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Dealer.com welcomes guest blogger Amanda Oppenheim, Marketing Manager of RevolutionParts, part of the Dealer.com Certified Provider Program.

A modern automotive retail website is much more than just a marketing channel.

It’s a rich resource for auto research, a compendium of cars with a purchase process that can begin online, and an opportunity to engage and connect with customers to build brand loyalty. It’s a critical dealership tool that should provide a shopping experience that empowers customers, helping them make the choices that will get them the right car, and your dealership the highest profits.

But the car is only one type of product your dealership sells. You’re dealership may also have a parts department, the unsung hero of your business that provides a reliable source of revenue. Original parts wear out and equipment needs to be replaced. Customers want to buy high-quality OEM replacements so they head to your parts department to make a purchase.

But what if you could bring your parts department to your customers? There are vendors who provide e-commerce solutions that incorporate a parts store directly into your dealership website.

With an online parts store, you can: A) replace your website’s existing parts request form with a user-friendly parts and accessories catalog; B) sell parts on your existing dealership website; or, C) create a separate custom parts website in order to sell your merchandise nationally. Parts e-commerce can significantly increase profits while providing customers with a convenient way to buy automotive parts. And it’s easier than you might think.

Here are five steps to get your online parts store up and running:

1. Assess your resources and set goals.

Is your goal simply to get started with e-commerce and receive a handful of extra orders each month, or do you want to aggressively grow the volume of your parts sales? Or maybe you aren’t ready to sell online yet but want to improve the customer experience on your website. Once you determine your goals, you can assess your staff size and marketing budget to decide the best path to putting your parts department online.

2. Evaluate and select a parts e-commerce solution provider.

If you evaluate your resources but still aren’t quite sure of which online channel is best for your dealership, ask e-commerce providers for guidance. E-commerce providers supply the online parts and accessories catalog, shopping cart, order processing, shipping tools, and many other helpful features. They will also completely handle the online implementation of your parts store so you don’t have to worry about the technical details. The e-commerce provider will be critical to your success, so thoroughly do your research and view online product demonstrations. You can find a parts e-commerce checklist here with 50 questions to ask vendors and helpful tips for evaluating e-commerce platforms.

3. Configure administrative settings.

Your e-commerce provider will help you set up your shipping methods, tax settings, payment gateway, and other back-end settings necessary to run your online parts business.

4. Customize your online parts store.

If you are plugging a parts store into your existing site, you won’t have to do much customization. If you are selling merchandise nationally on a standalone site, then your e-commerce provider should create a custom website design and logo for you.

5. Start selling.

Once your parts store goes digital you will start to see online sales and need to fulfill and ship these orders. You can write original product descriptions for best-selling parts to increase organic traffic to your site. Google product listing ads are another way to increase traffic and sales.

An online parts department is much easier than you may think and can take as little as one day to set up. Having this online revenue channel will grow your market share and profit, and will significantly improvement the parts-buying experience for your customers.

Summer is critical for dealers. Nationwide, dealerships typically enjoy as much as 35% of their total annual sales volume during the summer months, and they will significantly increase investment in digital advertising during the summer months compared to any other period of the year.

Dealer.com and Google data reinforce the value of this investment. Google data shows a steady rise in vehicle search volume from April through September, and traffic to Dealer.com Websites also jumps by over 20% in the summer when compared to spring traffic levels. When combined with nationwide sales volume, which typically peaks around August, the data reveals a clear trend: in-store sales follow online demand.

New car sales are on pace to achieve 17,300,000 units by the end of 2015. This is due, in part, to pent-up demand from shoppers who were inclined to stay indoors during this past winter’s relentless weather – a potential recipe for summer 2015 to be the busiest in automotive retail history.

One thing is for sure: the competition for that demand will be intense. There are steps, however, that your dealership can take to give it an edge over the other guys as you vie for shoppers’ attention.

It starts with your advertising strategy.

Let’s examine three ways to adjust your digital advertising now to capitalize on this summer’s sales heat:

1. Align the demand you generate with your lead capacity.

Search engines and research websites are now flooded with queries. This interest can translate to increased floor traffic and sales, depending on which dealerships stand out and best engage the attention of qualified buyers.

With so much competition out there, it’s a shoppers’ market. To engage the most qualified shoppers, your ads will need to be compelling, timely, and relevant.

To begin, test your relevance to local shoppers by following these steps:

– Visit the Google Ad Preview Tool.

– Enter the search query “[Make][Model] Near Me”.

– Make sure to check the ‘location’ section so your local market is targeted.

Your ads may not appear, even after several test searches, and even if you’ve been investing heavily in paid search. The likely culprit for this is a surge in demand that is lowering your overall coverage.

But don’t fret. A surge in demand means there are more high quality sales leads available. Use this opportunity to drive these motivated shoppers to your dealership by turning up the dial on your ad spend (to even the ad budget scale, consider repurposing dollars from underperforming media spend). Consult your advertising specialist to determine and match the amount of leads your dealership can handle with the current share of demand you are capturing, and adjust accordingly. Your sales staff needs to appropriately work the flood incoming new leads.

2. Configure a holistic digital ad strategy.

Paid search ads are a tremendously valuable advertising mechanism, but they’re capturing a lot of shoppers who have already completed at least some of their initial research. What about the other 95 percent of time that in-market shoppers are spending on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops everyday?

Using metrics like searches containing “near me,” for example (a phrase that’s growth has jumped 34 times in the past four years), shoppers are identifiable through means completely separate from paid search engagement. Ad campaigns can be configured to cater to qualified shoppers from a proprietary list based not on their name but on digital/offline transactions and expressed interest. Talk to your advertising team to get this strategy going.

3. Ensure your landing pages are ready to engage your new traffic.

How far down the process can buyers proceed without speaking to your sales professionals? Shoppers can “dive” deeper into your store, and much closer to a sale, if you:

– Display accurate, dealer-controlled payments and pricing for new and used vehicles—including taxes and fees where available.

– Provide loan and lease calculations using APRs from your selected lenders, manufacturer residuals, and incentives.

– Include your dealership reserve and rate mark-up.

– Generate instant trade-in offers that are vehicle and dealer-specific.

– Drive profit-ready finance leads through short form inquiries or full credit applications.

– Integrate financing and trade-in into vehicle inventory workflows.

– Present insurance and aftermarket options.

These options can greatly increase your dealership’s ability to take action with those leads and close more deals. It could be the difference between a 20 versus 35 percent lead-to-close ratio.

We wish you continued success this summer! Don’t be afraid to drop us a line with questions or comments.

Joe Mescher is a Media Sales Director at Dealer.com

The web is a dynamic place.

Taken from the perspective of an individual, browsing by a search term and clicking around a website may not say much. One could even argue that web metrics are flawed: maybe that bounce was an accidental click, or that page was unintentionally left open in a browser for days.

But, from the perspective of the ‘big picture,’ these nuances become just that.

Studying over half of the digital automotive market across multiple years allows Dealer.com’s data scientists and analysts to discover some clear patterns. As the chart below indicates, seasonal peaks and dips can be predicted with confidence and correspond with the marketing initiatives driven by manufacturers. March is typically a high point, for example, propelled by ‘Big Game’ campaigns and Presidents’ Day incentives. Summer time is also another peak in the automotive digital landscape as manufacturers push incentives to make room for the next year’s models.

Every Screen Experience Matters

The data gets more interesting when we examine how this traffic is arriving to your site, and where it’s coming from. Ninety percent of all media interactions are now screen-based, [1] and multi-screen behavior is becoming the norm. In 2014, mobile made up 29 percent of total automotive shopping, a year-over-year increase of 54 percent. Tablet was right behind, with a YoY increase of 43 percent.[2]

The data suggests that car shoppers are researching their next purchase on a desktop during the week, primarily during working hours. And as the work day ends or the weekend rolls around, mobile and tablet appear to be the device of choice[3]:

 

All of this information is seemingly obvious, but seeing this extensive data paint the true picture validates our assumptions. And let’s be honest: we’ve all surfed for our next purchase on a desktop during work hours and then at night, in front of the TV, continued our search on a mobile device. Individual contributions may be small, but they certainly add up across a vast network.

With users now moving between screens to accomplish their online intentions, your digital real estate now needs to be a portfolio of experiences that can be optimized across multiple devices.

It’s your first day as an Internet Manager. Congratulations! You are now in a position of leadership for your dealership’s digital presence, an opportunity that is exciting and challenging.

It is also a critical position for your dealership’s success. Here are eight tips to get you started:

1. Seek training opportunities.

You may have years of Internet management experience in a business development center, and perhaps you’ve even worked with your dealership’s automotive advertising agency before Combining your energy and experience with expertise on the toolset is foundational to your success. Use your vendor’s training resources.* Start with new client onboard training now to set the groundwork for your own performance, and your company’s success later.

2. Schedule a monthly performance review call with your Digital Advisor.

One of the most important steps you can take as a new Internet Manager is to engage with your digital advisor. Schedule a phone call during your first week to review and discuss the creation and execution of your dealership’s strategy and goals. Use the conversation to obtain insights from the perspective of your Digital Advisor – your partner in success. Get everyone on the same page as soon as you can through a thorough analysis of data to paint a complete picture of where your business has been, and where it should be headed.

3. Measure and communicate performance before the end of the month.

You’ve gone through some training and talked with your Digital Advisor about performance. Now it’s time to commit to ongoing performance analysis so you can manage for improvement. Pay close attention to webstats, leads, and monthly executive reports as well as website vehicle details page views. As Internet Manager, you will likely be celebrated for great performance and held accountable when digital goals are not met. Don’t wait until the end of a month to measure and communicate performance:

– Communicate lead and call volume to New and Used Sales Managers daily.
– Share vehicle details page (VDP) views and page view saves to sales teams as indicators of prospective customers browsing inventory.
– Reveal page view statistics for other key demand indicators such as the directions to the dealership page.
– Disseminate lead and call volume all month in a cumulative fashion
– Ensure that sales teams are executing on the opportunities digital is creating.

4. Conduct a website audit.

A website audit is an assessment of your digital property and an opportunity for improvement. Think beyond lead conversion and look to engagement by identifying the pages with the highest bounce rates, pages with low times on page, pages with outdated content, and any pages or navigation that don’t reflect your dealership positively and consistently.

Using these findings, pinpoint your lowest performing pages. They are driving down your total site performance Use the skills and advice you’ve gathered from training and conversations with your Digital Advisor to make improvements to these pages to engage customers and give them reason to continue on into your site. This is also a great time to ensure that only current dealership staff has access to the backend of your site.

5. Conduct a digital advertising assessment.

Begin building an advertising budget by identifying current ad spend on both digital and traditional media and analyzing its performance. Ask yourself: what can you spend on digital versus traditional and what returns can you expect from each? Do the dealership decision makers have the same insight into the power of digital advertising in your local market and in our industry? Do all managers in the dealership know the quantity of leads their department receives from digital advertising? Create buy-in for digital advertising by proving its value every single day and with every single lead.

6. Identify campaign opportunities.

As you begin to settle in to your new position, it’s time to move beyond micro changes and examine macro campaigns for your digital solution. Do you want to move specific models you may have overstocked? Do you want to promote a national sales event? Perhaps you want to start promoting Certified Pre-Owned, Parts, or Service? What is the right mix of specials, featured vehicles, slideshows, landing pages, and advertising?

Prioritization needs to involve dialogue with other managers in the dealership. A digital presence tightly aligned with the dealership’s established identity tends to perform the best. Once you have these priorities, ensure that expectations are consistent with your resources.

7. Grow your digital advertising budget.

Ninety-five percent of car shoppers are shopping for their next vehicle online. To grow your business, you need to optimize your dealership’s reach with digital advertising that targets your local market. To do this, allocate more advertising funding to digital. Communicate its proven value to your organization. Ask your Digital Advisor for resources for having this conversation.

8. Create high-level goals and strategy.

Once you’ve gotten your feet under you in your new position, and you’re able to see a broad view of your dealership’s objectives, create a set of cohesive, overarching goals and a strategy for how to achieve them.

Some of these items are immediately actionable, while others will take some time to establish. The most important thing is to continue to prove the value of digital by communicating its impact to the rest of the organization.

Patrick Wyld is Learning Solutions Manager at Dealer.com

*Dealer.com customers can access a library of resources on the Tutorial Page in ControlCenter, accessible by clicking on the Tutorials button from the Welcome Dashboard.

Dealer.com welcomes guest blogger Ibrahim Mesbah, CEO of Revolution Parts, part of the Dealer.com Certified Provider Program.

Today’s consumers expect the ability to research and buy anything online, at any time, on any device. With the continuous rise of online shopping, it’s no surprise that more and more buyers are purchasing factory auto parts online.

The benefits, however, aren’t only reserved for the shopper. The average dealer website with eCommerce generated over $240,000 in online part sales in 2014.

Are you equipped to get your share of online parts sales in 2015? Here are eight reasons why you should be making auto parts eCommerce a priority for this year:

1. The online auto parts market is expected to double – Online auto parts sales should double between 2016 and 2020 according to industry analysts at Frost & Sullivan. Be prepared to capture your piece of this rapidly growing market.

2. Selling auto parts online provides an additional revenue channel – With the right provider, online auto parts sales are a convenient and cost-effective way to generate revenue through an additional channel that can help you achieve your profit growth goals.

3. Consumers are keeping their cars longer – Since the financial crisis in 2008, consumers have been keeping their cars for much longer periods of time. The average vehicle age in America is 11 years, which indicates an increasing demand for car parts, as older vehicles require more service and part replacements.

4. Your competitors are selling online – More and more dealerships are beginning to notice the advantages of selling auto parts online. If other dealers are sharing product availability, making bookings, and closing product sales online, then they are capturing customers that could be yours.

5. Customers want it – In a world where you can order virtually everything via computer, consumers tend to get annoyed or frustrated when they can’t purchase a certain service or product online.

Consumers now expect the convenience of buying online. If a consumer visits your website and can’t easily find information on the part she is looking for, she will leave your site for another. When you empower consumers to find and order what they’re shopping for on your site, it will increase return visits and strengthen customer loyalty.

6. Processing and shipping orders are simplified – Auto parts eCommerce solutions integrate with shipping providers so your order information is automatically transferred to the shipping label, and you can print within the eCommerce back office. Tracking information is saved with the order and email notifications are sent so customers know when to expect delivery.

7. Your parts business never closes – With online auto parts eCommerce, your customers aren’t beholden to the open hours of your showroom. You are virtually open 24/7, giving customers the ability to make purchases on their schedule, whether on a lunch break or in the middle of the night.

8. You can increase your customer base – People who live too far to drive to your store will be able to order your auto parts online and have them delivered straight to their doorstep. This will likely increase repeat buying, thus expanding your customer base.

Customers and dealers alike might be surprised at just how convenient it is to have online auto parts as part of the complete digital dealership. Meet customer expectations and boost your market share by offering online part sales on your website today.

 

The holidays are here, and there’s plenty of evidence that this shopping season will be the most digitally connected yet.

 

According to one projection, online sales will increase at least 13.5 percent compared with 2013. Shopper confidence due to lower gas prices and a recovering economy helps support the overall feelings of good retail tidings. When you consider Google data that shows automotive query volume at its highest during the holiday period, it becomes obvious that dealers need to optimize their digital advertising strategy during the holiday season to capitalize on shopper enthusiasm.

Here are four tips to get your digital advertising strategy in the holiday spirit:

1. Fill the top of the funnel – With so many people already online this holiday season, get shoppers in the awareness and consideration phases through Network and Premium Display. By driving this traffic to your website, you are gathering these shoppers into a remarketing list, which will help keep your brand top of mind as they consider a possible holiday car purchase.

2. Keep your dealership visible – With car sales up year-over-year, so too is digital activity, and the opportunities for your competition to steal your business. Make sure your campaigns are fully funded to defend the brand name you have worked so hard to build.

3. Align your advertising campaigns with manufacturers’ ad investments –It’s always a good idea to align your dealership campaigns with OEMs’ national advertising efforts; but it’s critical during the holidays. Manufacturers invest millions this time of year in an effort to help clear out old inventory to make room for incoming models. By aligning your own dealership’s display advertising creative with the manufacturer’s national campaigns, you are turbocharging your ad investment through association.

4. Communicate your holiday goals with your digital team – Is your dealership pushing pre-owned vehicles? Is there a specific new model you’d like to move? Keeping clear and consistent communication with your digital advertising partners will ensure professional recommendations to make this holiday season a very happy one.

Jeff Bellinger is General Manager for Brandfon Honda, a sales and service volume leader in its district. Located in Branford, CT near New Haven, the dealership sells 1,560 new and used vehicles a year. Brandfon Honda operates 16 service bays and has eight service writers. To improve its fixed operations performance, the dealership installed Xtime hosted service CRM (customer relationship management) systems two years ago and recently provided service advisors Xtime ServiceTab™ mobile tablets.

“Our use of Xtime, and especially ServiceTab, has helped increase our labor hours per RO at least 35%,” Bellinger said. “Advisors like it because it helps them write up customers faster when they greet customers at their vehicles, and its checklist-driven walkaround guide helps them increase their upsell commission dollars.”

The mobile ServiceTab lets advisors greet customers right at their vehicles in the service drive, where conditions are more conducive to face-to-face interaction that builds stronger relationships and trust. By using this intuitive tablet interface, a service advisor can check customers in as they drive up, digitally record walk-around inspection results in real-time and discuss service recommendations without ever leaving the customer or vehicle.

“This technology adds credibility to what an advisor is recommending,” Bellinger noted, “and everything is captured electronically – including the customer’s signature to get the repair order started so customers are on their way a good five minutes faster.

XTIME HELPS BRANDFON HONDA:

• Simplify and organize appointment scheduling: Whether customers book their appointments by viewing Xtime’s online automotive scheduling software on the dealership’s website or service staff does it from their desks, scheduling is easier, faster – and more visible to help management better load the shop.
• Maximize appointments: Customers using the dealership’s Xtime service e-menu select recommended and desired services and book their own appointments. Because the online appointment schedule is the same as that seen by dealership staff, customers book only available days and times. They may also call the dealership and schedule with the dealership’s Xtime call center.
• Build customer trust and comfort: E-mail and other electronic service notifications keep customers aware of their vehicles’ service needs based on scheduled maintenances, recall notifications or other service reminder or promotional emails.
• Increase service revenue: By helping to maximizing shop utilization, Xtime helps keep technicians productive.

PROVEN PRODUCTIVITY

Xtime ServiceTab helps advisors do more thorough vehicle walkarounds and identify upsell opportunities. Improved shop utilization through Xtime’s ServiceCRM™ product suite and its certified integrations with a dealer’s DMS ensures all appointments are 100% confirmed. Bellinger said Xtime’s online scheduling does more than help him streamline workflow. He shared that consumers in control of scheduling their own appointment hours often take those late afternoon or evening appointments that often get overlooked when some employees book them. “With online scheduling, we take appointments right up until closing and then stay late to finish the work if necessary,” he said. This table provides a snapshot of Xtime’s performance at Brandfon Honda:

Appointments Booked via Xtime	Show Rate	Appointment Repair Order Dollars	Per RO Value
95.2.8%	84%	$146,964	$268

Bellinger said Xtime’s involvement with the dealership has meant big performance changes. “In our district, we’re one of the only dealerships to have had significant RO count increases during the last two years – and we are also one of the only ones having month-over-month growth this year compared to last. I attribute a lot of that growth to Xtime,” he said.