If your used car manager is making aging decisions based on Vehicle Display Page (VDP) activity, they’re behind the eight ball. Though this philosophy is held by many providers of this digital marketing, our experience holds that aging problems start well before VDP page counts start to diminish. The true culprit is time – time delay in downstream processes.
The traditional VDP view is that low VDP activity points to future aging risk. Our view is it’s the symptom of broken operational execution that if not correct will lead to aging problems. A vehicle sitting in recon for 12 days is already aging before it generates its first VDP view.
Many dealer groups monitor lagging KPIs, but leading groups monitor the KPIs that improve aging:
Lagging KPI
- 60-day aging
- 90-day aging
- Gross erosion
- Write-downs
Leading KPI
- Recon cycle time
- Days-to-frontline
- Days-to-merchandised
- Time-to-retail-ready
Said another way, before VDPs go online and active, the reconditioning process should be managed to remove delays, bottlenecks, and confusion that contribute to aging. Every extra day a vehicle remains in recon or merchandising costs money through lost sales opportunity, fewer eyeballs, and margin compression. The target acquisition-to-retail-ready cycle should be three to five days. Speed is the factor that governs aging:
■ Acquisition speed
■ Recon speed
■ Merchandising speed
■ Transparency
■ Quicker online presentation
—not VDP traffic metrics.
The data says that VDPs are the highest-intent pages on dealer websites. Industry research consistently identifies VDPs as the most valuable conversion pages because shoppers who reach them have already narrowed their choices and are evaluating a specific vehicle. One stat says VDPs account for approximately 75% of dealership website traffic.
Traditional VDPs often provide only basic inventory data. Their criticism is that many VDPs answer only year, make, model, mileage, and price. Yet they could do a better job of attracting and converting leads. We advocate dealers supplement traditional VDPs with digital vehicle portfolios (DVP), which include much more evidence of the vehicle’s value and buyer trust.
DVPs offer customers considerably more evidence and trust-building detail for making their buying decision and reducing transaction friction, including:
■ Original OEM window stickers
■ Reconditioning investment
■ Vehicle safety reports
■ Walkaround photos and video
■ OEM brochures
As a measurement or forecast of aging problems, all dealers would be prudent to evaluate their reconditioning process, as here is where aging problems take root. Address them early, and the vehicles displayed on enhanced digital vehicle portfolios will be fresher and their values more clearly transparent to shoppers to convert more quickly.
■ Don’t wait for a vehicle to age.
■ Measure the process failures that create aging.
Vehicle aging is not primarily an inventory problem; it is a time-to-market and transparency problem.
The traditional inventory manager asks, “How many VDPs does this VIN have?” A more strategic inventory or used car manager asks, “How many days elapsed before this VIN became fully merchandised, fully transparent, and fully retail-ready?
Traditional VDP philosophy measures VDP activity as market demand. Leading thinkers know that operational speed and transparency determine whether demand can be captured in the first place. Aging starts early in these stages where firsthand efficiency improvements to your reconditioning workflows gives aging its best advantage, cars front-line faster in three to five days.
About Rapid Recon
Reconditioning workflow automation from Rapid Recon is the industry standard in time-to-line inventory turn and speed-to-sale vehicle revenue enhancement for automotive retailers. Benchmarking data based on 13 million vehicles processed uniquely positions Rapid Recon to advise dealers on how to improve their store’s profitability. Used by more than 2,000 dealerships, Rapid Recon ensures the accountability of processes, property, and people. Hence, dealers know answers quickly, find assets anywhere, and sell vehicles promptly to grow dealership profitability. www.rapidrecon.com CALL US: +650‑999‑0497