Essential elements of the dealership website

This week we’ll look at the dealership website and what makes it effective. Today we’ll look at inventory:

Obviously the reason we have dealership websites is to sell cars. So it only makes sense that we make it easy to find them. Visitors to your site should be able to easily find your inventory within no more than 3 clicks. By find I mean actually looking at a specific unit. Today there are tools like “home page inventory” and “home page inventory search” available that make it possible to find your cars right off the home page. We even offer a new tool called “Zero Click Inventory.”

Once a visitor finds your inventory you need to market the vehicle. Multiple photos are a must. The photos need to be of good quality and really allow the customer to get to know the car well enough to want to buy it or at least add it to their short list.

Here’s the thing that over 90% of all us do. We let our inventory software generate the vehicle description. I am guilty of this myself. Rather than the usual generic junk that tells the customer that the car has Driver Air Bag, Passenger Air Bag, Passenger Air Bag On/Off Switch, A/C, AM/FM Stereo, CD Player, 4-Wheel ABS, Front Disc/Rear Drum Brakes, Cruise Control… why not tell a story?

It does not have to be long, just a tell them about the car:

Our used car manager ran across this car and knew it belonged in our inventory. Low miles and all the options everybody wants. And Phantom Gray is one of the most popular colors available. It has a clean CarFax report and we’ve put through our inspection and made all necessary repairs.

or

A local family needed more room and decided to get a minivan. This Camry has low miles and all the most popular options. Plus it’s Phantom Gray one of the most popular colors available. The CarFax report is clean and it’s been through our 120 point inspection. We’ve already made all necessary repairs and it’s ready to drive home.

A short story about the car will make your units stand out. You could even make that part of the stock in process on trades. Who knows the trade as well as the salesperson that just took it in?

Tomorrow we’ll look at competitive pricing. As always please feel free to comment or if you want contact me.