AutoCenters Case Study MOVING ONE CAR, OR MOVING DOZENS How our VIN-specific solution is helping AutoCenters clear their lots. Travis Scheaffer E-Commerce Director AutoCenters Dealer Group, Greater St. Louis DEALER PROFILE AutoCenters’ properties include a flagship Nissan store and 3 other used car rooftops in the Greater St. Louis area. RESULTS April 2017* VDP Views 3,856 Cost Per VDP View $0.64 Vehicles Sold 51 Cost Per Vehicle $84.78 Increased Vehicle Turn 132% Holding Costs Savings $42,094 New Visitors 2,073 * Based on LotLinx data for AutoCenters Nissan. Includes both LotLinx VS - Omni-Channel and LotLinx VS - Facebook.
Transcript
AutoCenters Case Study
MOVING ONE CAR, OR MOVING DOZENSHow our VIN-specific solution is helping AutoCenters clear their lots.
Travis ScheafferE-Commerce DirectorAutoCenters Dealer Group, Greater St. Louis
DEALER PROFILE
AutoCenters’ properties include a flagship Nissan store and 3 other used car rooftops in the Greater St. Louis area.
RESULTS April 2017*
VDP Views 3,856
Cost Per VDP View $0.64
Vehicles Sold 51
Cost Per Vehicle $84.78
Increased Vehicle Turn 132%
Holding Costs Savings $42,094
New Visitors 2,073
* Based on LotLinx data for AutoCenters Nissan. Includes both LotLinx VS - Omni-Channel and LotLinx VS - Facebook.
2 LotLinx | AutoCenters Case Study | June 2017
AutoCenters began as a couple of small, pre-owned lots, one of which was managed by 20-something Craig Schmitz. He and his partner, Bill Haegele, bought the company in 2000 and together began building it into a more fully realized enterprise. Today, the AutoCenters Dealer Group has three pre-owned stores in communities in southern Missouri near St. Louis and a flagship new-and-used Nissan store just over the Mississippi River in Wood River, IL.
Fresh out of college, Travis Scheaffer was hired in 2009 by Craig, who had noticed that the car business was becoming increasingly dependent on digital marketing. At the time, AutoCenters’ dealerships were using conventional media channels like radio and print to try to grow their awareness. Travis was brought on board to help them make the move to digital, eventually rising to the rank of E-Commerce Director.
While he didn’t have any formal Internet training when he started, he recognized that the market was ready for what he could bring to AutoCenters. “St. Louis,” he remembers, “was behind the times digitally. The paid search ads were very generic, very bland. You could tell they were just kind of templated. All the displays you saw were super pixelated, or they just went to a homepage. There was no Instagram. There was nothing.”
TAKING THE BRAND TO THE NEXT LEVEL.
Travis says there are a lot of well-known dealership groups in the St. Louis area, and some of them have been around for the better part of a century. To heighten AutoCenters’ brand’s visibility and put it in a position to target the tech-savvy younger consumers Nissan is made for, the AutoCenters team decided they needed a brand mascot, and Wiggidy the Frog was born.
The idea, according to Travis, is to convey the fact that “we’re young, we’re fresh, we’re vibrant. We’ve got this little cartoon character to make us seem a little more at ease, a little friendlier. That’s the kind of approach we take here. It’s more fun, it’s easier, it’s a better way to buy. It’s a state of being.
“Our approach is to give consumers all the information they need up front in a laid-back environment that provides a car buying experience like no other. We’re very hands-on, very progressive, always wanting to
learn and not scared to try something if it makes sense.”
If Wiggidy is emblematic of the innovative approach AutoCenters brings to auto marketing, Travis also needed to identify an innovative digital solution for merchandising his cars.
LOTLINX DRIVES VIN- SPECIFIC SALES.
In recent years, digital has commanded 65-75% of AutoCenters’ marketing budget. Yet at a certain point, Travis realized he was wasting money on third-party
companies that weren’t being transparent with him. “We couldn’t track our data, and we didn’t know if the stuff worked or not. We just had to rely on the good graces of this pre-packaged data third-party providers got from their own databases.
“ This 2016 Rogue might have had a total of 10 VDP views for the entire 365 days it’s been sitting on the lot. But we run a LotLinx Facebook blast, we get 20 views, and it sells that week.”
LotLinx | AutoCenters Case Study | June 2017 3
NEW SHOPPERS DELIVERED TO THE WEBSITE
2,073
VDP VIEWS ON AUTOCENTERS
WEBSITE
3,856COST
FOR EACH VDP VIEW
$0.64VEHICLES SOLD
TO LOTLINX SHOPPERS
51
COST PER VEHICLE SOLD
THROUGH LOTLINX
$84.78
— SCORECARD: AUTOCENTERS RESULTS FROM LOTLINX - APRIL 2017 —
“I’m like, ‘Forget this. I’m going to do my research, I’m going to find partners I can trust, that I can bounce questions off, that I can hold accountable.’”
Eventually, his research led him to LotLinx, and he became an advocate. He says that what he found particularly compelling about it was the ability LotLinx gave him to market cars on an individual, VIN by VIN, basis, regardless of whether he’s trying to move one car or dozens.
For example, Travis says that if a car has been sitting
on the lot longer than AutoCenters would like, LotLinx makes that car easy to move. He’ll approach Pete Pierce, his sales manager, and ask him, “Hey, Pete,
what’s up with this used car that’s been sitting here?” They’ll look at the pictures of the car, the description and the price, and if that’s all good, he’ll tell Pete, “Okay, time to get LotLinx on it.” And in no time, he says, the car will be sold.
To cite another example, Travis reports that “Nissan may have a good incentive on our midnight edition models. We’ve got 46 of them on the lot. They’ve got to go. What can we do? We put LotLinx on them and boom — done!”
Travis is equally impressed with the ability LotLinx gives him to make better use of Facebook with targeted ads for specific cars that appear on the world’s largest
“ My general manager’s looking at the data, and he’s like, ‘We’re selling cars with LotLinx, aren’t we?’ ‘Hell, yeah,’ we all said. ‘We’re selling cars.’ And he’s like, “Okay, I’m sold. Let’s increase the budget.’ And that’s where we’ve been ever since.”
social network. “These ads are following people around. We’re showing them the vehicles they’re interested in, and they click straight through to the VDPs on my website, which is where we want them. So this car has been on my lot for 45 days. It’s seen three VDP views the entire time on my website. I ran a Facebook blast on it. It’s had 10 VDP views, and within four days, it sold.”
THE REPORTING IS TRANSPARENT, THE SERVICE IS UNPARALLELED.
Another thing Travis says he really appreciates about LotLinx
is how much insight as a customer he’s able to gain into his digital activity. He cites the fact that Alanna, his LotLinx rep, helps him understand his Google Analytics better, even if the activity doesn’t pertain specifically to LotLinx.
“LotLinx is a multi-use tool. That’s what I really like about it. It holds us accountable, and it also lets us know what’s
going on. The reporting is so transparent that I can track my ROI on it. That’s why we’ve increased our spend. That’s why we’re putting more stores on it.”
Well said, Travis. We’re glad to have you on board.
4 LotLinx | AutoCenters Case Study | June 2017
LOTLINX: TRANSFORMING DIGITAL AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL
To set up a meeting with a LotLinx consultant, go to lotlinx.com/schedule For general information, call 1 800 625 LINX or visit lotlinx.com
LotLinx, Inc. 412 South Wells Street, Chicago, IL 60607
“LOTLINX TURN™ IS A MULTI-USE TOOL. THAT’S WHAT I REALLY LIKE ABOUT IT. THE REPORTING IS SO TRANSPARENT THAT I CAN TRACK MY ROI. THAT’S WHY WE’VE INCREASED OUR SPEND.
