News Releases

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jan. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Dealer Inspire (DI), a Cars.com (NYSE: CARS) company that provides disruptive technology and digital marketing solutions to the automotive industry, today announced a new omnichannel digital retailing product debuting at the 2019 National Automobile Dealers Association Show (NADA) January 25-27 in San Francisco. The leading automotive technology and digital marketing provider is launching the newest version of Online Shopper™ called Online Shopper: Electric to modernize the entire dealership experience by connecting digital retailing to the showroom floor.

Online Shopper: Electric seamlessly plugs into automotive dealers' DI websites and showrooms, allowing car shoppers to save, customize and compare multiple deals in a matter of minutes. With the new "Garage" feature, consumers can now save vehicles, customize and compare their payments side-by-side, add F&I products and aftermarket accessories, and checkout for delivery or pick-up in just three easy steps. The new tool was specifically designed to support an in-store kiosk or mobile experience, so consumers can pick up where they left off online for a more seamless and convenient car shopping process.

"As the digital retailing landscape continues to evolve, it's important that we stay at the forefront with innovative technology and solutions that help dealers power their business into the future and that drive the modern automotive consumer journey from search to signature," said Joe Chura, chief executive officer of Dealer Inspire. "We are building our platform based on the insight of innovative dealers and years of consumer behavior data to make digital retailing solutions that work and make the customer experience faster, easier and more personalized."  

DI's original Online Shopper tool is still available to dealers as Online Shopper: Redline. The end-to-end digital retailing solution maximizes the quantity and quality of a dealer's website leads without any new tools, training or processes needed. After turning on Online Shopper, dealers report seeing up to two to three times more qualified leads on average.¹ The tool can be turned on in 24 hours, on average, and easily adapts to a dealers' existing sales process.

Also available at NADA 2019 for the first time is Online Shopper on Cars.com, which provides consumers with advanced payment options, resulting in higher intent, higher quality and faster-to-close leads for dealers. Early testing revealed that when a consumer engages with the product on Cars.com, dealers receive trade-in details, estimated credit score, average miles driven per year, desired payment range and more 60 percent of the time.²

In addition to the launch of Online Shopper: Electric and Online Shopper on Cars.com, Dealer Inspire is also rolling out other new tools and product enhancements to make each phase of the car buying journey easier, faster, and smarter for both shoppers and dealers:

• METAL™: A brand-new inventory management system built with intuitive design, lightning-quick controls, and instant sync with dealers' technology and advertising in real-time. METAL manages all aspects of inventory management, helping dealers run their business more efficiently and move more vehicles.
• Conversations™: Enhanced customer service capabilities are coming to the messaging platform powered by Ana Bot A.I. technology that allows dealers to move beyond their standard operating hours to reach more potential consumers where and when they are shopping. "Ana Bot" greets and captures leads, and only transfers chats to a dealer's customer service team when needed. As part of the new enhancements, Ana Bot can provide personalized, private offers to customers, including OEM offers and incentives as well as dealership offers. Ana Bot can also offer trade-in estimates to move the leads one step further in the process. In addition, Conversations now displays dealer inventory directly to Facebook Marketplace and seamlessly integrates with Facebook Messenger to instantly respond to the high volume of active shoppers on social.

To learn more about Dealer Inspire and the new enhancements being launched at NADA 2019, visit their booth in the South Hall of the Moscone Center at #2311S January 25-27 or visit their website at dealerinspire.com.

¹Based on 2018 Dealer Inspire internal data from a test group of dealers 90 days after a dealer is turned on to the Online Shopper: Redline product vs. the 90 days prior.

² Cars.com testing metrics from two pre-post analysis tests and one a/b test, November 28, 2018 – January 8, 2019

ABOUT DEALER INSPIRE
Dealer Inspire (DI) is an award-winning technology provider that has innovated automotive retail with four SAAS products that help future-proof dealerships, including an advanced website platform, artificial intelligence messaging, automatic digital retailing and next-gen connected marketing services. With a team of 500 employees servicing approximately 2,200 website customers in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, DI maintains its reputation for customer support with a standard of 12-minute response and 24-hour solution times.

SOURCE Dealer Inspire