Motoinsight provides digital retailing services for the automotive industry, stating that it “powers the digital shopping experience” for hundreds of North American dealers and several OEMs.
The company recently announced that with its recent acceptance into MiDIGITALSOLUTIONS — the certified provider program for Mitsubishi Motors North America — Mitsubishi joins other automakers that have included Motoinsight’s MotoCommerce digital retailing platform in their certified provider programs.
Motoinsight, which serves customers in the United States, Canada and Australia, says the programs “point to the industry’s best digital retailing solutions for dealership use.” The company said Mitsubishi Motors North America, or MMNA, is a “forward-thinking” automaker that will use MotoCommerce to meet the evolving demands of consumers.
According to Motoinsight, MotoCommerce brings omni-channel enabled car-buying experiences for automakers and more than 1,000 dealership franchises in North America.
An advanced digital shopping cart is part of the service’s core functionality, along with online deposit capture, virtual trade-in appraisal, a pricing calculator, F&I and aftermarket selection, and a credit application capture all enabled through an omni-channel interface.
“We’ve all been impressed with how the automotive industry turned recent challenges into major successes by pivoting to digital shopping solutions like MotoCommerce,” Motoinsight chief executive officer and co-founder Andrew Tai said in a news release. “It’s exciting to have the opportunity to empower Mitsubishi’s dealer partners and their customers in that same way.”
Stating that the new service is the first of its kind to offer online transaction capabilities on a major Canadian automotive marketplace, TRADER Corp. has launched digital retailing on autoTRADER.ca.
The new digital retailing service will work in conjunction with the Motoinsight MotoCommerce platform, and dealers using the service can provide customers with the ability to build and complete transactions online within marketplace listings.
Also, for the first time, Canadians will be able to purchase a car on autoTRADER.ca.
Some consumers still seek an in-person dealership experience. But 41% of respondents to a recent survey of autoTRADER.ca marketplace users are interested in purchasing a vehicle online.
According to TRADER Corp., that indicates a desire to conduct more of the car buying process digitally.
Sixty-one percent of users surveyed would be interested in being able to purchase vehicle accessories online. The online automotive marketplace ranked the highest among resources used by consumers for research. Digital Retailing on autoTRADER.ca “synergizes” the car shopper experience, which TRADER says could “usher in a new wave for the automotive industry.”
One hundred fifty Canadian dealers are currently utilizing the autoTRADER.ca digital retail integration features in the first phase of the launch. Those include:
— A “‘Build My Deal’ button that allows customers to enter the MotoCommerce platform directly from the dealer’s vehicle details page. At that page, customers can configure pricing, review accessories and protection plans, complete trade-in appraisals, apply for financing, and deposit and finalize agreements.
— A Buy Online badge on search results page listings helps make buyers aware that the dealership offers an online vehicle purchasing option.
— A Buy Online identifying badge and a Buy This Vehicle widget on vehicle details pages adds additional awareness for each retailer’s digital offering.
Dealership sales representatives and product specialists at every stage of the purchase process can meet customers to provide a transparent and personalized experience that is similar to the in-dealership experience. If a customer needs to pause a transaction, he can resume exactly where he left off across multiple channels, and those include the autoTRADER.ca marketplace, the dealership’s website, or in the showroom.
In the launch’s second phase, Digital Retailing on autoTRADER.ca will be made available to dealer partners nationwide. For information, or to join the waitlist to activate digital retailing for your dealership when it becomes available, visit go.trader.ca/DigitalRetail.
TRADER says the launch of the digital retail functionality on the autoTRADER.ca marketplace shows its focus on digital transformation. The organization released the Remote Selling Suite in early April. That toolkit includes features for dealers to conduct business remotely and engage Canadians searching for cars on autoTRADER.ca during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In response to recent circumstances that have accelerated interest in completing more of the car buying journey online, TRADER has made it a top priority to focus on innovating and adapting our offering to help dealers respond quickly to evolving consumer needs,” TRADER chief product officer Jill Hadfield said in a news release.
Hadfield continued, “This first of its kind advancement in automotive digital retailing on a major Canadian automotive marketplace represents an exciting step forward in the future of car buying, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this evolution in Canada.”
Digital Retailing on autoTRADER.ca is the latest addition to a portfolio of digital offerings that TRADER says show its commitment to guiding dealers and consumers through this “new era of car shopping.”
North American F&I provider Sym-Tech Dealer Services has taken its F&I Performance product and developed a full turnkey virtual F&I product that dealers can use in an entirely online environment.
Sym-Tech has developed the product while noting that the shift to remote sales has increased the urgency for dealers to seek new ways of serving customers online.
The company said the product, called Virtual F&I Powered by Sym-Tech, reveals its virtual F&I and virtual training capabilities. Those capabilities could help Canadian dealers boost profitability and customer satisfaction.
With the following virtual offerings, the company says it is ready to help dealers navigate through the changing business landscape and support customers’ F&I journey:
— Customer-centric virtual F&I sales process and credit application
— Personalized F&I menu presentation
— Full disclosure and compliance for the customer
— dave, which is Sym-Tech’s proprietary F&I software solution
— e-signature enabled with e-contracts
— Virtual F&I training and online classroom
— Conduct virtual turnovers with live experts via video or phone
— Virtual fill-ins by a retail-experienced team of certified F&I specialists (OMVIC, AMVIC)
— Fully supported in English and French
—Tool kit that includes enhanced F&I and product presentation tools
“The key to success during these challenging times is learning to adapt in order to gain an advantage in today's marketplace. Our team has done an extraordinary job working quickly to bring Virtual F&I solution to our dealers that focuses on adapting the business office in an online environment," Sym-Tech Dealer Services president Derek Sloan said in a news release.
Sloan continued, “The safety of our dealers, customers and associates is of the utmost importance. Our virtual F&I process replicates in-person interaction in a virtual setting, which safely facilitates the sale of F&I products and ultimately drives performance for our dealers.”
Sym-Tech’s virtual F&I solution is a virtually delivered process that the company says increases profitability and improves customer service. It does that through a “faster, customer-centric and transparent online business office experience,” the company said.
TRADER Corp. says it has released a digital marketing analytics tool that it says draws a direct and verifiable line between consumer activity on the autoTRADER.ca online marketplace, and eventual vehicle sales in Canadian automotive dealerships.
Called Match, the online-to-offline attribution tool links to actual sales as opposed to simply leads or click-throughs, which according to TRADER Corp. are the most common marketing metrics used across the industry.
The company said it released the tool to help Canadian car dealers make better, data-driven marketing decisions.
TRADER Corp. says the release continues its tradition of being “at the forefront of digital marketing innovation in the Canadian automotive industry.”
The company introduced the tool as a pilot test project early last year before making the decision to announce the offering to the market at large.
The move follows what the company says was a successful trial that involved more than 1,200 Canadian dealer locations.
TRADER Corp. says Match analysis to date of sales activity from participating “rooftops” has exceeded expectations. Results show autoTRADER.ca influenced an average of 35.4% of all sales made at those locations.
TRADER Corp. vice president, strategic marketing Ian MacDonald said the company believes that developing the ability to correlate online user behavior with vehicle sales data will be “game changing for our industry.”
“While it is still virtually impossible to pinpoint the specific marketing driver for every vehicle sold in Canada, Match is the closest we — or anyone else in the North American automotive industry — has ever come to being able to reliably attribute digital traffic directly to automotive sales,” MacDonald said in a news release.
Here’s how Match works: autoTRADER.ca analyzes real sales data that dealers provide, specifically looking at buyers’ postal code data.
Match then cross references that information with search logs that include data on makes and models viewed, and often postal codes. That identifies customers who have purchased a vehicle they saw on the autoTRADER.ca marketplace.
Here’s the end result, according to TRADER Corp: Dealer principals, general managers and marketing managers can for the first time get a detailed report showing how many previously anonymous walk-ins or unattributed calls to the sales desk autoTRADER.ca drove to them.
TRADER Corp. says the implications for how a dealer manages its media mix are great. But Match also provides a geographic heat map of the location of online engagers and eventual buyers.
That, according to the company, is crucial toward helping dealers identify buying trends and develop corresponding geo-targeting marketing efforts, and those would include efforts such as out of home or direct mail.
Tim Peacock, general manager of Colonial Honda in Halifax, says that even with new digital technology in recent years, determining what form of advertising or marketing activity generates the best return on investment has remained difficult.
As a result, TRADER Corp. says dealers have mostly had to rely on customers to tell them which marketing or advertising activity inspired their decision to buy a vehicle at their dealership.
The company says customer self-reporting is a “notoriously unreliable measure” of marketing performance. Because of that, dealers have also relied heavily on the volume of online leads coming from various digital marketing platforms.
Although research shows more people are shopping for vehicles online, fewer of them are voluntarily submitting leads to dealers. That makes measuring their ROI more difficult than ever for dealers.
The company also described what it says is the regressive practice of “lead splitting,” or driving multiple leads from a single user through single-click lead forms. TRADER Corp says that practice creates an additional challenge by painting an inaccurate picture for dealers.
“With the Match program, we are able to send a file to our autoTRADER.ca rep and have them generate a report that tells us with reasonable accuracy the percentage of people who were on autoTRADER.ca as part of their journey and who ended up buying a vehicle from us,” Peacock said.
He continued, “It’s very helpful in determining how effective our marketing is and very clearly demonstrates how important a business partner autoTRADER.ca is to us.”
MacDonald said any new innovation brings the opportunity to test, refine and have open discussions.
“So we encourage our dealer partners to engage us, and see what Match can do for their business,” he said.
He continued, “We’re looking forward to working together with dealers across the country to make a difference and continue to get better at connecting the dots.”
Through a strategic collaboration between automotive business-to-consumer (B2C) chat company RAPID RTC and Cox Automotive Canada, RAPID RTC will integrate its chat service into Cox Automotive Canada’s Dealer.com and Dealertrack Digital Retailing systems.
That, according to the companies, will “combine the personal touch of an in-store dealership experience with the convenience and transparency of best-in-class online retail.”
The collaboration will deliver a fully integrated functionality that the companies say will improve the customer journey and relationship from online to in-store.
The RAPID RTC Chat service starting in mid-February will work with Dealertrack Digital Retailing and Dealer.com sites in Canada. That collaboration will bring what the companies describe as “the ultimate real-time customer experience” for their online customers.
Consumers through the new integration, at any point during their online journey, will use an exclusive chat channel to connect with a salesperson at the dealership.
Through the channel, salespeople in the showroom will be able to use peer-to-peer connectivity to chat directly with digital retailing consumers in real-time.
The companies say that opens a new dimension of online retailing that brings unlimited dialogue between buyer and seller. That will provide additional information, build rapport, and secure a physical appointment at the dealership.
In addition, an added benefit is that the personal connectivity does not expire when a consumer ends his or her online session.
RAPID RTC on subsequent visits will use User Recognition Technology to reconnect the consumer with the same salesperson, which will result in them continuing their online journey together.
“The Cox Automotive Canada collaboration aligns perfectly with us,” RAPID RTC president and chief executive officer Glen Demetrioff said in a news release.
Demetrioff continued, “The customer experience is greatly enhanced by allowing a customer to interact directly with a live salesperson as they narrow their selection and begin to think about test driving and purchasing. The customer retains the convenience of the online channel while the salesperson offers professional advice to help augment the total online shopping experience without interruption.”
Demetrioff went on to note what he described as an industry first: Connecting a customer to a live salesperson who is not busy with showroom opportunities, doesn’t require an app to connect, and “is available at that specific moment when the online customer needs help.”
“When you add the ability for the customer to reconnect with the same salesperson on subsequent website visits, then you have created the ideal shopping scenario that finally connects the digital and physical showrooms together,” Demetrioff said.
Demetrioff continued, “Our collaboration with Cox bridges the human aspect with the online journey — to bring a greater convenience to customers and a higher ROI to dealers."
“As we continue to look for ways to transform the way the world buys, sells, owns and utilizes cars, we’re excited to partner with RAPID RTC to help Canadians bridge the gap between the online and in-store experience,” said Cox Automotive Canada president Maria Soklis.
Soklis continued, “By partnering with RAPID RTC, our Dealer.com and Dealertrack Digital Retailing solutions will further empower online consumers and improve their journey when purchasing a vehicle.”
At the touch of an app with the Porsche Passport monthly subscription plan, members get unlimited swaps between models. Porsche Passport conducted a U.S. pilot program in Atlanta and will expand to Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.
Now, the exclusive monthly subscription is available in Toronto through Porsche Cars Canada.
Porsche Cars Canada says it will offer on-demand access to the Porsche experience. The company says Porsche Passport offers the entire Porsche model line-up “for more flexible enjoyment than a traditional lease or purchase.”
With Porsche Passport, a concierge delivers and picks up cars anywhere a customer chooses within his or her service area. The plan in Canada includes all operating costs — except for fuel, taxes, and fees — in a single monthly payment of $3,200 for the “Launch” membership. That membership level includes 718, Macan and Cayenne model variants. For $4,200, the “Accelerate” level adds 911 and Panamera models to the menu.
Porsche Cars Canada president and chief executive officer Marc Ouayoun said consumers like the flexibility that on-demand services provide.
“With a history of fostering innovation, the brand is keen to provide an exclusive experience with its sports cars via Passport through a partnership between Porsche Smart Mobility Canada, Ltd and Pfaff Porsche in Vaughan,” Ouayoun said in a news release.
The Atlanta Passport pilot launched in 2017. That pilot program found that the average subscription is about four months.
The pilot program also found that extended travel plans were the most common reason for suspending membership. According to Porsche Cars Canada, that information could mean that the month-to-month model provides the flexibility customers desire.
More statistics on the program: Passport users swap models 2.5 times per month on average, and more than 55% of members flip their vehicles at home.
Almost 30% swap their vehicle at work. A restaurant is another example of a location choice for the remaining swaps.
Clutch Technologies, which has been part of the pilot from the beginning, will manage the IT backbone of the program. In all five cities, the expansion of Passport includes a new role for Porsche dealer-partners in all five cities. They will oversee the customer experience and the fleet. That includes white-glove vehicle delivery and maintenance.
Many people know Alexa as a service allowing them to interact with technology and use it for finding the nearest restaurant, for example.
Under a new Transport Canada pilot program, users could soon be able to say, “Alexa, open vehicle recalls.”
In a news release, Transport Canada said that Minister of Transport Marc Garneau is unveiling a new Alexa service for Canadians to find vehicle recall information.
Through the program, called Vehicle Recalls Canada, when someone activates the service by stating, “Alexa, open vehicle recalls,” Alexa will then ask the user about the vehicle make and model and then provide all recalls for it.
Users can enable Vehicle Recalls Canada through the Amazon Alexa application.
The service is scheduled to run as a pilot test program for six months. Transport Canada said the service, which it says is one of the government of Canada’s first uses of voice assistance to provide services to Canadians, fulfills a government commitment to provide more agile, open, and user-focused digital services.
Transport Canada also notes that vehicle manufacturers issue an average of approximately 650 safety recalls each year, which affects more than 5 million vehicles.
Also, for users who might have accessibility challenges, the service is a new method of accessing Transport Canada's vehicle recall service.
Transport Canada says it is “committed to improving road safety and ensuring Canadians know about recalls affecting their vehicles.” Transport Canada also notes that through Canada’s recall system, vehicle owners are responsible for getting their recall work completed and bringing their vehicle to the dealer. Owners are encouraged to correct safety defects as soon as possible, Transport Canada said.
Transport Canada also notes that the new Alexa service is a continuation of previous Canadian government actions to strengthen vehicle recalls in Canada, including new 2019 regulations for manufacturers that provide additional safety information to Canadians in recall notices. Another 2018 action, the Strengthening Motor Vehicle Safety for Canadians Act, gave the Minister of Transport the ability to order a company to recall a vehicle, to pay for the repair costs, and to fix a new vehicle before it is sold.
Garneau said, “The Government of Canada is committed to improving service delivery for Canadians and providing information in new, innovative ways. Vehicle recall information is important and Canadians need to have vehicle safety defects corrected in a timely manner. The easier we make it for Canadians to obtain this information, the better. I would like to thank Amazon and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat for collaborating with Transport Canada to make this service a possibility.”
Cox Automotive Canada said its planned new vehicle data capture service will provide seamless integrations between Dealer.com websites and Manheim's new dealer-to-dealer digital auction platform MUVIT. According to the company, that will invite dealers to have multiple uses of images across connected wholesale and retail products, “further enhancing the Cox Automotive ecosystem.”
Cox Automotive Canada on Thursday announced plans for the service, which will launch in September and be powered by PAVE. The company explained that PAVE is an artificial intelligence-driven inspections application in partnership with Discovery Loft.
Through the service, a team of data capture specialists will support dealers, OEMs and partners for real-time photo capture services across Canada. PAVE is the new capture application, and it is powered by an AI-driven vehicle inspection software, according to Cox Automotive Canada. It automates the detailed capture and inspection of a vehicle and allows teams to deliver accurate vehicle inspections within minutes, the company said.
Those images and the digital insights drawn from them then integrate with Dealer.com websites and Manheim’s new online auction platform MUVIT. Cox Automotive Canada says that brings “a seamless, connected ecosystem.”
Another benefit the new vehicle capture service will bring to Canadian dealers is that the dealers will be the sole owners of all data and images that the Cox Automotive team of specialists captures as part of the service. With that flexibility, according to the company, dealers can use their images how and where they want.
Also, clients of Dealer.com will continue to be able to syndicate vehicle listings data to all of Canada’s marketplaces and other platforms as desired by Cox Automotive Canada dealers.
“Cox Automotive Canada continues to be at the forefront of innovation, bringing improvements to the Canadian automotive marketplace by delivering insightful industry-leading advancements and technology that drive benefit for our partners,” Cox Automotive Canada director, product and corporate strategy Stephanie Turner said in a news release.
Turner continued, “In partnership with industry innovators Discovery Loft, this new AI-enabled offering continues the digital-first evolution of the Cox ecosystem and enables real-time benefit.”
“We are very excited to be launching PAVE in Canada with Cox Automotive Canada,” said Brian Steinhauser of Discovery Loft. “Cox is a great partner and has many use cases that will benefit from PAVE’s integration.”
Steve Southin from Discovery Loft adds, “It has been a tremendous journey for Discovery Loft, and I could not be happier with where we have been able to get to in such a short period. We look forward to a long relationship with Cox Automotive Canada.”
A new algorithm from Mobials Inc. calculates the value of consumers’ trade-in vehicles.
Now, Mobials, which is the parent company of AutoVerify, is looking for U.S. dealers to beta-test the algorithm. Once Mobials launches the algorithm, every U.S.-based dealer signing up for the beta test will receive 12 months of free use. Mobials develops, markets, and sells digital retailing products to the automotive and real estate industries.
AutoVerify president Marty Meadows said his company’s data science team created the algorithm after receiving dealer requests.
“We wanted them to have the opportunity to choose which data source their customers pull values from,” Meadows said in a news release. “AutoVerify didn’t have that option, so we built it, and we’re excited to test it in the United States.”
By acting as a research assistant for car buyers, integrating with dealership websites and answering common consumer questions during their pre-purchase research, AutoVerify brings credit-qualified leads to dealers.
Dealers interested in participating in the beta-test can sign up here.
Digital marketing company TRADER Corp. and inventory management software company vAuto say that with their new AutoWriter automated description writing tool, retailers can create vehicle descriptions in less than one minute.
The companies say the tool simplifies auto retailers’ merchandising process and improves the quality of their online vehicle listings.
TRADER invested in offering AutoWriter to auto retailers in Canada after launching the product in the United States. AutoWriter is a tool within the vAuto Provision Suite, and its customizable descriptions are designed based on the individual retailer’s selection criteria and unique vehicle attributes.
AutoWriter, which is now available to all vAuto customers in Canada through TRADER, features writing and editing capabilities with one click, according to the companies.
The tool adds vehicle features from OEM sites, which the companies say brings capabilities for “supercharged search engine optimization.” The companies say the tool publishes “like-for-like” OEM certified pre-owned program details directly to vehicle listings.
Also, the tool features make/model-specific reviews and vehicle awards, as well as descriptions on used-car listings.
When auto retailers use the tool, they can get the best results with their vehicle descriptions through keyword suggestions. That brings higher exposure in search results, according to the companies. In addition to the ability to generate descriptions in under a minute, the tool allows users to publish the descriptions to any third-party site, which the companies say saves time and resources for customers.
TRADER vice president, dealer software and OEM, Matt Lawson said in a news release his company has seen research showing that as part of their vehicle purchase process, 82% of car shoppers use online sources such as autoTRADER.ca and dealership websites.
“Viewing and researching vehicles online is their primary influence for making buying decisions, which is why it’s extremely important for dealers to profile the key attributes of every VIN-specific vehicle online,” Lawson said. “The new AutoWriter tool automates the process for dealers by creating unique and rich vehicle descriptions for every piece of inventory, making them highly relevant to each consumer and giving the dealer the ability to stand out in the crowd."
“AutoWriter is unlike any other tool as it cuts down time on vehicle merchandising and quickly generates descriptions based on the dealers’ preferences,” said vAuto senior vice president Randy Kobat. “These detailed descriptions grab the attention of online consumers and encourages them to interact with the listings.”
