Applied Concepts partnered with Redline, a leading automotive services provider that helps dealerships merchandise their inventory online and grow their digital presence, to develop this Automotive Digital Merchandising Playbook.
Digital merchandising, when done correctly, should accomplish two main objectives:
Customers want a seamless vehicle shopping experience and successful dealerships will proactively provide customers with the information they need – and the information they don’t even know they need – before the customer even requests it. While this goes against outdated thinking of “just get them to contact us”, it has been proven to significantly increase the likelihood of quality lead submissions.
Providing clear and detailed photography, a walkaround video tour, detailed vehicle equipment data and vehicle history will keep interested shoppers on your site longer and increase the likelihood of quality leads.
Carvana and Vroom are both examples of the power of digital merchandising. Both sell vehicles 100% online with no opportunity for the customer to look at the car in-person or go for a test drive. Yet car buyers have a very high level of trust in both of these companies.
Why? Because both are excellent at digital merchandising with high-quality photography, vehicle condition disclosures, 360-degree photo tours and several other elements that bring the car to life for the customer and creates a very high level of trust.
Traditional dealerships can replicate this and create an even more appealing proposition for today’s auto consumer that combines both the physical and digital worlds.
During the past few years, there have been significant changes in how consumers purchase cars and the pandemic has greatly accelerated those changes. Dealerships playing with the old rule book typically make the same mistakes when it comes to digital merchandising:
There has been a major shift toward remote buying during the past decade and this has had a big impact on how dealerships should merchandise their inventory online. Carvana and Vroom base their entire business models on remote shopping; consumers are asking for it, but for some reason many dealerships are reluctant to change. In a Redline survey designed to provide insight into automotive demand and preferences in a post-pandemic world:
Most OEM brands have responded to the pandemic with buy-from-home programs to keep up with the trend of customers wanting to shop and buy 100% online. Not every car buyer wants an at-home buying experience, however an increasing number of car buyers do, and the pandemic has greatly accelerated that trend.
Successful digital merchandising can be achieved with highly structured and organized internal processes or with an outside vendor that understands the need for consistent service and detailed communication. The best dealership lot service vendors have an urgency for time-to-market and understand the value and importance of effective communication with dealership management.
If a dealership is doing their digital merchandising in-house, supervision of the photographer and management of the images must be streamlined and clear. The dealership should limit the number of managers who direct the photographer. A clear chain of command should be established with the photographer reporting to a BDC or internet manager to create a more manageable workflow with clear prioritization.
Vendors and software tools exist to support dealerships that understand the importance and value of digital merchandising. These products and services include:
When trying to determine if merchandising efforts are working, the most important metric is the amount of time spent on the vehicle display page (VDP). Anything more than one minute is considered a good result. If customers are leaving the page after 10 seconds, it usually means they are turned off by something specific. It is important to note that most customers know the vehicle price before looking at the VDP, which means pricing generally does not cause early departures from the page.
Ways in which dealerships can increase the amount of time spent on VDPs include:
For the best possible outcome, the way in which a salesperson interacts with a customer should be in sync with how the dealership merchandises its vehicles online. If, for example, a dealership focuses its digital merchandising efforts on educating and informing customers, salespersons need to use this same methodology to reinforce the dealership’s overall approach. There should be a consistency between marketing, merchandising and sales techniques to give the customer a uniform, meaningful and positive experience.
Dealerships can take specific steps to create a successful connection between digital merchandising and sales teams:
With the ever-increasing popularity of online shopping and remote buying, good digital merchandising has never been more important. The current inventory shortage creates an additional reason to improve digital merchandising efforts, with customers willing to travel further for the vehicle they want or an even greater willingness to buy it remotely.
Connect with Redline to learn more about how an industry-leading vendor can help jump start your digital merchandising, and connect with Applied Concepts to help ensure alignment between your marketing and sales organizations.