to consumer inventory. I would encourage any dealer, franchise or independent, to sign up and grow the network. It's quick, easy, and there is no long-term commitment required."
Back in March, MyWurld Inc. launched AutoWurld as a new 24-7 subscription-based wholesale network and national online auto marketplace that aims to bring wholesale, retail and auction channels together.
Shortly after announcing it launched its Cross-Sell Interactive tool in Illinois, the division of Dominion Dealer Solutions said it is also making the tool available to dealers in Colorado and Texas.
The Cross-Sell Interactive tool is a fully interactive version of the Cross-Sell Reports’ market reports for dealers, and the company reported this is its first push to provide market analysis, statewide dealer and lienholder summaries, and MarketingINTEL reporting solutions to Colorado and Texas dealers.
CSI include customizable charts and graphs which allow users to create personalized dashboards with key metrics and areas of interest.
Shane Marcum, general product manager for Cross-Sell Reports, said, “Cross-Sell Interactive provides the tools and information that automotive retail dealers throughout Texas need to strategically attack their primary competition across multiple market areas,” as well as Colorado dealers.
Texas dealers in local markets such as Austin, Dallas and more, as well as Colorado dealers in markets such as Boulder and Colorado Springs, for example, can now access Cross-Sell’s charting and graphing of market-based vehicle sales data.
Dealers can use the solution to customize and track their competitors’ sales within specific markets while also tracking their performance against local competitors by identifying top performers in the specified area. CSI data can also be accessed via Dominion Dealer Solutions’ Inventory Manager.
For more information, visit the CSI website here.
Selly Automotive announced this week the latest release of Selly for the Salesperson, its “freemium” mobile CRM sales application designed for car sales professionals.
“Selly for the Salesperson gives car sales pros a free, powerful tool to prospect on the lot,” said Zach Klempf, the company’s chief executive officer. “It literally puts modern marketing tools at their fingertips whether pounding the pavement or working the showroom floor to increase their deal-closure rate. Selly for the Salesperson is great for dealers with no CRM or legacy systems.”
Sales staff can use the app as an “on-the-lot” tool and use the solution’s XML ADF functionality to import prospect data into almost any other CRM. The app can manage prospects, inventory and schedules from any location. The solution includes a 30-day free trial of its premium features before requiring an upgrade.
Selly says it is also the first automotive CRM mobile app that is Apple Watch compatible. The solution also supports iOS and Android platforms.
For more information, visit the Selly Automotive website or its mobile site.
DealerRater has announced the launch of ReviewBuilder, an automated online review collection solution for U.S. and Canadian dealerships.
ReviewBuilder provides dealers with an automated, customizable and hands-off approach to reviews, with an aim to get more of them at a faster pace. Reviews generated by the tool include a “Verified Customer” badge along with the review, providing what the company says is an additional layer of trust and transparency for the viewing consumers.
“Studies have shown that consumers trust reviews more than all types of advertising,” said Gary Tucker, DealerRater’s chief executive officer. “ReviewBuilder allows dealers to increase the velocity at which they receive reviews while removing any reliance on manual or inconsistent processes at the dealership.
“Our pilot test resulted in participating dealers averaging four times more weekly reviews, and 99 percent of all reviews collected described a positive experience. With the ability to capture higher volumes of reviews, dealers can leverage the positive stories right away and address unhappy customers before it impacts their CSI scores.”
The ReviewBuilder solution also features an automatic verification process to streamline the process. The initial results from the pilot show that roughly 70 percent of the reviews received were service-specific.
“In just a couple weeks on the program, ReviewBuilder has quadrupled our review count for 2015,” said Bill Simmons, the e-commerce director for Haley Auto Group. “It’s hands-free and very effective at generating verified customer reviews for our DealerRater page every day.”
More information on the solution can be found here.
Check the time and the status of salvage vehicles. That’s what Insurance Auto Auctions is offering as the company recently launched the IAA Buyer Watch App, an application customized for the Apple Watch.
Officials highlighted the app can enable buyers to view the status of their vehicles in the bidding process through notifications on their wrists.
Through what the company believes is the first app of its kind to be adapted for wearable technology, the IAA Buyer Watch App can give buyers a quick graphical view of the status of their vehicles during the watch and pre-bid portions of the bidding process without having to use their mobile phones.
"IAA is proud to be the first to market for smart wearable device technology in the salvage industry,” Insurance Auto Auctions chief executive officer and president John Kett said.
“We have built a culture that encourages the development of innovation at an accelerated pace to be responsive to our buyers’ needs,” Kett continued. “IAA’s speed of delivery continues to improve as a result of our teams embracing agility as a philosophy, allowing us to stay ahead of the digital transformation in the business.”
In addition to offering what the company contends is the best-in-class buyer experience for customers, Kett pointed out the IAA Buyer Watch App adds a critical element of time saving for buyers. The watch interface can shows buyers a summary of their watch/pre-bid vehicles and the total vehicles on their lists that are at auction on that particular day.
The IAA Buyer Watch App is free for download from the Apple Watch App Store.
A demonstration of the IAA Buyer Watch App can be seen in the above video.
Cross-Sell Reports has launched its Cross-Sell Interactive tool in Illinois, and will now provide interactive market reports for dealers there.
CSI’s features include customizable charts and graphs which allow users to create personalized dashboards with key metrics and areas of interest. This is Cross-Sell’s first offering of market analysis, statewide dealer and lienholder summaries and MarketingINTEL reporting solutions to Illinois dealers.
Dealers in local markets can access and utilize market-based vehicle sales data to easily monitor specific areas of interest.
“Cross-Sell Interactive provides the tools and information that automotive retail dealers throughout Illinois require to strategically attack primary competitors across multiple markets,” said Shane Marcum, the company’s general product manager.
Illinois dealers can use the solution to customize and track their competitors’ sales within specific markets while also tracking their performance against local competitors by identifying top performers in the specified area. CSI data can also be accessed via Dominion Dealer Solutions’ Inventory Manager.
For more information, visit the CSI website here.
CarStory announced today an upgrade to its market reports, coined “Inline CarStory Market Reports,” which embed vehicle research information directly into a vehicle’s detail page (VDP) on a dealer’s website.
The company said the aim of the product is to keep consumers from leaving a dealer’s website to conduct research on third-party sources.
The information provided in the “inline” market reports, according to the company, is based on insights generated from a combination of real-time used-vehicle listings and data from over 8 million used-car searches each week.
“Research shows that the number of views and time spent on VDPs are top online predictors of sales – simply put, the more car shoppers engage with a dealer’s VDP, the faster a vehicle will sell,” said Chad Bockius, CarStory’s chief marketing officer. “This makes keeping consumers on a VDP a key goal for dealers. Inline CarStory Market Reports are designed to provide the vehicle’s whole story, eliminating the need to click off to third-party websites.”
Shaun Raines is the vice president of marketing at DealerOn, the first dealer website to utilize the “inline” market report functionality. DealerOn made the reports available to all 1,600 of its dealer partners.
“Used-car shoppers spend significant time researching, often accessing over 24 research touch points before making a decision,” Raines said. “We want to give those consumers as many reasons as possible to stay on our dealer partner websites and the Inline CarStory Market Reports deliver all the data and research a consumer needs right from the VDP page.”
More information about the reports can be found on the CarStory website.
AutoServiceJobs.com announced the launch of its site today, providing a platform to connect auto-industry professionals across the nation.
The site aims to connect mechanics, technicians, sales personnel, client advisers and other industry professionals seeking employment opportunities.
“Though we’ve still not reached pre-recession levels, there is a strong and increasing demand for automotive service staff and technicians,” said John Azmy, the site’s president. “Our goal is to provide a comprehensive, easy-to-use tool to help automotive industry professionals capitalize on the opportunities that are becoming available as the industry continues to rebound.”
Features for employers include real-time job-posting capabilities, employer profiles, customer mini-site with logo and video and an applicant tracking system.
Applications can be received via email or routed to the employer’s ATS. Employers can post jobs for free on the site through the end of 2015.
“The automotive industry continues to be one of the nation’s biggest employers,” Azmy said. “As employment levels continue to rise, we look forward to helping jobseekers find opportunities that are aligned with their talent and skills.”
