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Website tool that shows Retail Book Value on SRP/VDP

Nick Spolec

Peel'm off the Ceiling
Feb 16, 2012
36
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First Name
Nick
Anyone know of a third party vendor or service that offers a tool/app/widget for dealership websites to display the Retail Book Value for used vehicles and when asking price is less than, highlight this?

I like to think of strategies for online marketing in one of three categories:
  1. Increase Interest
  2. Increase Leads
  3. Increase Buyers
I always come back to two points that hit all three - uniqueness of vehicle, and price of vehicle.

So, stealing from CarGurus, which advertises vehicles with the Book Value being heavily displayed, putting this feature on our website SRP/VDPs would be awesome, and would tie into my whole strategy.
 
FirstLook's Max product has a widget that does this. However, it doesn't display directly on the VDP or SRP, you have to click one additional button to bring the information up. It will compare your vehicle to KBB & to the market. So, if you are below both market & KBB, it will break down the savings.

Example of just below market: https://maxdigitalshowroom.com/web/#!/vehicle/1N4AL3AP1GC146690

Below market & KBB: https://maxdigitalshowroom.com/web/#!/vehicle/3N1CE2CP3FL401785

I am working with Dealer.com to bring the button to a more useful position on the VDP, on the SRPs, it is not in the worst position ever.

You can see more in action by clicking the 'Is This A Good Deal?" button, which changes text now and then, as they optimize the button content.
http://www.findlaynissanpostfalls.com/used-inventory/index.htm

Not sure if that quite does what you're looking for.

Also, it let's you scroll to the bottom, to view other similar vehicles in market, with their mileage, and price, only showing when your price is better.
 
Anyone know of any third party vendor that makes a tool/app for websites that will display Retail Book for used vehicles --- and when asking price is less than, highlight this?

I like to think of strategies for online marketing in one of three categories: Increase Interest, Increase Leads, or Increase Buyers, and I always come back to two points that hit all three --- uniqueness of vehicle, and price of vehicle.

So, stealing from CarGurus, which advertises vehicles with the Book Value being heavily displayed, putting this feature on website SRP/VDPs would be awesome and tie into my whole strategy.
See if they have an API and will partner with you...?
 
Anyone know of any third party vendor that makes a tool/app for websites that will display Retail Book for used vehicles --- and when asking price is less than, highlight this?

I like to think of strategies for online marketing in one of three categories: Increase Interest, Increase Leads, or Increase Buyers, and I always come back to two points that hit all three --- uniqueness of vehicle, and price of vehicle.

So, stealing from CarGurus, which advertises vehicles with the Book Value being heavily displayed, putting this feature on website SRP/VDPs would be awesome and tie into my whole strategy.

CarGurus does have an API. While it's not showing the price, this VDP does show the CarGurus "Good Deal" branding. A click of the button opens up a new window with the info. Not sure what else can be done via the API, but since you mentioned CarGurus by name, I thought this would be a good place to start.
 
I'm positive Kelly Blue Book offers up an API of some sort. I've seen it displayed several different ways on a few independent dealer websites. Friend and long time Refresh community member Evan / @CARBIZ does a really nice job displaying it on their VDP:

IMG_1682.PNG

Carstory does offer a widget that includes a suggested retail price that can be displayed on your VDP. I could be wrong but I don't think it offers much flexibility from the admin side. You install the code on your website and it is what it is.

IMG_1683.PNG


Edmunds offers something. I know because my sales Rep is always bringing it up, but don't recall ever seeing it in action.

I do believe if you're going to offer this consumer facing pricing data on your dealership website, it would be benificial to go with a larger trusted "Brand", like KBB.

No matter who you go with, be sure your website provider can display it in a user friendly environment across desktop and mobile. Since most of these widgets, are just that, a widget, they tend to cause a clunky mobile viewing experience.

CarStory on the mobile view of our DealerOn website VDP - not so great. "Tabs" never make for a good mobile experience.

I need to get this back on my list of top priorities for our website. Just maybe DealerOn has a solution for this that I'm not aware of. And one that moves past the use of "tabs".

If anyone has more examples value build retail pricing being displayed on a dealership website, please share with us.
 
Thanks for the mention @craigh. Sorry I missed this post until now.

I think there are a couple of interesting things to discuss here that are less tactical and more strategic. I'm interested to see what others think.

1. How important is retail "book value" to a consumer?
I think we've all seen the boasting posts and videos from sales folks asking the consumer to "get a check from kbb" for their trade amount. Isn't this really the other side of that same coin?

The consumer is not going to be impressed by a price that is lower than book and higher than market, or a price that seems too high because price driving features have been omitted from the listing. I'm not saying this is a bad practice, just wondering if it matters as much as we think.

I'd suspect that market price rather than a book price is more effective for the same reason that dealers focus on ACV instead of a book price for trades. One is a real number in a real market and more importantly, it is verifiable by the consumer's own research.

2. Lead Leakage? So this goes way, way, way back for me. It was probably 3 DealerRefresh B.F. (3 years before the forums in DealerRefresh time). I had a fierce debate with Paul Rushing and a blog commenting regular with the handle Lightnup. I still have no idea who that was except for the popular opinion that they represented AutoTrader. For those that have been around here for a while, Lightnup was to the blog at that time as kcar was to the forums. I was also hiding my identity at the time from the community and my employer, a competing marketplace, for fear of repercussions.

The discussion centered on classified marketplaces monetizing their sites with links that took the consumer off of the VDP.
I'd guess Paul and I would still differ to some degree on the appropriateness of this on a marketplace, but we would not on the dealer's site.

Over the years since that debate, dealers spend increasing amounts of marketing dollars to drive shoppers to inventory on their sites. Here on DR, we agonize about KPIs like time onsite, form fills, page abandonment, load times, conversion metrics etc. and then, as an industry, we plug in 6 different vendor widgets that slow load times and take the shopper right off the VDP to another tab!

My opinion, there is no value gained by plugging in a widget that slows site performance and page rankings and leaks consumers off the dealer's VDP. There is far greater potential to lose the consumer back to the endless cycle of research than there is to encourage a purchase decision.

(Full Disclosure: I work for Vast/CarStory. We expose market price and the specific feature valuation analytics affecting that price regionally. Our tool used to launch a tab and still does in some legacy applications for a few website partners. The current version sits completely inline due to dealer feedback and CX research.)
 
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