CarGurus has launched a new offering to help dealers expand their online reach to consumers by showing their used vehicle listings to car shoppers outside their local market, according to a company news release.
The tool, previously known as Delivery Indicator, was renamed Area Boost and launched at the end of September for CarGurus’ dealer partners. It aims to make it easier for low-funnel car shoppers to find the exact vehicle they want, while enabling dealers to compete in low-supply markets.
“CarGurus is seeing strong consumer sentiment in Canada for vehicle delivery, and dealerships that can adapt to this change should be able to sell more vehicles,” said Ashley Karr, VP of B2B Marketing at CarGurus. “In our Canada COVID-19 Sentiment Study from June, we found that 66 per cent of respondents would prefer to use contactless options and/or vehicle delivery for their next car purchase.”
Karr told Canadian auto dealer the product may prove especially useful for dealers who are able to ship inventory and meet this consumer demand, because it is a simple way for them to market their vehicles to a wider audience.
Dealerships that market their inventory to their local markets can use the product to promote their deliverable vehicles to a “larger, broader area and even nationwide if they can deliver across the country,” said Karr.
The product allows users to set their delivery parameter (specific provinces, a certain radius around the dealership, or nationwide), and then decide whether the delivery will be free or paid by the consumer. It also allows dealers to identify which vehicles are available for delivery, while excluding the ones that are not.
“Remote services such as vehicle shipping have become more critical for Canadian dealers during COVID and we knew the timing was right to introduce Area Boost to the market,” said Karr, adding that “CarGurus wants to help dealerships reach more customers and ultimately try to help them sell more vehicles.”
