SAN DIEGO -
After gaining feedback from the industry and its Client Advisory Board, which includes a cross section of consignors and dealers, SmartAuction has launched several initiatives to enhance its platform.
One of the aspects of the enhancement is ramping up communication with dealers by sending alerts about vehicles that might fit their inventory needs.
“We have more than 12,000 postings online each day and between 3,000 to 4,000 new postings added a day,” Mark Newman, of SmartAuction, told Auto Remarketing in an early exclusive. “Dealers are buying every day to fill specific needs. We will not send an e-mail to dealers unless we find five vehicles that match their needs. And at the top end it’s 30.”
And as dealers interact with the program, it is designed to learn and get more specific in the vehicles suggested via e-mail to dealers.
“The more they use the tool, the more precise it gets,” pointed out Newman.
And according to Newman, SmartAuction also now offers pricing feedback to dealers who are looking to sell the models they don’t need on their lots. SmartAuction collects a lot of internal and external pricing information, which is culled into a proprietary pricing tool that dealers can use to help them price a vehicle right.
Basically, the new offering provides a range of what a model is likely to sell for. The dealer can then decide if he wants to wait and leave the model online a bit longer, hoping for more. Or the dealer can elect to move the unit more quickly and perhaps take an offer at the lower end of the pricing spectrum.
Furthermore, the platform has also been enhanced so that in addition to offering a buy now function and bidding function, there is also an offer function. The consignor needs to decide to offer this option, but once he does, a dealer can decide to make an offer if he thinks the buy now price is too high.
“Say the vehicle is listed for $10,000 and a dealer decides to offer $9,200; it’s up to the consignor if he wants to accept the offer or not,” said Newman.
Buyers and sellers can go back and forth negotiating on offers until they can agree, which is also new. One they agree on a price, the system locks it in.
“When the buyer and seller agree, there is a record of the agreement. It’s a huge enabler of dealer-to-dealer trading,” Newman indicated.
The consignor also has the option of letting an offer die, and if the vehicle doesn’t sell for the reserve or price he is looking for, he can always go back and contact the dealer who made the offer to see if the person is still interested in making a deal.
Newman indicated a number of fleet consignors and independent auctions are utilizing the offer function.
But he said, “The lion’s share of this is being done dealer-to-dealer.”
Continuing on, the company is now providing in-depth analytics that incorporate all the consignor information and can be broken down by geographical location, pricing and supply.
“It includes mileage, condition grade and where the vehicle is located,” Newman pointed out.
And in yet another enhancement, while the company has offered a buyer or retail view via its system for about a year, in a new development, SmartAuction now also offers an e-mail retail view. So say a customer comes in looking for a specific unit. The dealer can search through SmartAuction’s system until he finds a model the customer will like and then he customize a retail view e-mail that he can send out to the customer.
“This allows the dealer to identify what the customer is looking for at very little inventory carrying costs,” Newman said.
“This is so much more efficient and can match both sides together,” he added.
The SmartAuction platform has also been going away for quite a while from its traditional GM dealer base. More than 30 percent of vehicles now end up in the hands of non-GM dealers, including independent dealers and other make dealers.
And for dealers who might have an issue with a vehicle they purchased, Newman said the company has a strong arbitration team in Troy, Mich. Arbitrations can now be filed online and the team will work to mediate the issue until a resolution can be found.
And in a worst-case scenario where the buyer and seller cannot find common ground, SmartAuction offers a buyback program that covers reasonable transportation costs.