ATLANTA -

Created to mirror the front-line inventory that franchise dealers have on their physical lots, AutoTrader.com on Monday launched a new feature dealing with how new-vehicle listings are presented through searches on its website.

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Site officials explained their new Front-Line Listings are inspired by the front lines at dealerships across the nation. They intend for these listings to create a virtual dealership front line that is customized for each shopper and provide consumers with a better shopping experience while increasing exposure and engagement for dealers’ new-vehicle inventory.  

AutoTrader.com believes the majority of shoppers arrives at the site and conducts a search for all vehicles, including both new and used vehicles. With the new Front-Line Listings, the new-vehicle inventory that matches a user’s search is aggregated into a rich multimedia listing, officials indicated.

This listing is composed of an anchor unit that best meets the shopper’s criteria and a filmstrip of other matching vehicles directly beneath that anchor vehicle — complete with photos, videos, pricing information and more for each vehicle. 

Site officials think this new format can provide dealers with more effective and robust ways to present other new vehicles on their lot that also closely match the shoppers’ search criteria. Furthermore they believe this enhanced merchandising opportunity on the search results page can enable dealers to benefit from increased exposure for their new-vehicle inventory and better consumer engagement. 

AutoTrader.com went on to highlight other elements of Front-Line Listings:

—Smart Anchor Car: The vehicle that best matches the search from each dealership is featured in the listing, acting as an anchor for the rest of the dealership’s listing. This new format is intended to provide maximum real estate for the vehicle in the search results page and can enable consumers to instantly see a photo and pricing information — two critical elements for successful online listings.

—Front-Line Scrolling Display: Additional inventory that matches a user’s search can be showcased in an easy-to-browse format below the anchor car so shoppers can quickly view the other new units at that dealership. Each vehicle featured in the scrolling display includes pictures, compare-and-save options, pricing information and more. The site said vehicles in the display are prioritized based on how closely they match the user’s search and how well they are merchandized.

—Affordability Highlights: AutoTrader.com insists affordability is an important factor for shoppers, and the site asserted the Front-Line Listings can make it easier for dealers to highlight special pricing and incentives on their new-vehicle inventory. Specifically, dealers can display both the MSRP and dealer price, and the recently released Promote by Payment feature that can allows dealers to merchandise their listings with purchase or lease payments, providing multiple ways for dealers to entice shoppers on the search results page.

—Better Consumer Experience. Site officials added Front-Line Listings include numerous enhancements that make it easier for consumers to access more information about the new vehicles that match their search parameters. From the search results page, shoppers can select cars to compare, save cars to their MyAutoTrader.com page and go directly to a vehicle’s details page, removing the extra step that was previously required. 

AutoTrader.com recapped that previously when a search returned multiple matching new vehicles from single a dealership, the search results page included one entry for each dealership that contained dealership information, the number of matching vehicles and a link to view the listings on a separate page. 

The site emphasized that Front-Line Listings can give consumers the choice of either going directly to the details page for one of the featured vehicles or visiting the page with all of the listings from that dealership. 

Officials indicated they tested Front-Line Listings extensively last year, and they delivered exceptional results for dealers.

AutoTrader.com discovered that shopper interaction with search results pages and vehicle details pages that utilized Front-Line Listings increased 200 to 300 percent when compared to non-test markets. 

Also, the site said its testing showed when dealers took advantage of the merchandising opportunities, such as adding pricing information and photos for new units, views to the vehicle detail pages increased 300 to 400 percent over units lacking merchandising.

“For years, AutoTrader.com has been the only site that allows shoppers to search for new and used cars simultaneously, and we’ve taken that functionality one revolutionary step further with the Front-Line Listings,” declared Chip Perry, president and chief executive officer at AutoTrader.com.

“With most consumers beginning the car shopping process searching for new and used cars, Front-Line Listings enable new car inventory to compete more effectively with used cars — enticing consumers who are sitting on the fence,” Perry continued.

“With Front-Line Listings, dealers can show a shopper the car that most closely matches their search and easily display a variety of other cars that the shopper may also want to consider,” Perry went on to say. “Our research shows that by doing this, dealers can increase the views all the relevant cars get and increase shopper interactions with their listings. That kind of exposure is key to using Internet marketing most effectively to help car shoppers find the right car for them and to influence them to buy from you.”