CarGurus' Sell/Trade and Value feature steers shoppers to Carvana?

[Dan Sayer]

Maybe this has been running for a while? I feel like I was cheated on! I've stood up for CG in this forum when they were accused of scraping the interwebs for everyone's inventory but this is starting to feel like I'm picking the wrong horse. If you click on the Sell/Trade tab on CG and start filling out the form, by the time you get half-way through a Carvana invite interrupts your screen. Carvana is also making the cash offer if a customer makes their way through the Car Values section and selects Get a Firm Offer pop-up on the right (delayed, desktop). This was pointed out to my owner by a dealer in his 20Group from Kansas today. I'm torn because CG is one of my top performing referrers and lead providers. Is this a hill that I die on? We are ramping up our acquisition efforts and one of our markets has a Carvana tower just minutes away. Thoughts?

 

[Jeremy Sacco]

Hi Dan - Jeremy from CarGurus here. Sorry you feel cheated! Don't worry, because this is a step towards offering a new inventory acquisition option for many dealers.

I've put up a little more information about this test on the CarGurus Dealer Resource Center blog. The summary is:

• It's in early stage testing – nothing is finalized yet.
• If it works, we'll expand it to more dealers to let you make instant offers as well – it's not an exclusive partnership.
• The offer is primarily shown to shoppers already on our Sell My Car page or in our peer to peer marketplace. It can show on VDPs after consumers submit leads.

Hope that clarifies things a bit. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me directly or your CarGurus account rep.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Hi Dan - Jeremy from CarGurus here. Sorry you feel cheated! Don't worry, because this is a step towards offering a new inventory acquisition option for many dealers.

I've put up a little more information about this test on the CarGurus Dealer Resource Center blog. The summary is:

• It's in early stage testing – nothing is finalized yet.
• If it works, we'll expand it to more dealers to let you make instant offers as well – it's not an exclusive partnership.
• The offer is primarily shown to shoppers already on our Sell My Car page or in our peer to peer marketplace. It can show on VDPs after consumers submit leads.

Hope that clarifies things a bit. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me directly or your CarGurus account rep.

Thanks for clarifying your approach. CarGurus seems to have a difficult time making changes that are seen in a positive or neutral light by dealers. I suggest you work on putting together a dealer board in order to understand why your moves are many times poorly received. It would have been better to make your clients aware of such beta prior. Dealers are emotional beings and so finding out about partnerships with Carvana on their own never feel okay.

 

[Dan Sayer]

The Blog Jeremy with CarGurus is referring to:

https://dealercenter.cargurus.com/blog/understanding-the-cargurus-offers-test/

Understanding the CarGurus Offers test
Posted by Jeremy Sacco on February 5, 2020

We’ve seen some comments about a new feature we’re testing where we help dealers make offers on consumers’ used cars during their shopping process, and wanted to share a little bit of detail about what we’re doing.
What are CarGurus Offers?
The most important point about this effort is that it’s a test. In today’s complex tech environment, every new product goes through multiple stages of testing, and this product is currently in an alpha test with limited exposure. A potential beta test with more dealers that meet the technical requirements could follow soon.
We’ve been testing CarGurus Offers product—which doesn’t have an official name yet—for some time, with the goal of understanding how CarGurus consumers react when presented with an immediate purchase offer for their vehicle.
We’ve tested “Sell Your Vehicle” buttons in various locations, including on VDPs after users submit leads. As a result of the tests, many of the “Sell Your Vehicle” buttons on the website will direct consumers to the CarGurus Sell My Car page going forward. The purchase offer is primarily displayed to consumers interacting with our Sell My Car page, as well as those creating listings on our peer to peer (P2P) marketplace.
Who are you working with and can I get involved?
We picked a few potential partners to work with during the testing. After discussions around our timeline and required technical environments, we engaged with Carvana for early testing on our website. As we continue to test CarGurus Offers, we’ll be looking to chat with dealers that are interested in providing their own cash offers to CarGurus consumers. There’s no exclusivity around this test with any specific dealer or dealers, so let your rep know if you’re potentially interested in participating and when and if we’re ready to expand the test we’ll reach out if appropriate.

 

[Cody Teegerstrom]