Best dealership website you've seen?

[tomfohr]

One of my favorites features I have ever seen on a dealership website is displaying the # of times a vehicle has been viewed on the VDP page... I can't remember which dealer was doing this for sure but I have a feeling it might have been Joe's when he was at Sun Auto?

What a great way to increase urgency and can even be used as a sales aide in the showroom when someone is looking at that vehicle.

 

[William Bryant]

No discussion about the best dealer websites would be complete with a mention of Ling Valentine and LingsCars.com.

Ling is proof that dealership websites don't have to take themselves too seriously. She has fun and the site WORKS.

I am sucked in! Now I want to be like Ling.

Amazing lessons to be learned from that site, it's such contrast to the mold we fit most dealer sites into.

 

[joe.pistell]

...Maybe I'm just crazy and too hopeful... I just have yet to have ever been WOW'd be a dealer website yet.

Careful grasshopper, be on guard against your instincts leading you astray. Make sure you aim your goals properly. I'd bet that when you draw up your requirements, your goals will be a lot better looking and easier to nav than the biggest visual toilet of an ecommerce site ever. Yet... nothing you'll ever do will perform as well as that site.

 

[LINGsCARS]

Ling,

In the USA, nearly all of our car buyers have a used car they want to trade-in. How is this handled on your side of the pond?

thnx
Joe

Joe,

I must say after many years of experiment, I do nothing about this. They tend to sell them privately I guess. There is also Sell my car at webuyanycar.com we'll help you sell your car quickly, safely & fairly which does well in the UK.

Ling

 

[LINGsCARS]

I'll add that the only thing I measure is GBP £££s.

I don't do any A-B testing or anything like that at all. I just do what I want. It's quite simple, so spend more time getting on with it than talking about it. That's half the battle.

I think even on manufacturer sites you can tell stories. Why not? People just want a story and a joke, and you've got their goodwill.

Increase font sizes, use black instead of grey. Use big pics. All that helps IMHO Don't say "we"; use the singular. Identify who is speaking.

Ling

 

[VVAuto1]

Tom good call!!! That is strong, Joe any ideas if this is something we can implmenet, or something I need to work on in house?

 

[JoeyD]

Tom good call!!! That is strong, Joe any ideas if this is something we can implmenet, or something I need to work on in house?

You can go as simple as adding this to your VDP: https://tools.digitalpoint.com/counter

Or if you're in the same boat I am, we have our websites in house hosted and scripted, you can call the database and have more advanced analytics to it.. but then again Google Analytics will give your staff the same data. But to show a number quick and fast, you can use a hit counter like the one above.

 

[csabatka1]

One of my favorites features I have ever seen on a dealership website is displaying the # of times a vehicle has been viewed on the VDP page... I can't remember which dealer was doing this for sure but I have a feeling it might have been Joe's when he was at Sun Auto?

What a great way to increase urgency and can even be used as a sales aide in the showroom when someone is looking at that vehicle.

You'll have to be careful with counters because it could also have opposite as your desired effect for slow moving, aged, or newly listed vehicles, maybe even highly viewed vehicles. Vehicles with low counts could give a sense the customer has time since no one has seen it yet. Also, high counts could give the impression something might be wrong since a lot of people have viewed, but no one has purchased. I'd closely watch your VDP counts for each vehicle before implementing a counter.

 

[joe.pistell]

Tom good call!!! That is strong, Joe any ideas if this is something we can implmenet, or something I need to work on in house?

No need to DIY

 

[joe.pistell]

You'll have to be careful with counters because it could also have opposite as your desired effect for slow moving, aged, or newly listed vehicles, maybe even highly viewed vehicles. Vehicles with low counts could give a sense the customer has time since no one has seen it yet. Also, high counts could give the impression something might be wrong since a lot of people have viewed, but no one has purchased. I'd closely watch your VDP counts for each vehicle before implementing a counter.

I've got this problem solved Chad. I posted it somewhere here in the forums 3-4 years ago.