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Best dealership website you've seen?

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#82
Sachin,
My initial reaction on seeing the home page is that the constantly rotating carousel is very distracting. Does the user have enough time to read the message on each carousel image to want to click on it? What is the core action which a user landing on your home page would want to do? I would guess it's probably to perform a search, so this should be the thing which immediately draws the user's attention, rather than rotating images.

Also, 3 different live chat calls to action (top, left and bottom right) is a bit much. I would keep one of them (probably the left one) and remove the others.
On your VDP, the photographs are good, but the actual vehicle specific content doesn't start until half way down my screen (I'm on a 15inch laptop). Does the header need to be so tall? One other thing, the all caps text in the title and vehicle description makes it difficult to read, and IMO gives the impression of a Craigslist style private ad. I recently wrote a blog post with some VDP design guidelines which you might be interested in.

Also, you said you're building a separate website for mobile. Can I ask if you considered using a responsive web design approach for your site (i.e. a single site for all devices which shows/hides parts of the page based on screen size) rather than having a totally separate mobile website which you have to maintain?
 
#83
Ilike the AutoDome site very much. It has many of the Best Practice elements weconsult dealers on based on the website usage analysis we do.

Youhave multiple forms of vehicle search, a huge piece to get the highest shopperengagement past the home page.
Ireally like the vehicle images as links below the home page banner, veryeffective. On my screen, those vehicles links are just at the screen scroll, itwould be nice to see those a little higher. Also, the Hot Link buttons justbelow the vehicle image links, are very nice, but need more contrast. Theyalmost disappear and as they are good navigation buttons, I feel they should bemuch more visible.

Homepage specials, below that, are very effective as well. Overall, a very nicedesign.
Onecritique, and please accept as just statistical info, the main banner on thehome page seems very large to me, especially if there is no vehicle imagery orcall to action. I do like the BBB, customer reviews, etc…all very important,but 74% of people coming to your home page are looking for a specific car,price, and images. This is a large piece of valuable home page real estate. Itdoes rotate quickly which is good, but if every other slide was a vehiclespecial or something vehicle related, I feel it would utilize this large spacebetter.

Thepop-up chat box has proven to get closed3 out of 4 times. having the chatimbedded in the home page and VDPs will increase chat engagement. Chat is nowthe second most preferred form of contact to the dealer. Less than phone calls,but higher than email form submissions.

Overall, a very good design that should yieldgreat results.
 
Dominion DMS
#84
Sachin,

Many good points by Paul and Jason. Slideshow has some killer content and it reflects your business, but, 8 slides is too many and they rotate too fast to read.

You have a POWERFUL story to tell and you've built slides to tell it: (A+ BBB, Inspiration TV, Reviews, 3 ck Boxes, Easy as 1-2-3, Haggel Free). Somehow, you need to get creative and wrap this all up into one powerful value statement that'll cause the shopper to want to click it to hear all about all the awesome things you and your team does (possibly, your blog could be the place where you have the real estate to tell your big story) This value message should be on every VDP (I love "The Golden Rule Dealership", very thoughtful).


Next, Let's show off your inventory.

YOU ARE THE SUV CAPITAL OF CA. 150 in stock! Show it off.
--82 SUVs with Leather
--73 SUVs with 3rd Row
--54 SUVs with MoonRoof
--25 SUVs with Navi
--20 SUVs with DVD/Entertainment systems
and much much more...
--Consider making a specials page just for SUVs only.


Next, you love your Acuras! Show them off.
--You can break out the Acuras by features (like the SUVs above)

Next, You have a GIANT selection of cars under $10k, starting at $1995. Show it off.
--You can break out the Under 10ks by features (like the SUVs above)


HTH
Joe
 
#85
Some marketing thoughts re: Your "Value Message" (i.e. The Golden Rule Dealership).

You're making some magic happen up there Sachin, just remember, They're not at your site to find a new dealer, the shoppers biggest motivator is a great car at a great price. Communicating Your "Value Message" is more like adding confidence and safety to the deal*. It's important, but not the shopper's primary mission.

HTH
Joe

*p.s. I am assuming that your market has not been ruled by a car dealer tyrant that everyone hates, where your philosophy represents the polar opposite of this tyrant.
 
Dominion DMS
#87
Next, the outside shots don't flow in a circle, they're hard to follow. Consider having your photo dude photo the car in a circle. Consider this circle to be a clock. Watch the "flow":

autodome-clock.jpg*

Shoppers intuitively get the sequential flow of walk around shots and can go from VDP to VDP faster.

HTH
Joe

*DR support: I spent 60 mins uploading images and the forum software would not support images pulled from links. So, I took them all down and added this single image (above). The image was too small, I doubled it and the DR forum platform would not allow the image to get larger.
 

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#88
Next, need MORE interior pics.

Uncle Joe's Internet Merchandising Rule #115: Interior Pics are looked at more than exterior pics.

Show me the steering wheel controls. The 4x4 buttons, the HVAC/Radio Stack, the power buttons on the door, the heated seat buttons, teh moonroof, the Nav, the backup camera, and on and on...

Background:
Back in my eBay days, I listed hundreds and hundreds of cars. I separated photos into exterior and interior blocks. I easily counted all clicks to these blocks. INTERIOR shots got 100% clicks than exterior pics. When you think about it, its logical. Shopper says "I've driven past 100's of Acura MDX's before, but i've never seen the inside..."

HTH
Joe
 
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