Are you VOMITING on your VDP?

[Howard Polirer]

I have read a lot of discussion on this forum about Dealership website VDP’s and what they should and should not contain. Most of you have offered up some very good suggestions. What I think is missing from this conversation is; what are the consumer’s expectations when they finally land on that VDP and are you meeting those expectations? Keep in mind that they have gone through a process, a “journey” so to speak to get them there. The experience they have with that specific VDP usually occurs during what we call the “evaluation” stage of that journey. They have narrowed down their choices and are close to deciding which car and which dealership. It is therefore crucial to keep them engaged with market based pricing, great pictures, video and vehicle descriptions that put them “in the vehicle” and supports their choice of your vehicle. Your website VDP is one of the last stops in their journey before their “purchase event.” However, if you do not provide them with the information they want they will quickly disengage and start over again with another vehicle or dealership that was part of their “consideration” set during this journey. Several of you discussed whether a strong or several calls to action were necessary in a VDP or how prominent the contact information should be. While it would be nice to get that “lead,” research shows that while an overwhelming majority of today’s shoppers do their research online, the majority of them DO NOT contact the dealership prior to their visit and usually just show up on your lot. Whether they show up on your lot or your competition’s largely depends on the interaction they had with that VDP on your dealership website. Look at it through a consumer’s eyes and you may have a completely different perspective.

 

[ddavis]

I have read a lot of discussion on this forum about Dealership website VDP’s and what they should and should not contain. Most of you have offered up some very good suggestions. What I think is missing from this conversation is; what are the consumer’s expectations when they finally land on that VDP and are you meeting those expectations? Keep in mind that they have gone through a process, a “journey” so to speak to get them there. The experience they have with that specific VDP usually occurs during what we call the “evaluation” stage of that journey. They have narrowed down their choices and are close to deciding which car and which dealership. It is therefore crucial to keep them engaged with market based pricing, great pictures, video and vehicle descriptions that put them “in the vehicle” and supports their choice of your vehicle. Your website VDP is one of the last stops in their journey before their “purchase event.” However, if you do not provide them with the information they want they will quickly disengage and start over again with another vehicle or dealership that was part of their “consideration” set during this journey. Several of you discussed whether a strong or several calls to action were necessary in a VDP or how prominent the contact information should be. While it would be nice to get that “lead,” research shows that while an overwhelming majority of today’s shoppers do their research online, the majority of them DO NOT contact the dealership prior to their visit and usually just show up on your lot. Whether they show up on your lot or your competition’s largely depends on the interaction they had with that VDP on your dealership website. Look at it through a consumer’s eyes and you may have a completely different perspective.

I am in total agreement. eCommerce people have to accept the fact that most people will not contact their departments. They need to sell the dealership on their contribution to walk in customers.

Looking at AutoTrader, few dealerships are putting in the necessary effort which is advantageous to the ones that do.

 

[Tallcool1]

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.

We heatmap, click map, and scroll map every session, and also aggregate them. Every couple of days I will look at the aggregated sessions of my busiest site pages. My recent focus has been on VDP's.

Above the fold is absolutely where it is at. Only about 15% of my visitors actually scroll all the way to the bottom of any given page. I typically lose about 20% of my visitors at the fold.

I am in the middle of a total overhaul because of this.

 

[craigh]

We heatmap, click map, and scroll map every session, and also aggregate them. Every couple of days I will look at the aggregated sessions of my busiest site pages. My recent focus has been on VDP's.

Above the fold is absolutely where it is at. Only about 15% of my visitors actually scroll all the way to the bottom of any given page. I typically lose about 20% of my visitors at the fold.

I am in the middle of a total overhaul because of this.

But was the page already organized in such a way that the key information was above the fold?
I'd put more weight into the data if the price or KMs were below the fold.

 

[Tallcool1]

Basically, the key information was above the fold. My page headers are way too big, which requires a scroll to see all of the pictures.

However, my call to action forms were at the bottom of the page. Big mistake in my opinion. I am new to this forum, and new to this part of the business. I am learning fast, and I have to say that this is just a fantastic community. I truly believe that 60 days from now, I am going to be posting a big thank you to everyone on this forum.

My mobile site is very simple, and my call to action buttons are always either in view or very close (depending on screen orientation). I receive 10:1 Mobile to Desktop credit applications, yet only 18% of my total traffic is from Mobile or Tablet type devices. Perhaps some of this is due to the demographic of my visitors that access my site via Mobile or Tablet (primarily sub-prime), but I can't help but think the easy navigation and location of the call to action buttons factors in as well.

 

[craigh]

My mobile site is very simple, and my call to action buttons are always either in view or very close (depending on screen orientation). I receive 10:1 Mobile to Desktop credit applications, yet only 18% of my total traffic is from Mobile or Tablet type devices. Perhaps some of this is due to the demographic of my visitors that access my site via Mobile or Tablet (primarily sub-prime), but I can't help but think the easy navigation and location of the call to action buttons factors in as well.

Are the forms both roughly the same length? 10:1 seems crazy to me unless the desktop form is a massive form and the mobile form is simpler.

Welcome to the forums anyways - join the conversation and stick around. You'll learn and eventually you'll be teaching.

 

[Tallcool1]

The mobile form is the same size as the "Mini-Credit Application" on my desktop. I have a short form that appears on every VDP, as well as a full application that appears on the Finance Tab. I am able to differentiate between these three applications when I log into the back end of my website. I couldn't agree more! It is crazy, and likely due to poor design on my part.

Thank you for caring enough to comment. I truly appreciate it.