Brent Lane, who is the CEO and founder of HeyAuto,  a new Canadian online transaction platform for vehicle buyers, is looking to “build solutions for car owners” — and dealers, for that matter.

The car purchase — which can be the second- or first- largest financial investment people make — is often stressful, yes. But many online retailers are looking to streamline this process.

Auto Remarketing Canada spoke with Lane about the launch of the new platform — which is powered and designed by Vivid Theory, a product development company based in Calgary — and the challenges it aims to address, as well as the opportunities online vehicle retail platforms offers not only customers, but also dealers.

Lane is also the CEO of the Vivid Theory, the company behind HeyAuto, that he described as a new technology design and development studio.

HeyAuto is focused on allowing car purchases to shop trusted dealers, but what Lane focused on is how the new site aims to help the consumer build an authentic relationship with the dealership.

“We look to build solutions for the car owner, and find better ways to stay connected to the dealership,” Lane said. “So our platform is all about the ownership experience of the car, not just about the three-week transaction window in a traditional sales cycle.”

Once the car shopper has made a purchase, HeyAuto aims to help these customers with a platform in which to store important vehicle information, “and stay connected with your representative and service teams in a customized way.”

HeyAuto is a marketplace and a two-sided Software-as-a-service platform.

“We create an engaged experience where both the dealership has a direct way to engage with their customers through the platform, as well as the customers engaging with their dealers or their downstream vendors,” Lane said.

He explained this goes beyond the initial touchpoint with a customer and then trying to reach back out to them by email.

“This (HeyAuto) is a live two-way interaction through a software product,” said Lane. “So, it's really a way for dealerships to stay continually engaged with their customers after the sale and help to provide more loyalty and retention over the years of their ownership journey — versus just at the transaction level in the dealership.”

Lane describes the platform as an online automobile “ecosystem” for car owners and auto dealers, addressing “pre-existing limits within the online automotive space,” and empowering both dealers and car buyers.

Upon launch, HeyAuto provides access to 2,000-plus dealers and over 100,000 vehicles for sale.

According to Lane, the site utilizes AI and machine learning to achieve building this ecosystem.

In terms of AI, Lane says, “We are a technology-first company.”

“A lot of our AI is driven towards creating and taking a 100-plus data sources and turn it into one clear message,” he said.

Ultimately, HeyAuto aims to go beyond a “marketplace-only solution.”

“Dealers were looking for a better way to visualize and different ways of approaching a younger demographic with a stylish marketplace design. That was an immediate jump off point,” he said.

Lane explained that HeyAuto feels more like the “Instagram of car buying.”

“We focused a lot on the technology and the dealers who had a very hungry appetite for approaching that target (younger and female) demographic,” he said.

Lane also discussed the elements that make up the vehicle shopping process on HeyAuto, starting with the “Vehicle Snapshot Card.”

According to the news release for HeyAuto, this card allows car buyers to view all vehicle information, scroll vehicle photos, share listings, and send direct messages to dealers.

“It's a snapshot of everything that would be related to this vehicle that you traditionally as a consumer have to go to a detail page to read about. We packed it all into what we call ‘drawers,’ which is a way for the mobile user to quickly scroll through vehicles, look at some pictures — which is always the top priority,” Lane said.

And once the customer is interested in learning a little bit more about that vehicle, they can snap through the drawers, choose the information they want to receive, and then keep scrolling through the photos — without the navigational hurdles of going back and forth through and opening up new browser tabs.

There is also HeyAuto’s Glovebox, which is “where your vehicle lives,” where you connect with your chosen dealer, or change your ownership experience. In other words, Glovebox is the place where shoppers can manage all of their vehicles’ documents, including maintenance schedules. This is aimed to make sure shoppers don’t forget their oil changes or tire rotations appointments, which in turn helps dealers in customer retention efforts and service profits.

“It’s a tool that connects the entire customer's entire life-cycle, right from when they join the platform, shopping for vehicles on the marketplace, after they purchase that vehicle through the dealer, they can directly connect the car to our Glovebox feature set, at which point they can be loading receipts, documents, privately auctioning their vehicle to dealerships, getting trade value from their dealer, etc.,” he said. “So it's a great way to store all of the transactional and relevant data to your vehicle ownership journey in one digital wallet.”

HeyAuto is also looking to positively impact the environment and combat the cost of fossil fuels by its KeysforTrees program.

“Our KeysforTrees initiative is a way for our own platform and our dealerships to be able to reward their customers in a socially responsible way,” Lane said.

There was a need identified from HeyAuto’s dealers partners to offer their customers a “feel-good moment.” The result: KeysforTrees.

“What it allows is a dealer to reward their customers with the planting of trees, and the customer actually gets to choose the jurisdiction where those trees get planted … Customers can sign on and they could say, ‘I would like those trees to be planted in Ontario,’ and then we facilitate those with our charity tree planting partners,” Lane said.

Lane explained the site aims to take into account, for example, a consumer owning a vehicle over a 42-month lifecycle.

“Too often in our model, we're looking at the three-to-six week transaction cycle as the only time we're really touching base in a meaningful way,” said Lane. “So, our platform's all about building that lifetime value of your customer from a dealer perspective and giving more connected information to the consumer on the retail side.”

Largely accepted, dealers are continually looking for ways to build trust and loyalty within their customer base.

“What better way than to establish a direct connection for all of those engagements that happen with your vehicle over the lifetime of your ownership, not just at the time of purchase,” Lane said.