MAX My Trade leads to higher profits, improved CSI, better close rates

CHICAGO — July 25, 2019 — MAX Digital, the dealer-first digital retail software provider for the automotive industry, has launched MAX My Trade, a guided experience that improves the trade-in process for dealership teams and customers.

Typically conducted on iPad, the customer and salesperson walk around the vehicle appraising the vehicle together. With the walkaround app, the customer and salesperson choose a mutually agreed upon rating on a 10-point scale for different aspects of the car, such as interior condition, brakes, and tires.

After the walkaround evaluation, a market-based appraisal report will provide a fair market price combining the customer’s vehicle condition rating score with top book values of third-party validation sites like Kelley Blue Book and NADA. Customer ratings naturally drive lower valuations creating a positive environment for under-allowance. The final trade offer is approved by the sales manager, so the dealership retains control.

“When you get customers involved in the appraisal process, they feel more in control, understand the fair value of their vehicle, and overall feel a lot better about the sales process,” said MAX Digital Executive Vice President, Mike Cavanaugh. “Our dealer customers who have beta-tested MAX My Trade have seen this firsthand with an average 47% increase in front-end gross profits and improved CSI.”

MAX My Trade also includes an at-a-glance profitability reporting tool, which provides dealerships a comparison of appraisals submitted both with and without the tool. Dealers can easily monitor sales, team usage and results to uncover opportunities to further grow profits.

“When we get the customer interacting in the trade, all the armor comes off. They feel very powerful that they are actually appraising the vehicle themselves,” said Brad DeSelms, Sales Director for Fremont Management Co. “The more you involve the customer in the trade-in process, the more they see the logic in how you price the car and the more money you make.”

“One of the immediate benefits is the involvement of the customer in the appraisal process. That involvement is translating into a 5% higher closing rate,” says Lee Porter, Used Car Manager at Vancouver Toyota. “The change has also reduced the time needed to complete the sales process, resulting in our CSI increasing to 96.74%.”

For more information on MAX My Trade visit https://maxdigital.com/digital-retailing/trade-in-appraisal/.

About MAX Digital

Founded in 2011, MAX Digital was born from a rich history of innovation and continues the pioneering spirit of FirstLook by delivering the professional tools needed to help dealerships thrive into the future. MAX Digital empowers thousands of dealerships to transform their retail processes to sell more cars more profitably through award-winning inventory management and people-friendly digital retail solutions. MAX Digital was named Dealers’ Choice top inventory management system for 2019 in Auto Dealer Today, for more information visit maxdigital.com.

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Platform integration provides consumers with one-click access to Carfax vehicle history reports

from 360° WalkArounds®

SYRACUSE, NY – June 18, 2019 – SpinCar, the global leader in digital automotive merchandising software, announced today a partnership with Carfax that enables car shoppers to seamlessly access Vehicle History Reports directly from 360° WalkArounds. Carfax dealers can now showcase Vehicle History Reports from within both exterior and interior vehicle views for any used car. The integration enables auto dealers to provide greater transparency to car shoppers by offering them an easy way to access Carfax Reports while they are exploring vehicles on a dealer’s website. SpinCar is the first and only digital merchandising platform to offer this integration.

SpinCar’s digital merchandising platform enhances online vehicle detail pages (VDPs) by delivering more engaging and personalized experiences for shoppers. In partnership with Carfax, Vehicle History Reports have been added as clickable feature buttons on all exterior and interior 360° vehicle WalkArounds. Shoppers can access the Vehicle History Report by clicking on the Carfax button from within any walkaround. This new capability is available for all active Carfax dealers.

“SpinCar and Carfax both share a commitment to helping people more confidently shop for used vehicles,” said Jim Sharifi, spokesman for Carfax. “Whether it’s by providing valuable vehicle history information or by delivering interactive tools to empower consumers, we share a common goal of helping buyers and sellers build trusted relationships. This partnership is a win for both consumers and dealers, and we look forward to working with SpinCar to find even more ways to create greater levels of transparency in the car buying process.”    

“Carfax is the most trusted source of vehicle history information for used car shoppers, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them to make it even easier for consumers to access the information they need to make more informed buying decisions,” said Devin Daly, SpinCar Co-Founder and CEO. “The increased visibility and seamless access to Vehicle History Reports make virtual walkarounds an even more engaging online experience. For dealers, this integration provides a powerful new way to promote Carfax Reports for their vehicles and build even greater levels of trust and confidence for online shoppers.”   

About SpinCar

SpinCar offers automotive dealers, wholesalers and OEMs the industry’s most advanced platform for digital automotive merchandising. The company’s 360° WalkArounds® and Feature Tour® products build trust between buyers and sellers by bringing the physical showroom experience to car shoppers wherever and whenever they want. SpinCar’s proprietary shopper behavioral data and VINtelligent® Retargeting solution enable vehicle sellers to deliver hyperpersonalized interactions across the entire car shopping journey. To date, more than 260 million virtual WalkArounds have been experienced by car shoppers across 15 countries. To learn more about SpinCar, visit SpinCar.com.

About Carfax

Carfax, a unit of IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), helps millions of people every day confidently shop, buy, own and sell used cars with innovative solutions powered by Carfax vehicle history information. The expert in vehicle history since 1984, Carfax provides exclusive services like Carfax Used Car Listings, myCarfax, Carfax History-Based Value and the flagship Carfax® Vehicle History Report™ to consumers and the automotive industry. Carfax owns the world’s largest vehicle history database and is a nationally recognized top workplace by The Washington Post and Glassdoor.com. Shop, Buy, Own, Sell – Show me the Carfax™. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

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Tolerance for incremental spending of over $2,500 is low – GfK 

New York, NY; May 23, 2019: With sophisticated digital and smart technologies generating headlines for automakers, many consumers are beginning to consider these devices and services as essential equipment for their own cars.
But GfK research shows that people who see smart auto technologies as “must haves” still may have misconceptions about what they might cost.

The GfK AutoMobility™ Auto Tech Insights 2019 report provides a broad look at the desires and concerns of new car “intenders” – those who plan to buy a new vehicle in the next six months – when it comes to smart devices and services. GfK is a leader in the automotive research space; its AutoMobility study is based on over 250,000 in-depth interviews each year. 

The Auto Tech Insights report is drawn from research among over 1,000 intenders interviewed during the AutoMobility research.    

For seven key emerging auto technologies measured – from Autonomous Vehicles to Augmented Reality – GfK found that only small proportions of intenders who see the technologies as “must haves” would be willing to pay $2,500 or more for them. (See Table 1.)

Click here to see the release with tables included

For example, 30% of intenders consider an Electric Vehicle a “must have” – but only one-quarter (8%) of those enthusiasts would pay an incremental cost of $2,500 or more for one. Similarly, 25% say an Autonomous Vehicle is essential for them – but only one-quarter (7%) see $2,500 or more as the right incremental price; in fact, the same proportion (7%) expects to pay less than $500.

In addition, close to half of intenders who are sold on the idea of an in-vehicle Infotainment System or a Connected Vehicle say they want to pay under $500 for the capability.

GfK also found that male intenders are more likely to consider smart vehicle tech as a “must have.” Men planning to buy a new car are twice as likely, for example, to see Autonomous Vehicles and Augmented Reality as essential, compared to female intenders. In addition, male intenders are almost twice as likely to view Infotainment Systems and Electric Vehicles as “must haves.” 

Lack of understanding may be an issue

The fact that some consumers may not understand the actual prices of auto technologies may be part of a larger lack of clarity about the space. GfK found, for example, that one-third to three-quarters of new car intenders say they know little or nothing about these in-vehicle technologies. Two-thirds (69%) say they “have not heard of” or “don’t know much about” Augmented Reality, for example, and close to half say the same about Autonomous Vehicles (48%) and Active Safety Technology (47%).

Among the generations, Baby Boomer intenders (ages 55 and up) are the most likely to report knowing little or nothing about these device and services, with levels up to 26 percentage points higher than the general population. (See Table 2.) Gen X intenders (ages 39 to 54) are generally more in line with the national averages, while Gen Y (ages 21 to 38) has the lowest levels of awareness. 

About GfK

GfK connects data and science. Innovative research solutions provide answers for key business questions around consumers, markets, brands and media – now and in the future. As a research and analytics partner, GfK promises its clients all over the world “Growth from Knowledge.” 

For more information, please visit www.gfk.com or follow GfK on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GfK.

Lotpop Joins MAX Digital Approved Vendor Circle

CHICAGO — May 21, 2019 — MAX Digital, the dealer-first digital retail software provider for the automotive industry, announced a service partnership with Lotpop. Participating dealers can leverage the MAX Digital inventory management product suite with the additional expert staffing and process guidance Lotpop provides to capture more gross and sell more cars.

“Everything we build is focused on delivering performance for our dealerships. Lotpop has the same total results focus,” said MAX Digital Executive Vice President Mike Cavanaugh. “Adding the dedicated experienced team that Lotpop provides to MAX tools simply creates a system that delivers undeniable results.”

MAX Digital provides a deep dataset for inventory management with millions of VINs analyzed daily, rich market data and store specific sales history to drive smart stocking decisions. Performance tracking can be customized by dealership and focus on core improvement areas like time to market for robust vehicle descriptions with a dealer set number of minimum images. Lotpop provides the staffing and system guidance and ongoing consistent review of dealership inventory processes to build sustained results over time.

“Since starting with Lotpop and MAX Digital, we have started having record used car sales. We’ve seen a 36% increase in front end gross year over year, all with millions less in carry costs,” shared Joe Uphoff, Reconditioning Manager of Galpin Honda, the second highest volume Honda store in the U.S. “Jasen and the Lotpop team offer you easy to understand usable data so that you can focus on the areas that matter for your store.”

“We’re proud of the exceptional value this partnership provides,” added Jasen Rice, owner Lotpop. “MAX Digital has rock solid professional grade tools that help us drive meaningful unit sales growth for our clients with a better gross per vehicle at a surprisingly low cost.”

“Our pricing advantage is important for Lotpop, because it allows them to bundle in their hands-on services and fully engage in the dealer’s processes, while still delivering significant total savings over tools clients had been using,” said Cavanaugh.

More information on Lotpop is available at lotpop.com. Vendors interested in joining the MAX Digital Approved Vendor Circle can contact info@maxdigital.com.

About MAX Digital

Founded in 2011, MAX Digital was born from a rich history of innovation and continues the pioneering spirit of FirstLook by delivering the professional tools needed to help dealerships thrive into the future. MAX Digital empowers thousands of dealerships to transform their retail processes to sell more cars more profitably through smart inventory management and people-friendly digital retail solutions. For more information visit maxdigital.com.

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