- Apr 29, 2011
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Interesting - I'd love to hear more. Especially real-time appointments and pushing deals.
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- Thread starter BillKVMotorCo
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Interesting - I'd love to hear more. Especially real-time appointments and pushing deals.
- May 29, 2018
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- Todd
In my situation we already push leads/deals/contacts/vehicles/repairs/appointments into and out of our DMS across the group with our inhouse built solution "dealboxx". So the next step is to allow our customers the ability to create their own appointments and start deals online and have that data pushed into the dms actually creating the deals, vehicles, trades. and so on and not just sending an ADF email into the dms.
Already have all the moving parts, just arranging it to be public facing next.
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- Mar 21, 2012
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Like @Alex Snyder said, inventory is the most complicated aspect to do well.
Most of the big players (like DI and DDC) use Algolia to power their inventory search. They have a super easy to use API with pre-built out UI components. It will still require a developer though.
When you dive into Algolia's docs, you'll quickly realize just how powerful Algolia is, and that the players in the automotive industry are only scratching the surface of its capabilities.
If Algolia ends up being too pricey, Typesense is a similar open source alternative that is coming close to feature parity.
Note: you're likely going to end up paying substantially more, obviously initially but also monthly, when building a custom website. And you also assume the ongoing maintenance and support responsibilities.
I will also challenge you to consider that dealership websites looking and functioning similarly is not necessarily a bad thing. HGreg's website is great, but you can come somewhat close to replicating the design with DealerInspire and Dealer.com.
Most of the big players (like DI and DDC) use Algolia to power their inventory search. They have a super easy to use API with pre-built out UI components. It will still require a developer though.
When you dive into Algolia's docs, you'll quickly realize just how powerful Algolia is, and that the players in the automotive industry are only scratching the surface of its capabilities.
If Algolia ends up being too pricey, Typesense is a similar open source alternative that is coming close to feature parity.
Note: you're likely going to end up paying substantially more, obviously initially but also monthly, when building a custom website. And you also assume the ongoing maintenance and support responsibilities.
I will also challenge you to consider that dealership websites looking and functioning similarly is not necessarily a bad thing. HGreg's website is great, but you can come somewhat close to replicating the design with DealerInspire and Dealer.com.
- May 29, 2018
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Great one to point out. Forgot all about these guys as a possible solution. Thanks!
I use Algolia on LVL Up for our vendor search, it's amazing. Any app that needs a ultra powerful search service this is really the only game in town. Also, everything works with it. There are hundreds of other applications you can leverage with it. So it's a also opens the door to a much larger network of tools you can design custom experiences with. It's also very affordable unless you are doing massive numbers. 10/10 app.
- Apr 29, 2011
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Don't forget about ElasticSearch 
This is what I'll be using to put together a demo. ElasticSearch w/vectors. Algolia is a great off the shelf option.
I'll post a demo in the next day or two that will:
1. Enter your dealer website URL
2. Crawl max 100 pages of inventory
3. Generate a SRP using the latest features of Elastic Search
Stay tuned
This is what I'll be using to put together a demo. ElasticSearch w/vectors. Algolia is a great off the shelf option.
I'll post a demo in the next day or two that will:
1. Enter your dealer website URL
2. Crawl max 100 pages of inventory
3. Generate a SRP using the latest features of Elastic Search
Stay tuned
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- Apr 29, 2011
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@Todd Thompson working on a prototype for SRP page concept and looking for some feedback. If anyone has thoughts or contributions please chime in!
The concept I'm working on basically takes the existing navigation structure of dealer sites and eliminates the cruft. So, rather than going to dealerwebsite.com -> inventory -> new or used. It will be just dealerwebsite.com with all the inventory right there. I'm trying to follow a jobs-to-be done mentality here and those are basically:
1. I want to buy a car
2. I need to schedule service
3. I need to contact the dealer quickly OR find the dealers contact info quickly (ex: phone / directions)
4. I talked with dealer, now I just want to submit a credit app and someone will call me about it
The trouble areas I identified with the SRP so far are basically:
1. Navigation is essentially the same regardless of group site, inventory volume, and inventory mix.
2. No curation
3. Lack of personalization, overall user behavior click-thru "intelligence"
What I've come up with as a solution is for an SRP to become adaptive and curated. Some of the categories I've thought about:
I think these categories can help especially on large group sites. And as we've seen lately where a dealer could have a low supply of new vehicles but not used. I'm also planning to have a sort of if -> then -> that settings for facet selection that looks something like this:
no facets selected: [show different categories with expand button]
model selected: [trim, price range]
make selected: [model, price range]
body_type selected: [price range, curated categories (luxury, performance, EV, etc.)
Overall looking to build out something dynamic that responds to what people are clicking on both individually and collectively and having the UI adapt to that while still making sense for how people shop for cars.
Also forgot one crucial point...a primary goal for the dealer's website should be to sell the dealership. So things like social proof/testimonials/reviews I'll include in the SRP as well.
The concept I'm working on basically takes the existing navigation structure of dealer sites and eliminates the cruft. So, rather than going to dealerwebsite.com -> inventory -> new or used. It will be just dealerwebsite.com with all the inventory right there. I'm trying to follow a jobs-to-be done mentality here and those are basically:
1. I want to buy a car
2. I need to schedule service
3. I need to contact the dealer quickly OR find the dealers contact info quickly (ex: phone / directions)
4. I talked with dealer, now I just want to submit a credit app and someone will call me about it
The trouble areas I identified with the SRP so far are basically:
1. Navigation is essentially the same regardless of group site, inventory volume, and inventory mix.
2. No curation
3. Lack of personalization, overall user behavior click-thru "intelligence"
What I've come up with as a solution is for an SRP to become adaptive and curated. Some of the categories I've thought about:
- Luxury
- SUV's
- Budget
- Family
- Compact
- EV's
- Fleet
- Staff Favorites
- Top Safety Pick
- Commercial
- Managers Specials
- Lease Specials
- Performance
I think these categories can help especially on large group sites. And as we've seen lately where a dealer could have a low supply of new vehicles but not used. I'm also planning to have a sort of if -> then -> that settings for facet selection that looks something like this:
no facets selected: [show different categories with expand button]
model selected: [trim, price range]
make selected: [model, price range]
body_type selected: [price range, curated categories (luxury, performance, EV, etc.)
Overall looking to build out something dynamic that responds to what people are clicking on both individually and collectively and having the UI adapt to that while still making sense for how people shop for cars.
Also forgot one crucial point...a primary goal for the dealer's website should be to sell the dealership. So things like social proof/testimonials/reviews I'll include in the SRP as well.
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- Dec 19, 2018
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Great input. Thanks, @Ryan Everson. Thanks for pointing me to some inventory search providers as well.
- Dec 19, 2018
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So you are saying that the main page would essentially just be an SRP? Am I understanding that correctly? I am definitely seeing the value of more category-type searches that would be helpful to customers. Kind of goes along with what I've been saying about how the customer doesn't necessarily know things like trim level. Put it in a category that they understand. It feels like you could come up with a million, though, which would defeat the purpose.
Lets see here:
If someone where to come and offer my Toyota Dealership in Smallville, TN SEO optimization, I would send them home. Why? Because you already have nailed it. city + OEM brand. Most other dealers have gotten lots of free advertising with their sticker on my car that people would know to look up Carsten's 10 cars lots. Another reason why SEO isn't that important.
I keep seeing lots of posts of trying to out smart Amazon. I am smart, but they are smarter than me, most of the time. So, changing up the ecommerce experience isn't really needed since the masses have been taught the Amazon way.
I've got zero experience for selling cars on the floor.
Why don't you just imitate how your shoppers shop at your dealership?
Or is the tried and true ecommerce experience just more standard?
I'm going to argue this way:
Is your dealership known for quality and luxury? Then you better not being doing a website pushing pricing slider scales. Porsche Houston ... not that much better than a Kia dealer experience.
Are you a budget friend pay here lot? Then smash that page full of $300 down and out the door stickers every where. Push every sub prime lender you can.
If I were to build you a website, I would sit down with your and find out what the majority of your shoppers are. Then I will find out which aisles of cars are people populating on the lot. If possible, I'd get stats for the average price and average amounts for loans and how long they get a loan for.
If someone where to come and offer my Toyota Dealership in Smallville, TN SEO optimization, I would send them home. Why? Because you already have nailed it. city + OEM brand. Most other dealers have gotten lots of free advertising with their sticker on my car that people would know to look up Carsten's 10 cars lots. Another reason why SEO isn't that important.
I keep seeing lots of posts of trying to out smart Amazon. I am smart, but they are smarter than me, most of the time. So, changing up the ecommerce experience isn't really needed since the masses have been taught the Amazon way.
I've got zero experience for selling cars on the floor.
Why don't you just imitate how your shoppers shop at your dealership?
Or is the tried and true ecommerce experience just more standard?
I'm going to argue this way:
Is your dealership known for quality and luxury? Then you better not being doing a website pushing pricing slider scales. Porsche Houston ... not that much better than a Kia dealer experience.
Are you a budget friend pay here lot? Then smash that page full of $300 down and out the door stickers every where. Push every sub prime lender you can.
If I were to build you a website, I would sit down with your and find out what the majority of your shoppers are. Then I will find out which aisles of cars are people populating on the lot. If possible, I'd get stats for the average price and average amounts for loans and how long they get a loan for.
