AUSTIN, Texas -

The logic behind the Inline CarStory Market Reports is this: if the vehicle details page on a dealership website has the information a shopper wants to know, that shopper will stay on that page instead of clicking elsewhere to find that information. 

Through this new tool that CarStory launched this month, vehicle research information is embedded directly into the VDP in an effort to keep that consumer on the dealership website.

The thought is that the more engaged the shopper is on the dealer’s site, the quicker the vehicles turn, CarStory chief marketing officer Chad Bockius told Auto Remarketing in an interview last week.

This is just the latest in a series of growth patterns for the burgeoning CarStory product, which since its launch last year has been lining up individual stores, dealer groups and marketplaces as partners.

The company also has partnered with VW’s certified pre-owned program and has a handful of other OEM CPO programs in the pipeline.

As far as its latest offering, the information provided in the “inline” market reports, 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, the company said.

“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,” Bockius said in the news release last week announcing the Inline CarStory Market Reports. “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 in the same news release. “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.”

In talking with Auto Remarketing, Bockius emphasized two consumer concerns that the new reports help address: the market price and market comparison on a car, and how the condition of the car compares to other vehicles in the area.

Given how closely this aligns to what dealers often are concerned about on the auction side, we asked Bockius if there was potential for CarStory to expand to the wholesale market.

“We have definitely gotten that request,” Bockius said, adding that he could certainly see dealers appreciating that functionality in the wholesale market.

He says that while it is not available today on the wholesale side, such a concept is on their radar.