Are you VOMITING on your VDP?

[Bill Simmons]

Observation and question. Most of the screenshots, especially the one shared of the Carmax stores, are "above the fold". I think that we can all agree that area is the most valuable real estate. My question is if anyone here has used heat mapping for their VDP's? Is above the fold really where its at? Or does heat mapping show that customers are scrolling down further? I do not have that software but use the Google Analytics "in page analytics" feature occasionally. I realize that is nowhere near as robust as heat mapping, but it shows that not too many people get further than above the fold on our VDP's.

 

[Bill Simmons]

How's this for a VDP? 88 pictures and 6 professionally done videos. It's a fairly new startup in KC called Pure Pursuit Auto. Business model centers around customers ordering used cars from anywhere in the country.
http://inventory.purepursuitauto.com/web/used/Chevrolet-Camaro-45th-Anniv-2012-Kansas-City-Missouri/11565588/

 

[joe.pistell]

It's an eCarList ebay seller. Reminds me of national ebay retailers like ecarone, chicago cars direct, etc. They're all in, but making a lot of small startup mistakes (echo on mic, poor lighting). Ebay has hot geos for car selling, namely TX and Fla, . 44 direct flights to kansas city mo, not too bad. Lots of Metros within an 8hr drive like Chicago, St Louis, etc.

 

[DakanGK]

Ha, have to credit overpriced DealerRater 360 service for something, they cued me into this thread on the daily web-wide mention email, and let me see some valuable feedback for my startup dealership Pure Pursuit Automotive, that Bill and Joe commented on above.

Joe, we already have fixed both the audio and lighting issues in the latest crop of highlines we are wrapping up shooting on, with wireless lapel mics and more softbox lighting for the pics and videos. We have also reworked the above the fold impact language to tell the story of the car more on the VDP.

In fact, last summer Joe gave me great advice on this forum (as did many others) on how to effectively pull off the business model that I had in my head. We are just about out of build mode and into operations mode with 15+ highline cars (listing many new ones now after our first truckload buy) and the marketing launch of our nationwide brokering line that we call PureConcierge.

Couldn't have done it without this community as I had zero previous automotive experience. We have closed sales nationwide, both from fly-in and from sight unseen trade and shipping deals and actually haven't even sold any locally yet!

As I have my newly hired staff finally trained up and 24/7 operations going, I will finally get back into the valuable discussions here and look forward to any more feedback!

Regards,
Glen

 

[joe.pistell]

WTG Glen, Toss in a new VDP if you have time.


JIC, from my bookmark list, here's an in-depth technical check list for improved cart sales
Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and Infographic - Moz

HTH
Joe

 

[Stefan]

Here is the cleanest VDP i've ever seen: 2014 Cadillac CTS Sedan for sale at Sewell

 

[Rob]

Here is the cleanest VDP i've ever seen: 2014 Cadillac CTS Sedan for sale at Sewell

Ok, it's pretty, I will give you that. But say I see that VDP,and I love the car, and I want to buy it. What do I do? I don't see a lead form. I don't even see a phone number to call. I guess I just go to another dealer's website and try to find something else.

This is a classic example of form over function.

 

[yagoparamo]

Here is the cleanest VDP i've ever seen: 2014 Cadillac CTS Sedan for sale at Sewell

Stefan,

It took me a while to figure out how to contact this dealer from that VDP.

 

[Stefan]

@ Rob and Yago ... I agree. My fist thought was: is this a mistake or by design? hmmm maybe they are still working on it or maybe they know something that we don't. Or maybe they built their website for the 90% of the visitor and they just don't care for leads.

I think its worth mentioning that Sewell is a very forward thinking company... I would love to know the reasons behind the design.

 

[Chris Cachor]

Here's a mockup I've been working on. I do design/development professionally and decided I'd have a stab at designing a modern vehicle details page. The last one I designed was probably in 2008! Still a work in progress. I need to create more opportunity for marketing interactions as well as making it feel more like a sales site but it's getting there. If anyone is interested I'm looking to help with in-house digital marketing (custom design/development).