On line Inventory Merchandising Basics
Six Steps to Stellar Online Sales
Sell more pre-owned vehicles online by
following this basic step-by-step process. Utilize the following tips to
streamline your operations and simplify your managerial workload. The key
elements to having a successful used car online presence are: 1) custom
comments; 2) number of pictures; 3) quality of pictures; 4) meta tags &
search; 5) videos; and 6) proper pricing.
Custom
comments
We can all remember when Used Car Managers submitted one-liners or standard
blocks of photographs for weekly advertisements in local newspapers. Luckily,
times have changed dramatically and new technologies allow us to radically and
positively alter our dealership image. Regardless of the posting location—your
own website, microsite or third-party site—you can utilize custom comments to
elicit an emotional response from your customers.
The reader is scanning
your merchandise listings for more than mere functionality and hopes to be
interested by personalized benefits. To separate your vehicle listings from
your competition, provide several compelling custom comments.
Number
of pictures
The old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is relevant to
online merchandising. In fact, it may be the most basic of all elements that
will increase your chance of selling a vehicle. EBay data states that the
chance of successfully selling a vehicle online increases dramatically with the
addition of multiple photos.
Picture
quality
Simply including several poor quality photos will not increase your sales.
Select photos that enhance the image of your product. Using the right sequence
of quality photos will increase a customer's comfort level with the vehicle.
When taking photos, create a staging area that will allow additional branding
and proper lighting. Review each photo before posting it online to ensure that
your vehicles are presented in the best possible way.
Meta
Tags & Search
Meta tags are key words that work behind the scenes of your website and play a
critical role in the sales process. Meta tags assist the web crawlers and
browsers to select your website over your competition's when a prospect
searches for a particular vehicle online. Specific webpage titles, descriptions
and key words that have direct relationship to your vehicles will generate more
viewership, and in turn, produce an increase in sales.
Videos
There is ongoing debate regarding whether or not the use of video actually increases sales. However, we do know that videos help dealerships acheive a better ranking on the search engines. As you work toward improving your ROI, videos can definitely play a positive role. Videos should open with a clear introduction, include a clear description of benefit to the purchaser, and close with a call to action.
Proper pricing
In order to properly market your vehicles to potential online customers, you must also remember to place a “value” on your merchandise. If you neglect to indicate a value, the assumption will be that the sales price is the “list” price. Often, marketing your cars with the list price will put your vehicles out of the sales competition. There are now many ways in which to successfully value your pre-owned inventory and most inventory management tools have price comparison modules that will help you find sale prices for similar vehicles in your area.
If you utilize these key elements of online inventory merchandising, you will find that your return on investment and your gross-per-vehicle will improve. Thriving dealerships practice this process each day and have combined these elements into a successful marketing plan.
Categories: Used Cars PreOwned Vehicles Meta Tags
Tags: Social Media Networking Business Used Cars Inventory Pictures Videos Pricing Comments
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