New remote selling features to help you get retail ready, responsibly.
By Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Commercial Products Director, Auto Trader.
Last week I shared the latest consumer research which illustrates the length retailers will have to go to in order to win buyer trust as we move through the coronavirus and get back to retailing. The online showroom will become increasingly important as social distancing continues and consumers telling us they still want to buy, but with “minimal contact”. Most customers will only be likely to want to visit the dealership to collect the vehicle, a step which can also be removed with home deliveries. It’s important that retailers are retail ready to take advantage of the pent up demand as forecourts are able to reopen.
Update 12th May:
The government have just released their guidance on how retailers will need to adapt the way they operate to enable social distancing when their forecourts can reopen. Once you have put measures in place and are ready to let buyers know, you can do that below through our new COVID-19 Safety Measures feature.
New Remote Selling solutions
To help you trade through COVID-19 and get retail ready, we will be introducing three new solutions which will launch as soon as government restrictions lift allowing forecourts to reopen.
You can configure your COVID-19 safety measures and live video viewing features now in Portal, with the home delivery flag available to configure next week.
New remote selling features
Home delivery available
Live video viewing
Covid-19 Safety Measures
Covid-19 Safety measures
Your adverts will have a dedicated space for you to outline the steps you’re taking to increase customer safety during the showroom visit, such as social distancing measures, anti-bacterial cleaning, and the application of personal protective equipment (PPE) among staff.
How does it work?
Simply populate this in Portal explaining your safety measures and this will appear on your adverts when we launch the feature. We’ve left it as free text as everyone’s approach will be different.
Book a live video viewing
Potential customers will have the option to request a Live Video Viewing directly from your Auto Trader advert, in order to explore any specific details or features they couldn’t find in the advert view and replace the showroom visit with a virtual one.
How does it work?
Enable this feature if you’re able to offer the customer a live video viewing. The request will come through as an email lead with the contact details of the customer to arrange the viewing with. You can arrange a suitable time and use whichever video service is most convenient for you and your customer.
Home delivery available
If you provide a home delivery service, you will be able to highlight this to customers covered by your delivery area and provide more details about how the service works and any associated costs.
How does it work?
We’ll ask you a series of questions such as the postcode areas you can deliver to, whether the service is free or chargeable and the specifics of your home delivery offering. You’ll be able to configure this in Portal from next week and we’ll be in touch when it’s available in your account section.
Enable these new features now
You can head to Portal now and enable the COVID-19 safety measures and live video viewing features, just look under the “Home services” and “Covid-19 Safety Measures” sections in the “Business account” drop down of your account area. The home delivery flag will be available to configure next week in Portal and we’ll let you know when it’s available. The new features will go live on your adverts as soon as forecourts are able to reopen and we’ll notify you when this is expected.