ATLANTA -

Underscoring the importance of including photographs and prices with their online new-vehicle listings, AutoTrader.com shared research results Monday that illustrate how much dealers can benefit from including these kinds of details.

In particular, AutoTrader.com shed some light on how its new inventory listing format has helped dealers achieve substantial gains in their online traffic.

Basically, the Front-Line Listings format takes a dealer’s new-vehicle inventory and aggregates it into a rich multimedia listing on search results pages, officials explained.

AutoTrader noted that dealers using the new format saw more than a 450-percent increase in vehicle detail page views when they uploaded photographs and prices.

Moreover, these same dealers enjoyed more than a 235-percent hike in shopper interaction, which refers to the proportion of visitors who interacted further, after clicking the listing (i.e. doing things like printing pages, looking at photos, clicking through to the dealership website, viewing a dealership map, etc.)

Comparatively, dealers using the standard advertisement format saw gains as well, though not as substantial. VDP listings climbed 140 percent after uploading photos and prices to vehicle listings posted using the traditional format. There was a 110-percent jump in shopper interaction.

“We want our dealers to get the most out of the products and services they utilize, and these numbers paint a clear picture of how two elements—actual photos and prices—can have a dramatic effect on how well their listings perform,” stated Alan Smith, AutoTrader.com vice president of sales.

“Merchandising takes time, but this research proves that the return on investment is worth it,” he continued.

Moving along, the company shared how one particular dealership — Stingray Chevrolet in the Tampa Bay area of Florida — gained some traction from using Front-Line Listings.

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AutoTrader said the dealership had consistently included photos and prices with most of their online listings, and this proved beneficial for the store last year. However, once it began using Front-Line Listings, activity really took off.

The store enjoyed tremendous gains in VDP views within 10 days of testing the program, which it started during the fourth quarter. After a full month of using the solution, the dealership’s VDP views had posted a 241-percent month-over-month increase.

That momentum spilled over into 2011, as January VDP climbed 287 percent sequentially.

“Month-over-month and year-over-year, the amount of activity for our new-car listings on AutoTrader.com has gone up, and that increase has turned into more traffic on our showroom floor," said Stingray Chevrolet’s new car director, Andrew Conrad.

“Even though sales typically slow down at the end of the year, Front-Line Listings gave our new car inventory the visibility needed to attract more buyers in December, and we ended up having one of the best sales months of the year for new cars,” he continued. “That trend continued into January and February with even more record sales, and March is shaping up to be yet another great month for us.”

AutoTrader’s Smith also noted: “For years, we’ve worked to help dealers better understand the importance of properly merchandising their inventory online, and we’ve evolved our products to enable them to continually reach more in-market shoppers.

“We’re gratified that the most recent research reinforces both our message and methodology, but we’re even more enthused that the metrics we’re seeing on the site are reflected in our dealers’ real world successes,” Smith concluded.