Turning Cars into Stars Through Online Merchandising John Griffin Vice President Performance...

Turning Cars into Stars Through Online

MerchandisingJohn Griffin

Vice President Performance ManagementAutoTrader Group, Software Division

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Mission: Deploy resources and expertise to attract customers.Most are online

Don’t automatically show up

Responsibility to attract them

The Case for Classified Advertising

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The Case for Classified Advertising

Used car shoppers look for the car first

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Used car shoppers look for the car first

and the “deal” second.

The Case for Classified Advertising

Search Result Pages

SRPs

Vehicle Display PagesVDPs

VDP Conversions

Manage what you “can’t

see”

Monitor SRPs and VDPs

Need for “pixel” proficiency

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What are SRPs?Search Results Pages

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What are VDPs?Vehicle Detail Pages

VDPs are controlled by SRPs

We absolutely need to understand these new metrics

SRP Drive By Traffic=VDP “UP”=

How many VDPs should we

have?

Are we on track MTD?

What is our conversion ratio?

Can we answer the most basic questions?

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Conversion Benchmarks

2.5%*from SRP to VDP

3.5%*from SRP to VDP

*These are estimates. Subject to market and site conditions.

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VDP is the Money Metric

10,000VDPs Sales

100=

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Dealers Control Their VDP Destiny

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Cars are like children.

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Each one is unique.

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SRPs

VDPs

Conversion

240

8

3%

560

10

1.8%

90

60

55%

Toyota Land Cruiser BMW Jeep Commander

Listening to Your Cars

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Tactics for turning your dealership into a VDP Factory

Generate more SRPs1There are 3 factors

Convert more SRPs to VDPs2There are 4 factors

Drive more SRPs

Placement

Price

Inventory

Convert more SRPs to VDPs

• Good thumbnail

• Photo bait

• Compelling Notes

• Right Price

Vehicle Inventory Page

Make/Model 

Days in Inventory

BodyPrice / % to

Market

MarketDay’s

Supply

AutoTraderCars

SRP VDP%

Conv.SRP VDP %

Conv.

2008 Toyota Land CruiserOdometer:  32,985

154D Sport

UtilityColor:  White

$55,29397%

56 240 8 3% 295 10 3.5%

2002 BMW 540 Odometer: 103,722 

154D Sedan

Color:  Gray$11,500

98%82 560 10  1.8% 635 13  2.0%

2009 Jeep CommanderOdometer:  24,936 

154D Sport

UtilityColor:  White

$18,90099% 

41 90 50 55% 75 38 50.7%

Your cars are talking,are you listening?

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Actually make it work

Profitability

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OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB

SRPs BY MONTH

VALUE MTD PROJECTION

SRPs 305,283 556,693

VDPs (#) 12,881 23,489

VDP (%) 4.2% -

Monitor SRPs and VDPs

500,000

400,000

300,000

200,000

100,000

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% of vehicles with unacceptable time to internet?

% of vehicles with no online price?

% of vehicles with incorrect prices?

% of vehicles that are not being published to all designated

sites?

% of vehicles without compelling descriptions?

% of vehicles without quality photos?

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Website# Online vs.# Missing

# Missing Price

# MissingDescription

# MissingPhoto

# InvalidOdometer

AutoTrader.com 96 / 8 4 13 19 4

Cars.com 94 / 10 44 22 23 4

Your Reynolds Site

74 / 30 41 11 7 74

CarLocate 53 / 51 31 8 12 0

Toyota 12 / 92 12 10 1 0

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Compac

t

Inte

rmed

iate

Luxury

Luxury

Hig

h

Luxury

Sport

Sport

Subcom

pact

Compac

t

Inte

rmed

iate

Large

Luxury

Class

ic

Large

Smal

l

Full Size

Smal

l0%

6%

24%

18%

12%

CAR SUV TRUCK VAN

Your DealershipYour Live Market

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Make/Model Year Unique Shoppers ListingsUnique Shoppers/

ListingScarcity Index

Average 36 310

Acura 3.2CL 2001 198 3 63.9 544

Acura 3.2CL 2003 89 1 89 759

Acura 3.2TL 2000 70 2 35.6 303

Acura 3.2TL 2002 186 6 30.2 257

Acura 3.2TL 2003 323 7 47.7 407

Acura 3.5 RL 2001 62 2 34.4 294

Acura 3.5 RL 2002 23 1 23 196

Acura 3.5 RL 2004 56 1 56 477

Acura Integra 2001 186 1 129.8 1,106

Acura MDX 2001 61 1 43.3 369

Acura MDX 2002 166 3 58.6 499

Acura MDX 2003 93 3 26.8 229

Acura MDX 2004 145 4 32.7 279

Acura MDX 2005 153 6 27.3 233

Acura MDX 2006 239 3 77.9 664

Acura MDX 2007 226 11 19.8 168

Acura MDX 2008 177 5 36.6 312

Acura MDX 2009 98 1 66.8 570

Acura MDX 2010 39 21 1.8 16

Acura RDX 2007 176 9 19.3 165

Acura RDX 2008 67 2 29.6 252

Acura RDX 2010 70 26 2.7 23

Acura RL 2000 17 1 17 145

Acura RL 2005 100 2 46.2 393

Acura RL 2006 132 4 33.6 286

Thank You

John GriffinVice President, Performance Management

AutoTrader Group Software Divisionjgriffin@vauto.com

1.630.267.5161

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