Social/Digital Media Archives | Page 14 of 17 | Auto Remarketing

‘Concierge’ car marketplace Shift raises $50M in Series B funding

Shift Technologies announced Tuesday it has raised $50 million via Series B funding for its car buying and selling marketplace.

Powered by its Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, along with its previous Series A financing from DFJ and Highland Capital Partners, Shift offers end-to-end concierge services for vehicles of buying and selling customers.

Currently available in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the company offers free on-demand test drives and appraisals at the buyers’ or sellers’ locations and manages the complete transaction process from end to end.

According to the company, sellers are guaranteed a minimum price for their vehicle immediately after the initial appraisal is completed while also offering to track down the right car for buyers if it’s not immediately available.

“We aim to invest in companies that solve major consumer pain points by rethinking a traditional market through an inventive approach,” said Ian Friedman of GSIP. “Shift provides a unique service that is transforming the way we view car ownership. The company has flipped the classic model of buying a used car on its head by providing a superior buyer and seller experience leveraging a unique technology platform. We are excited to work with Shift as they launch in more cities across the country.”

Shift plans to utilize this round of funding to grow its team and expand into new markets, expecting to operate in more than 20 markets by the end of 2016.

“There’s a massive opportunity to modernize the pre-owned car market with a combination of technology, better economics, and a consumer-centric model,” said George Arison, Shift’s chief executive officer and co-founder. “The current options are either a significant hassle or exceedingly unfair from a price standpoint. These issues aren’t going to be solved by re-creating a car dealership online, but rather by pursuing a new model that empowers private buyers and sellers. We’re excited to partner with GSIP as we take our company to the next level.”

According to Friedman, GSIP’s plans are to help Shift grow as quickly as possible.

“We are immensely impressed with Shift’s operations and product team, who have enabled the company’s platform to scale at a rapid pace in multiple markets in California today,” Friedman said. “Our diligence revealed the exceptional feedback from customers and sellers who have depended on Shift for buying or selling their car. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with Shift to enhance the trust, transparency, and ease of the entire car ownership experience. This investment will help Shift bring that remarkable experience to buyers and sellers across the country.”

To learn more about Shift, check out its website here.

Why online sales outlets want to ‘disrupt’ things

Take a quick drive through most communities with more than a few traffic lights and you’ll likely find what dealers might describe as “car row.” You know; it’s that stretch of retail-filled highway where franchised stores especially are clustered together.

Well, a wide array of companies are bolstering their resources to take on “this new challenge of disrupting the automotive industry with technology,” in an attempt to eliminate the need for thousands of square feet of brick-and-mortar retail space that often highlight a city’s commerce center.

The latest development arrived on Monday when Vroom — an online used vehicle retailer that has raised $73 million equity funding — added a trio of executives from well-known websites.

Michael Akrop, who previously led the finance team at Zappos, will be aboard as Vroom’s first chief financial officer.

In addition, Paula Buzzard, who worked in product development at Google, will serve as the company’s first chief product officer.

Furthermore, Emily Scott Frankel, formerly vice president of digital marketing and innovation at KAYAK, will serve the company as vice president of marketing.

“We’re thrilled to be expanding our leadership team with three hires who have deep experience at some of the most successful consumer web properties in the world,” said Elie Wurtman, executive chairman of Vroom. “We look forward to welcoming Michael, Paula, and Emily to the Vroom team and learning from their vast expertise.”

Each of the new executives described their enthusiasm about joining Vroom, which reported that sales for the month of May came in at $20 million, propelling it toward what it expects to be a $300 million sales year for 2015. But perhaps Frankel’s comment might be the gauntlet thrown directly at dealers.

“I’m excited to help Vroom ramp up its marketing efforts and use data to improve the customer experience and help spread the word about the company’s unprecedented innovation,” Frankel said. “I’m eager to apply my experience with bringing the travel industry online to this new challenge of disrupting the automotive industry with technology.”

Meanwhile, Akrop was previously VP of finance at Zappos where he oversaw the financial operations of the Zappos family of companies, reporting directly to CEO Tony Hsieh. Since 2006, Akrop played a leading role in restructuring and optimizing the Zappos finance organization into various specialties.

Akrop didn’t hold back when aiming Vroom’s target directly at dealers.

“I see a lot of parallels between where Vroom is today in the automotive industry and where Zappos was in the retail industry 10 years ago,” Akrop said. “There’s a huge demand for this type of service, and I’m excited to help Vroom transform the car buying experience to make it as easy and enjoyable as buying a pair of shoes.”

Vroom certainly isn’t alone in trying to muscle in where dealers have thrived for decades. Following its most successful quarter ever, Carvana announced back in May that it expanded its footprint to meet customer enthusiasm for buying vehicles completely online.

Carvana expanded to Texas, doubling its capacity with a new 30-acre operations center in Dallas. With the new center, the company can now offer free next-day delivery to Dallas-area customers, on top of shoppers in Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., Charlotte, N.C., and Birmingham, Ala.

Companies such as Vroom and Carvana are catching the attention of other online outlets that cater to consumers whose connection to the Web is as vital as the air they breathe.

Earlier this summer, a website called The Cheat Sheet posted a commentary titled, “10 New Car Trends Taking Over the Automotive World.” At the midway point of the rundown, the site touched on Telsa’s ongoing pursuit of retailing its electric vehicles directly to consumers without dealerships. The segment came with a description that might dealer principals upset, stating the trend was to “Eliminate the Middleman.”

Now before dismissing the sentiment as a single blogger, The Cheat Sheet contends it “is the largest and most comprehensive modern man’s premium lifestyle site.

“The Cheat Sheet is the ultimate, high-quality set of time-saving cheats/guides to everything modern men want, need and ought to know, do or buy so they can get the most out of life.”

So as if dealers didn’t have enough challenges — compressed margins and rising costs to remain compliant and efficient — perhaps now store managers and owners need to keep a close watch of operations that have a minimum physical presence but likely a growing online footprint.

“Elevating the experience of buying and selling your car online is crucial for Vroom in its quest to disrupt the automotive industry,” Buzzard said. “Our goal is to make the mobile experience in particular as convenient and delightful as possible.”

Tips to build relationships with car shoppers on social media

It’s one thing to appear to have a huge social media following. But if you’re not actively engaged with your customers, it may all be for naught.

That’s the message from Naked Lime Marketing’s vice president of sales Chris Walsh, who spoke at the Automotive Social Media Summit 2015 in June.

“Using social media for business is not about making one sale; it’s about making repeat sales, based on long-term relationships,” Walsh said. “Those dealers who are leveraging social media today are putting themselves in the best position to nurture stronger prospect and customer relationships now and in the future.”

According to Walsh, dealers should use social media as a relationship-building tool. And what are relationships built on? Trust and authenticity.

“The consumer walking into a dealership today is much different than the one walking in five years ago,” Walsh said. “Today’s car buyers are more informed, and they place a higher value on authenticity and transparency. Social media helps dealers engage with consumers online to help share information and build the kinds of relationships that translate into better business results in the long run.”

Here are four ways social media can help dealers reach out to customers and build relationships, as listed by  Naked Lime:

• Brand visibility: Search engines judge what online content is trusted and authoritative and serve that content up to consumers. Walsh said dealers can use social media as part of their search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, increasing the likelihood of their dealership being found by consumers in organic search results, social media search results, and local search.
   
• Data-driven marketing: Using data collected on consumers' behaviors, dealerships can tailor their offline and online marketing and advertising to better reach the right consumers at the right time with the right message. Walsh cited the Facebook Insights tool and Custom Audiences as examples of how dealers are using social data to tailor their advertising strategy.
   
• Multi-screen viewers: With three in four TV watchers using another device simultaneously, dealers can use social media to actively engage consumers on their smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Walsh challenged dealers to think creatively about how they can encourage consumers to take social actions after they see a dealer's TV ad so dealers can build additional relationship capital.
   
• Reputation management: Walsh noted that, in times of uncertainty, people often look to the crowd for what to do. When it comes to dealerships, online reviews are a form of "social proof" consumers use to determine which dealership to visit for vehicle sales and service. Walsh stressed that dealers should pay attention to their online reputation and have a response plan for negative social media comments and reviews.

To read more insight from Naked Lime, check out its whitepapers here.

Edmunds: Used-car shoppers a mobile-savvy bunch

If you’re in the business of selling cars and trying to make the most out of your mobile strategy, the used-car market may be a good place to start.

Edmunds.com conducted an analysis of its own site traffic to determine differences between smartphone and desktop shoppers, and found that used-car shoppers show a particularly strong connection to mobile.

In fact, Edmunds said 53 percent of shoppers visiting the site through their smartphones searched for used cars. For those going to Edmunds.com on a wired device, it was just 38 percent.

And there was something even more telling noted by Edmunds chief economist Lacey Plache in the full report.

“On both sites,” Plache wrote, referring to the wired and mobile sites, “nearly all visitors who shop for used cars shop only for used cars.”

She added: “As on wired, the most active visitors on mobile make up a fairly small group that shops for both new and used vehicles. These visitors generate 22 percent of Edmunds mobile traffic, but view four times as many pages as their counterparts who shop new or used alone.”

Another particularly interesting finding in Edmunds’ report dealt with how shoppers actually viewed inventory on the site.  Overall, Plache said that the number of inventory pages viewed by the average mobile visitor is roughly 9 percent higher than those on a wired device.

But when it comes to the shoppers who only view used inventory, things are much different: “Although these visitors constitute a smaller share of used-only shoppers on the wired site, they are more active than their mobile counterparts,” Plache said.

For more information and in-depth charts on the differences between mobile and wired, plus new and used, see the complete analysis from Plache and the Edmunds.com team, which also breaks down everything from shopping and inventory viewing to ad clicks, lead submissions and page views.

DealerOn Joins Mitsubishi DDS Website Program

Dealer website and digital marketing provider DealerOn officially joined the Mitsubishi Diamond Digital Solutions (DDS) website program, becoming the fourth website provider in the program connected with Mitsubishi Motors North America.

Through DealerOn’s participation in the DDS program, officials indicated the company automatically can deliver Mitsubishi dealers integrated OEM incentives and automated corporate image and digital asset updates on their websites.

As a result, DealerOn’s Mitsubishi dealers can have quicker content updates, easier site maintenance and a coherent integration with Mitsubishicars.com regardless of the consumer’s device — desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.

Additionally, Mitsubishi dealers who enroll with DealerOn are eligible to have their website reimbursed at 75 percent of the cost.

Furthermore, another of DealerOn’s advantages is that the company can provide a fully responsive website platform, Google’s preferred technology for search engine optimization and user experience.

“We are extremely excited to begin our partnership with Mitsubishi Motors North America," said Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s chief executive officer and president.

“We have been working with Mitsubishi Motors dealers for years, helping them dramatically increase their website leads and improve their results,” Amirrezvani continued. “Now we will be able to provide them a more integrated and nimble website platform, at a more attractive price, to further improve their marketing ROI.”

DealerOn, Inc. is a premier website and digital marketing company serving the retail automotive industry. In the last 12 months DealerOn’s websites have won virtually every meaningful industry award including: Driving Sales Top-Rated Website, Digital Dealer’s Overall Website Excellence Award, AWA’s Pinnacle Award, and Dealer Marketing Magazine’s Technology Award for Website Providers.

DealerOn looks to be known to the industry for its Lead Guarantee, based on its Digital Marketing Dashboard. Since creating this process in 2009, DealerOn has documented an average increase of more than 200 percent in website lead volume for dealer clients.

To learn more about DealerOn’s Lead Guarantee, visit this website.

What Sources Car Shoppers Trust Most

Marketing platform Crowdtap recently conducted a survey of roughly 500 male and female car buyers to get a glimpse at what shoppers think about reviews and social media as well as what sources of information they trust the most.

The poll, conducted in February of this year, yielded several unique insights into the minds of shoppers who were either currently shopping for a car, recently purchased a car, or expected to be in the market for a vehicle within the next year.

When asked which sources they trusted most, nearly a third, 31 percent to be exact, said that friend or family recommendations were the most reliable. In fact, 36 percent also said that friends and family had the most influence over their vehicle purchases. Perhaps surprisingly, the group polled showed that digital ads had the least effect on their purchasing choices. Here are a few of the other results, according to Crowdtap:

Which of the following sources most influences your car purchases?

1. Friend or family recommendations (36 percent)
2. Online review sites (19 percent)
3. Social media (16 percent)
4. Car dealer (11 percent)
5. Traditional ads (10 percent)
6. Digital ads (8 percent)

Which of the following sources do you trust most when researching and deciding on your car purchase?

1. Friend or family recommendations (31 percent)
2. Online review sites (22 percent)
3. Social media (17 percent)
4. Car dealer (11 percent)
5. Traditional ads (10 percent)
6. Digital ads (7 percent)

Dealers knowing what a customer does after the purchase can oftentimes be just as important, if not more important, than their individual sale, as referrals keep many in business. After buying a new car, 60 percent said they would likely share photos of the car on social media. An additional 45 percent said they would likely write or post about the vehicle on their social networks.

As far as online reviews are concerned, 44 percent said they would be likely to review the car online, 34 percent said they would likely review the car’s manufacturer online, and another 34 percent said they would likely review the dealership itself online.

Here are a few other interesting findings from the platform’s study, according to Crowdtap:

• 95 percent said they would post about a great car model or maker on social media.
• 91 percent of car buyers have taken a friend or family member’s recommendation into consideration when making a car purchase.
• 87 percent research potential car purchases on social media.
• 87 percent reported their friends’ comments on social media somehow influenced their opinions on manufacturers.
• 80 percent are more likely to turn to their social network for car buying advice than a salesperson.
• 68 percent have bought a car they found on social media.

J.D. Power Ranks Third-Party Auto Sites

J.D. Power released a report today which measures the usefulness of automotive third-party websites during the new- and used-vehicle shopping process. In its third year, the J.D. Power 2015 Third-Party Automotive Website Evaluation Study focused on four measures to rank the sites: information/content, appearance, navigation and speed.

According to the company, which ranks the sites on a 1,000-point scale, among shoppers who were highly satisfied with their experience on a site (giving a score between 901 and 1,000), 52 percent said they “definitely will” request more info about a vehicle from a dealership. To contrast, 5 percent of those who had a less satisfying experience (giving a score between 0 and 500) said they would follow up with a dealership about the product.

“When shopping online, a positive automotive third-party website experience can influence shoppers’ inclination to reach out directly to a dealer to request information about the vehicle they are researching,” said Arianne Walker, the senior director of automotive media and marketing at J.D. Power. “Both dealers and brands benefit by connecting shoppers to the ultimate point of purchase.”

Some other key findings, according to J.D. Power, are as follows:

• 79 percent of vehicle shoppers are looking for vehicle price when searching inventory. Used-vehicle shoppers (84 percent) are more interested in price compared to new-vehicle shoppers (75 percent).
• When being contacted by dealership, 67 percent prefer to be contacted by email. Eighteen percent preferred to be called by phone, and 5 percent preferred standard mail.

NADAguides and Cars.com were awarded the highest scores when ranked with other third-party sites. Here’s the entire list, according to J.D. Power, based on its 1,000-point scale:

IHS Enhances Data Portfolio with Dataium Acquisition

IHS recently acquired the business assets of Dataium in a move company officials said can provide enhanced capability to IHS Automotive offerings through the extensive compilation of online automotive shopping behavior.

Every month, Dataium observes more than 20 million automotive shoppers across automotive websites and then aggregates, indexes and summarizes this data into key and unique market analytics. IHS explained this aggregated data can predict future sales, optimize automotive audience segments, measure campaign, advertising and website performance and perform additional comparative analysis that help its clients grow sales, lower costs and retain customers.

Scott Key, president and chief executive officer of IHS, added that the Dataium assets will enhance growth in digital business for IHS Automotive and strengthen its analytics offerings across the automotive value chain.

“Dataium’s core products provide added value and functionality to our current lineup of automotive solutions for customers such as OEMs, ad agencies and online publishers,” Key said.

“The addition of the Dataium business assets will create best-in-class capabilities, giving IHS Automotive customers accurate and timely information and analytical tools for enhanced market measurement,” he continued.

Based in Nashville, Tenn., Dataium employs eight people. 

How Regional Dealer Associations Transform Incentive Programs with Social

No question, social networks are transforming the way that auto marketers are communicating and engaging with consumers — from building brand advocates to creating viral and content marketing campaigns, to monitoring reviews of specific car dealerships.  

While most auto marketer’s social orientation is towards fan engagement, and reputation management, social media is in fact, a viable platform for efficient and effective direct response campaigns that can quantifiably drive lower funnel actions with prospective auto buyers.

Within the social space, ad tech companies are leveraging technology to build unique marketing solutions specifically for the automotive industry.  

Take regional car dealer associations, for example.  In the past, auto marketers have been forced to run generic social media campaigns for their regional incentive offers. A social media user would see an ad to “Get a Deal on the official SUV of summertime adventure at the Summer Clearance Event” and link to a generic home page with copy that reads something like, “Current Offers and Leases on New Cars – Official Website.” 

Users would then be taken to a generic landing page that asks them for their ZIP code before the customer is able to filter through the offers. 

The problem with this kind of implementation is that it creates a lot of unnecessary steps and friction on the user experience, and prospective auto buyers leave and move on to other things.

In order to be more effective and successfully push out incentive offers, auto marketers need to be more personalized and streamlined with the creative messaging.  
There are solutions that can target real individuals, allowing auto advertisers the ability to run specific localized deals, with messages that uniquely appeal to a specific consumer. 

For instance, a subject like, “Check out the can’t miss lease offer on the official SUV of summertime adventures. $209 a month for 36 months with only $1,999 due at signing!” 

The ad then links specifically to a product page, something like “2014 Honda CR-V,” with copy that reads, “Get this deal now at your local Chicagoland Dealer!” 

The link then pushes to a unique landing specific to that offer from a specific, local dealership. The offer page spells out the details of the CR-V and includes the same offer pushed in the ad creative: “$209 a month for 36 months with only $1,999 due at signing.” 

These social ads also include the necessary terms and conditions without losing consumers to interstitials. 

Messages employing localized incentives help guide prospects to the next steps in the sales funnel better than generic messages that link to a carmaker’s generic website. These incentives are more likely to drive shoppers to the lot for a test drive.

Regional car dealer associations can also benefit from utilizing social platforms to deliver efficient direct response campaigns for pre-owned cars using this level of specificity in social media campaigns.

By sourcing content from an OEM, agency, or Cars.com, dealers can create promotions with specific landing pages and deliver them to targets based on custom DMAs and geography.These messages can measure intention against targeting sets in order to be dynamically distributed and optimized in their placements. 
As in the previous example, these pre-owned promos can link to specific Tier 2 landing pages, which push the offer and encourage car buyers to the next phase in the funnel.

Social media is a great channel for dealers to reach in-market buyers, but the channel becomes much more of an effective tool when the seller can reach the consumer on a localized and personal level. 

In this way, regional dealer associations are able to transform how incentives are promoted online.

Raj Choudhury is chief executive officer of BLiNQ Media. 

Shopping Site CarGurus Passes 2 New Thresholds

Shopping website CarGurus highlighted two major milestones on Wednesday.

First, its user traffic eclipsed 15 million unique monthly visitors this month, representing a 61-percent increase year-over-year.

The company also announced that its dealer network has grown to include more than 6,000 franchise and independent dealerships nationwide.

Officials insisted CarGurus now ranks No. 2 in terms of daily unique traffic among auto shopping and research sites in the U.S.

More CarGurus year-over-year growth by the numbers included:

— Dealer network grew by 300 percent.

— Unique visitors to the site increased by 61 percent.

— Overall visits to the site increased by 77 percent.

CarGurus uses proprietary algorithms to analyze and compare millions of car listings daily and ranks shoppers' search results according to which listings offer the best deals from top-rated local dealers.

While the site's organic listings search results are purely data-driven, the company offers dealers a variety of advertising packages that drive customer leads and provide increased exposure to millions of in-market shoppers.

“We have seen steady growth since our inception, but our emphasis on transparency and relevance in the user search experience has generated a rapid increase in adoption over the past year,” CarGurus founder and chief executive officer Langley Steinert said.

“Both sides of the shopping equation — shoppers looking to buy a car and the dealerships that serve them — benefit from CarGurus’ search model, and we expect our daily traffic and dealer customer growth to continue trending upward,” Steinert went on to say.