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Keep Car Shoppers Engaged and On Your Website Longer with Research Pages

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It’s essential your car dealership website is doing everything it can to provide car shoppers a better and more efficient ways to shop for cars online. Online car shopping has soared in 2022 and it is expected to slow down anytime soon. How can your car dealership website stand out from other local competition? Research pages are a new LESA feature that can help educate potential car buyers and keep them engaged and on your website longer. Let’s take a look at what research pages provide, the benefits and how to implement.

What are Research Pages?

Research pages are designed to educate car shoppers on important vehicle information for new cars. Car shoppers can find the vehicles they are interested in browsing with the help of search filters including make, model, year and trim. What makes LESA research pages unique? LESA is the first to implement research pages that are not just textual, but include video component helping car shoppers learn about the car and make purchase decisions.

Once you have entered information into the filters, the page will populate numerous feature videos. Automotive manufactures provide featured videos to help shoppers understand the car in more detail. Although walk around videos can help give car shoppers great insight into the desired vehicle, featured videos provide in depth details about numerous elements of the car without having to search the Internet. The number of feature videos available varies by make and model. There are numerous video types including:

  • How-to videos
  • Vehicle feature highlight
  • Vehicle overview

The Benefits of Research Pages

As online car shopping continues to grow, providing information to consumers is key to them visiting and purchasing from your car dealership. LESA is helping dealerships by giving them the ability to add video based research pages onto your website. There are numerous benefits to implementing research pages.

#1. Consumers can learn about vehicle features in one place

There’s ample information on the internet about cars. Car dealerships should make it easy for car shoppers to find information all in one place to eliminate the need to search the web to answer all their questions. Research pages accomplish this, by having all the feature information in one place.

 A research page not only benefits car shoppers, but also benefits consumers that purchased vehicles that want to learn more about the new features. With increasing technology, its hard to learn about everything the car offers, but a research page eliminates the need to pull out a car manual and learn about features of your car.

#2. Keep Car Shoppers on Your Website Longer

By equipping consumers with the information they need all in one place, you will find that shoppers are visiting your website more frequently and staying in your website longer. This directly increases the likelihood that they will either contact or visit your dealership in person.

#3. Research Pages are Unique and Can Set Your Dealership Apart

It’s not always easy to make your car dealership website stand out from your competition. LESA research pages are a new feature that not many dealerships have taken advantage of. This can give your dealership a unique edge.

#4. It’s Easy to Implement

LESA research pages are easy to implement. In fact, the LESA team can get it set up and running on your website without having to involve website designers which can be costly.

#5. Videos are Professional and Compelling

The videos on the research pages are professionally done and visually compelling. You don’t have to hire someone to spend hours producing a quality video, and can have access to our library for numerous makes and models. When it comes to online car shopping, reading text isn’t enough to get someone to take action and buy the car. They need as much detail as possible to initiate interest in purchasing.

LESA Can Help Your Car Dealership Implement Research Pages

LESA’s technology can help your car dealership quickly implement video centric research pages to help your car dealership stand out from competition. Videos are highly educational and are helping convert car shoppers into car buyers as online car shopping continues to soar. Get started today! Contact Us

Attract Local Car Shoppers with LESA Google Business Profile Auto-Post Tool

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One of the biggest opportunities in 2022 for local search visibility in automotive retail is through the expanded use of Google Business Profile, formally known as Google My Business (GMB). Google Business Profile could draw a tremendous amount of local traffic from consumers looking to find reviews, get directions and hours of operations from local car dealerships. LESA tools have the ability to automatically add your newest inventory to the Google Business Profile post carousel so you don’t have to manage it.

Let’s take a look at how LESA’s Google Business Profile Auto-Posts can benefit your business.

Is Google Business Profile Really Necessary for Car Dealerships?

Google Business Profile listing gives you another free way to show up for local searches related to your dealershipand it can often show up at a critical time, like when car buyers are trying to find nearby dealerships, look at dealership reviews, and compare dealerships they’ve already identified. It is not uncommon for dealers to see local impressions on Google Business Profile increase 10,000-50,000x a month when Google Business Profile is fully merchandised and maintained. If setup and used properly, Google Business Profile can attract high quality leads for no cost.

How To Draw an Audience on Google Business Profile

Once you’ve claimed your business through Google Business Profile, it’s time to optimize your content and keep it up-to-date so you get the most out of your business listing. Here’s how to draw an audience though Google Business Profile

  1. Setup Your Information

It might seem basic, but it’s incredibly important to make sure that your essential information, like your dealership name, address, phone number, website URL, departments, and service options are correct on your listing.

2. Keep Your Listing Consistent

 62% of consumers reported using Google Business Profile to find a local business’s phone number or address, so it’s incredibly important that your dealership’s information is correct — or you could be missing out. Consistency is an important Google ranking factor. It wants to ensure its showing the most accurate and up-to-date information in searches, since it doesn’t verify every piece of information across the internet. Make sure the information on your website is listed the exact same on your Google Business Profile page.

3. Add Photos and Videos of Your Car Dealership with LESA Auto-post

When customers have more access to your business information and updates, they can make better decisions as they browse. This allows you to:

  • Directly communicate with your local customers.
  • Improve your customer experience with timely information.
  • Promote your sales, specials, events, news, and offers.
  • Engage with your customers through videos and photos.

LESA’s auto-post tool allows your dealership to create a virtual storefront for local online shoppers through the “what’s new” section of updates on Google Business Profile. The tool will ensure that 15-20 vehicles are always maintained within your Google Business Profile carousel. Once a vehicle sells, another post fitting your set criteria will replace it automatically. You can decide what vehicles to showcase whether it’s new, used, both conditions or certified vehicles or specific models

LESA’s auto-post tool will post under the What’s New section provides general information about your business. Other update sections include COVID-19, offers and events which dealerships can use to enhance their profile.

Typically, dealerships need to hire an internal team member or outside marketing help to maintain updates on their Google Business Profile. With the help of LESA’s auto post tool, it eliminates the need for extra help as the process is standardized and maintained. ImageImage

Auto-Post Will Direct Car Shoppers to your Dealership Website

A preview of a dealer’s inventory is displayed under the “Updates” section of their Google Business Profile listing. Shoppers can scroll through a limited number of posts before clicking “Learn more” or “View all” to see more listings.

The recently added inventory is displayed in a vertical list, with added info about the vehicle
and a learn more/dealer listing button leading directly to that vehicle’s VDP.

Customers land directly on the VDP of the vehicle they are interested in. They can then watch a LESA full-motion video and take the next step in their shopping journey.

Take Your Google Business Profile Seriously, Get Started with LESA Today

Take advantage of this great new feature that lets you promote your vehicles for free in a very visible area. LESA’s auto-post capabilities can help your dealership maintain your online presence with little maintenance. Get started with a LESA driven Google Business Profile listing today.

Featured Video

Featured Videos Help Online Car Shoppers Make Purchase Decisions 

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Online car shopping continues to grow rapidly in acceptance. Millennials are fueling a major part of the online sales growth. Many car dealerships have pivoted in creating websites that aid online car shoppers with information, at-home test drives and digital paperwork. In fact, a survey conducted by Progressive showed that 78% of buyers were highly satisfied with buying a car online, while only 58% of in-person shoppers registered the same pleasure.

Most dealerships understand the importance of showcasing photos and videos of their inventory on their website, but there are extra steps dealerships can take to stand out and educate their consumers as much as possible. Featured videos have numerous benefits to online car shoppers, increase time and engagement spent on website, and are easy to implement on your car dealership website. 

What are Featured Videos?

Automotive manufactures provide featured videos to help shoppers understand the car in more detail. Although walk around videos can help give car shoppers great insight into the desired vehicle, featured videos provide in depth details about numerous elements of the car without having to search the Internet. The number of feature videos available varies by make and model. There are numerous video types including: 

  • How-to videos
  • Vehicle feature highlight
  • Vehicle overview 

LESA has partnered with numerous manufacturers to provide feature videos, including: 

  • Volvo
  • Volkswagen 
  • Toyota
  • Subaru 
  • Nissan
  • Mitsubishi
  • Mercedes-Benz
  • Mazda
  • Land Rover
  • Jaguar
  • Hyundai
  • Honda
  • GMC
  • Ford
  • Chrysler
  • Dodge
  • BMW
  • Audi
  • Acura
  • Chevrolet
  • Infiniti 

What are the Benefits of Adding Featured Videos to Your Dealership Website?

Car shoppers rely on video to make informed purchasing decisions, but it’s not just walk-around videos they’re searching for. Our convenient feature videos combine OEM vehicle videos with your walk-around videos in the same player. 

Now your shoppers can find all the vehicle info they need in one place, making you the automotive authority and increasing the likelihood of an in-person visit and sale.  Video views are tracked so you can customize your follow-up based on what videos your customers are interested in. Other benefits include: 

  • Decrease bounce rate: when you have all the videos your customers need to inform their choices, there is less reason for them to leave your site to find the info elsewhere.
  • Increase Time on Site: Studies prove that the more time a shopper spends on a site, the more likely they are to buy from it. LESA feature videos help you provide shoppers with the useful, relevant video content they need to stay put on your site.
  • Plug and Play: Your feature videos can be installed immediately after you order it. It’s simple, effective and ready to go when you are.
  • Available Right Away: It’s not easy to shoot a walk around video of the vehicle right away, so until your team has a chance to upload, we can add featured videos so car shoppers have something to look at.
  • It’s Easy to Implement: Adding featured video to your search results page and vehicles details page is extremely easy to implement with the help of LESA team, and requires no maintenance. 

Examples of Featured Videos 

The Bottom Line: 

Most car dealerships have evolved and showcase photos and videos of their inventory on their car dealership website. Studies continue to prove that people enjoy shopping for cars online and the numbers are expected to grow. Your dealership needs to provide as much information as possible to help car shoppers make online purchasing decisions. Featured videos are a great way to make your car dealership stand out, and increase time spent on your website.

Get Started with Featured Videos on Your Car Dealership Website Today!

LESA featured video library includes numerous makes and models across multiple manufactures. Videos are easy to implement and involve no complicated maintenance from the car dealership. Let’s get started today!

Custom Backgrounds Car Dealership

Increase Uniformity & Professionalism on Your Car Dealership Website With Custom Backgrounds

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Online car shopping has grown tremendously in popularity since the pandemic started. Most car dealerships are able to equip their shoppers with the information they need on their website  to make important purchasing decisions.

However, certain obstacles don’t always make it easy to showcase your cars online. Seasonal changes such as rain and snow can make it tough to showcase your inventory online. LESA is helping car dealerships create professional photo library that stand out compared to competition with custom backgrounds.

Why Do I Need Custom Backgrounds?

Not all car dealerships have the perfect staging area to shoot inventory photos and videos. Especially dealerships in the city environment aren’t able to take professional photos of their inventory to showcase online. In fact, numerous dealerships pay tens of thousands of dollars for a proper staging area. Custom backgrounds is a much more economical alternative to having a professional background.

 Additionally, as mentioned above, seasonal obstacles such as rain or snow can create challenges while shooting vehicle inventory photos and videos. With cars selling as fast as they are, your dealership doesn’t have days to wait until the weather clears to put your cars online.

Custom backgrounds can help your website have a professional feel, which can also help build trust with potential car shoppers. Custom backgrounds can improve the car shopping experience on your website in numerous ways:

  • Shorten Time to Market: Don’t worry about exact vehicle placement when shooting your photos. Shoot as-is and leave the background to us.
  • Increase Uniformity: Bring consistency to your site for a clean, professional look. This is especially helpful to have consistency across your search results page.
  • Increase Brand Recognition: Make a lasting brand impression with every photo with an added logo.
  • Shift Focus: Take attention away from surrounding elements and let the viewer focus on what matters: your inventory
  • Maintain authenticity and stand out: So many car dealerships use images that look alike. Your dealership has the chance to stand out by creating custom backgrounds.

Two Types of Custom Backgrounds for Your Car Dealership Website

LESA offers two types of custom backgrounds for your car dealership website.

Option 1- Hybrid Background: A hybrid background has the ability to remove the background of the image while keeping the floor. This provides a consistent look and feel across your website to help car shoppers focus on the vehicles opposed to background distractions.

Option 2- Full Background Replacement: A full background replacement completely removes the car from the original environment and uses different floors and a different background image. To do this, the LESA team adds shadows and professional shading to ensure the car does not look fake in it’s new environment.

Custom Backgrounds: Make Your Dealership Website Stand Out

Having a great car dealership website is essential in today’s environment, as numerous car shoppers are pivoting from researching and buying cars online from traditional visits to the dealership. Custom backgrounds can make a huge difference, and ensure a professional look and feel across your entire website. Contact a LESA representative today.

Video on Your Car Dealership Search Results Page

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Video is an important element to any website in 2022. Especially for car dealerships looking to sell cars online, it’s essential to have information in the right place. Studies have shown that shoppers prefer to engage with dealerships off of the search results page compared to the vehicles details page. Your car dealership can increase engagement and incoming leads by adding a video button to the search results page when browsing for vehicles.

What are the Benefits of Vehicle Walk Around Videos on Your Website?

Videos are an essential part of any website where consumers are trying to learn and shop. Here are just some of the benefits of employing video on your car dealership website:

  • Walk around Videos can help shoppers make buying decisions leading to increased sales.
  • Videos engages the consumers more and results in increased time spent on site. 
  • Walk around videos along with their accompanying text and photos provide the consumer with a better sense of the vehicle than just photos alone especially when they prefer to shop online. 
  • Videos are ideal content to promote in most social media venues.

Most Car Dealerships Currently Aren’t Implementing Video on The Search Results Page

For years, dealerships have wanted car shoppers to go to the vehicles details page (VDP) on their websites. In fact, website providers would be incentivized for getting consumers to the VDP as they would measure how much traffic was being driven there.

A recent study conducted by Dealer-E-Process, who has over 2500 dealership websites, showed that this common website tactic actually does not align with consumer shopping behavior. Although numerous leaders in the automotive industry don’t implement video on the search results page, they SHOULD be based on new data. Here’s why…

How Can Video on the Search Results Page Increase Engagement?

When shopping for a car on a website, you typically are browsing through multiple listings of cars. Car shoppers need to click through to a vehicle details page for more information. However, recently, websites have allowed car shoppers to gather more detail from the search results page, so shoppers don’t have to click back and forth between pages when they want more information. This simplifies the shopping process while still providing shoppers with the information they need.

In fact, the study conducted by Dealer-E-Process showed that 64% of shoppers prefer to engage off the search results page compared to the vehicle details page. This resulted in increased time spent on website and increased conversions. Having the right information in the right place is key.

Dealerships should not incentivize website providers based on traffic sent to the vehicle details page, as engagement increases when you keep consumers on the search results page giving them access to the information they need to learn about the car.

Adding a video button on the search results page that allows the consumer to click for a lightbox to appear showing a walk around video of the vehicle is proven to increase engagement on the search results page. 

What is Driving This Major Change in Website Layout?

Consumer behavior is making dealerships rethink the strategic layout of their website. The data proves that consumers prefer browsing from the search results page rather than click in and out of the vehicle details page. Car dealerships need to tailor their strategies to the methods that consumers prefer, not what the traditional standard has been in the past. Shopping behaviors continue to evolve and its essential your car dealership can stay on top of new trends to convert car shoppers into car buyers.

LESA Can Help Implement Videos on the Search Results Page

LESA is the largest dealer video inventory provider and help dealerships nationwide implement video tools throughout their website. Adding simple video tools to your website can help empower consumers in making purchasing decisions without multiple trips to the dealership.

In fact, LESA analyzed Google Analytics data from car dealerships to evaluate the effectiveness of video on the car dealership websites to discover if it was helping car dealerships sell cars. The quick answer is YES, websites with video capabilities were increasing the website conversion rate drastically. Check out our study here.

Two Video Apps Helping Car Dealerships Showcase Vehicles and Boost Sales Online. 

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The last two years have pushed car dealerships to evolve focusing on digital channels and selling cars online. The transformation in the automotive industry came quicker than expected due to the push by COVID-19. As car dealerships continue to adapt and tailor their strategies towards online channels, they should be aware of tools they can use to help sell cars online.

LESA automotive offers two different video apps for car dealerships to help showcase vehicles online and boost sales online. Let’s take a look at the apps and how each one of them can benefit your car dealership. 

Dealer Video Inventory App

The Dealer Video Inventory (DVI) App allows your in-house photographer or professional lot services company to easily record walk around 360 videos of your car dealership inventory. For used cars, the video can showcase the condition of the vehicle  which builds trust, credibility and customer confidence.  Shopping for new cars has become a very personalized experience. Video can help consumers shop and browse custom features. The DVI app can help showcase all the different new makes and models helping consumers shop without having to go to multiple dealerships.

How Does It Work?

Your photographer can easily capture automotive videos, photos, and ultra 360 spins for your dealership’s inventory in minutes. Not only can the app to shoot videos, but they can also take all photos on the app as well, merging both photographs and video into one simple solution.

Step 1: Scan the VIN

Find or add a vehicle instantly. Use the camera to easily scan the VIN. The app will automatically find the vehicle or you can add it to the inventory.

Step 2: Capture video

Record an HD full-motion walk around video and capture photos simultaneously. Add optional voiceover, background music and more after upload.

3. Upload to Website

Upload and syndicate your videos to your dealer website, social media channels and third-party providers within hours from smartphone.

The Benefits of the Dealer Video Inventory App

Recording Videos Has Never Been Easier: Your in house photographer or lot service company can easily record vehicle walk around videos and capture photos in just a few minutes. All you have to do is record the video on your mobile device, and upload and syndicate to your dealership website and third party providers. Additionally, the DVI app will automatically create ultra 360 spin and upload it to your dealership website. The app can easily capture photos, videos and ultra 360 spin in just minutes. 

Videos Help Your Audience Retain Information: Viewers retain 95% of a video’s message as compared to 10% if reading it in text. Emotions play a significant role in retaining information. Video allows the car shopper to be there without being there in person.

Increase Engagement and Time Spent on Website: The more time a viewer spends on a shopping page, the more likely they are to buy. People spend on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without. Our full-motion walk-around videos have an 80% completion ratio average for a 2-minute video. This shows consumers are engaged and recognize the value that video provides.

It’s Extremely Cost Effective: Video production can be extremely time consuming and expensive. Many car dealerships think that having vehicle walk around videos requires hiring a videographer which can cost thousands of dollars. LESA video inventory vehicles have changed that, making it easier than ever for your in-house photographer to shoot vehicle walk around videos. Not only can your photographer use the app to shoot videos, but they can also take all photos on the app as well, merging both photographs and video and 360 ultra spin into one simple solution. The photos and videos taken from each car are saved in the app and can be easily uploaded to your car dealership website in just two hours.

Interact with Features That Matter Most to Customers: LESA spotlight features allows consumers to view key highlights in the video and interact with features that matter most. Spotlight easily helps car shoppers identify the wheel, headlight, steering wheel, odometer/speedometer, navigation system in the video.

Drive Organic Traffic with Video SEO: Video SEO is an under explored aspect of SEO. Having video on your website allows google to drive traffic to your website.

Dealer Video Suite App 

The Dealer Video Suite (DVS) app is a video toolbox for your sales team and BDC (business development center) team, bringing your dealership closer to your clients than ever before via personalized videos.

Types of Videos on LESA Video Suite

Vehicle Walk Around:

If you are using the DVI app to capture video walk around, you can leverage the library you already have to send personalized vehicle videos. What really makes this app effective is that you can send a video of a car to an incoming lead without the sales person having to leave their desk to shoot the video. However, if the sales team wants to go out and capture and send a vehicle walk around instead of using the library they can do it on the DVS app. The app easily allows you to send a video of the car of interest in addition to custom branding, custom VoiceOver, background music, and more.

The picture in picture features allows sales rep to put a recorded video of themselves on vehicle video, allowing the potential customer to see the car and sales person in one video.

Let’s face it, most consumers hate the sales tactics used by car salesman and feeling pressured into buying a car when they are at the dealership The picture in picture helps establish trust increasing the likelihood of the consumer visiting the dealership and the eventual purchase of a car. Additionally, the sales team can upload the video to a dealership branded landing page which can then be emailed or texted to the recipient. 

Picture in picture feature allows the sales team to easily send vehicles to incoming leads

Vehicle Testimonial

The Vehicle Testimonial feature allows you to capture positive customer reviews during the delivery of the vehicle and before they drive off the lot.  The DVS App allows sales reps to shoot positive customer review videos and share them on your dealership’s social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

In a competitive environment, reviews are very important. Numerous consumers search for dealership reviews before committing to purchasing a vehicle, to ensure other consumers had a positive experience. LESA video suite uses proprietary SEO video techniques once the testimonial video is uploaded to your car dealership website to ensure your reviews are being found on Google. If a potential customer searches “your dealership name” and “reviews”, the testimonial videos will come up at the top of the first page of Google. 

Promo Videos

Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. The promo videos in the DVS App allows you to easily create promo videos with our app and instantly publish to your dealer website without involving the website provider. 

For example, if your car dealership is running a Fourth of July special you can create a custom promo video and tailor it to any make or model applicable to show up after the vehicle video on the car dealership website. The app even allows you to select an end date, so the promo video will automatically disappear off your website without having to go in and manually remove. The promo videos are so easy to upload, it removes the need to involve a website provider which can cost extra time and money. Additionally, you don’t have to hire a professional videographer, the promo video can be shot entirely from a cell phone.

Thank You Videos

Every brand interaction leaves an impression. As a car dealership, you want to end the deal on a warm, fuzzy note to create customers for life. Thank you videos allow you to increase referrals and repeat business by adding a personal touch. It’s a simple and smart solution to increase your dealership revenue.

Thank you videos also allow the car dealership to introduce the services department to their new customer. That way, if their vehicle needs any repairs they know who to call.

The Bottom Line: It’s Time to Elevate Your Online Strategy

LESA is the largest provider of online video solutions for car dealerships with thousands of dealerships using their tools. LESA has the data that proves the success video can provide for car dealerships. Check out the study they conducted to learn more. 

LESA’s Photo Library Capabilities Helping Car Dealership During the Chip Shortage

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The chip shortage has had a tremendous effect on the automotive industry. Although the auto industry only represents about 5% of the chip industry,  the shortage cost the global auto industry about $210 billion in lost revenue in 2021, according to Alix Partners. There are steps that car dealerships can take to help sell new vehicles while in transit, thanks to LESA’s photo library capabilities. Let’s take a look into the chip shortage and how car dealerships can respond. 

How Did the Chip Shortage Happen?

The crisis started back in March 2020 when the world was forced to shut down as COVID-19 was spreading rapidly. This forced automakers to shut down plants and temporarily halt orders from suppliers. While the shut down was taking place, this resulted in increased demand for cell phones, televisions, computers, games and home appliances as millions around the world were forced to stay at home. Chipmakers rerouted their supply to the industries that needed it most, like the electronics industry, as consumers were eagerly willing to pay more for the devices. 

The automotive industry came back sooner than expected with the help of online shopping in the summer of 2020, resulting in chip suppliers being unable to provide products to the automotive industry. 

What Does This Mean for Car Dealerships?

The chip shortage has created a few notable problems for car dealerships 

  1. Manufacturing delays: manufacturing delays is increasing the transit time of new vehicles. Many car dealerships don’t physically have access to the vehicles but have the ability to start selling them due to the heightened demand for cars. How can a car dealership sell cars without physically having it? With the help of photos and videos online.
  2. Increasing Popularity of Custom orders: Numerous consumers are willing to place custom orders due to the inventory shortage. Car dealerships need to be able to show customers the options since they don’t physically have sample cars to show. There are typically hundreds of makes and models, so it can be difficult to showcase options without inventory. 
  3. No Inventory: The chip shortage is causing major inventory delays. No one wants to shop at an empty car dealership, so car dealerships need to equip their website with options for consumers whether they are custom orders or cars in transit. Having photos can help ensure your website visitors don’t view an empty website. 

LESA’s photo library technology is helping bridge the gap between the problems car dealerships experience due to the chip shortage.

A Solution for Car Dealerships During the Chip Shortage in 2022

The chip shortage is causing numerous problems for car dealerships and equipping themselves with LESA’s photo library with thousands of sample photos of hundreds of makes and models can be an easy way to help their car shoppers feel like they still have options while shopping. 

Numerous car dealership websites will place a simple stock photo to account for cars in transit and custom orders on their website, but is this really helping shoppers browse their options? Or does it look like your car dealership has an empty website? LESA is able to provide a library of photos with neutral backgrounds so car shoppers can shop for vehicles while cars are in transit or when looking for custom order options.

Below are some of the sample pictures that LESA can provide for each make and model. Compared to the typical stock photo that car dealerships are currently using, the photo library gives much more detail and visibility into the car features by allowing car shoppers to browse through 20-30 car photos while the car is still in transit. Car dealerships can increase the likelihood of a shopper calling about a car with the detailed photo library.  

Get In Touch with a LESA Representative Today!

Speak with a LESA representative today sales@lesautomotive.com

Scanning the VIN Makes LESA Video Toolbox Easiest Tool on the Market

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Consumers are reluctant to go to the dealership now with the capabilities of shopping for a car online. They expect to see and experience a vehicle online through the use of video to limit their trips to the dealership. This is why LES Automotive has numerous video centric products to help car dealerships easily record and publish walk around videos to their car dealership websites. The dealer video inventory app (DVI) is versatile and allows you to very easily take photos and record high quality videos of the car to help educate car shoppers on important vehicle details. 

A new feature, scanning the VIN to find the vehicle, including the VIN on the windshield, is making LESA technology the simplest and easiest tool to use on the market. Let’s take a look at how this new feature is simplifying the process for car dealerships. 

What Is the Dealer Video Inventory App?

DVI allows car dealerships to easily capture automotive photos and walk around videos for your website in just minutes. They will be available on the dealerships website and syndicated on third party websites as well, such as Autotrader, KBB, and Cars.com. The speed to market of the DVI app is unbeatable, as it allows you to have a walk around video of a car within two hours of it being uploaded. In addition once uploaded, the video will have background music and VoiceOver explaining details of the car.

How Does The New VIN Feature Work?

When you get started with LESA Dealer Video Inventory App, one of the first steps that LESA will do is to fetch your inventory from your inventory management system into the app. Once complete, when your photographer or lot tech opens the app, they will see an “inventory feed” of all the vehicles at the car dealership. 

Many car dealerships may have hundreds of cars, which may seem inconvenient when looking  for a specific vehicle. However, LESA’s new feature, scanning the VIN, easily allows your photographer or lot tech to find the vehicle in just seconds to allow them to capture photos and videos of the car quickly.

Here Are The Ways To Find A Car…

Option #1: At the top of the vehicle list, there is a search bar that allows you to easily search for the stock number.

Option #2: You can take advantage of the VIN on the windshield or barcode on the drivers side door. About 90% of vehicles will have the barcode on the drivers side door.

  • Once the VIN has been scanned, the DVI will bring you to the vehicle details page, containing important details specific to that vehicle, such as the year, make, and model.
  • If the car does not exist in your inventory, there is an option to add the new vehicle to your inventory list to allow you to then shoot photos and video of the newly added vehicle. 

How Does The VIN Feature Benefit Car Dealerships?

This allows your photographer to lot tech to easily record vehicles without spending too much time searching for a car in your inventory list. If your photographer has hundreds of videos they need to shoot on the lot, they need to be as efficient as possible. This will allow your photographer to spend no more than 5 minutes per car to capture video.

Once the videos are uploaded, they will be available on the car dealership website within two hours with custom VoiceOver. DVI is helping car dealerships get their videos up quickly so they can sell the car within hours of it arriving on the lot.

Videos directly benefits car shoppers as video has been proven to have instrumental impact on car shopping online. In fact, users that interacted with video compared to not had a 4x increase in conversions based on dozens of car dealerships we analyzed. 

LESA is the Only Company with This Innovative Technology

We are the only automotive video company that has this Windshield VIN scanning feature. LESA is constantly looking to improve products and being on the forefront of having the best and simplest product on the market.

If your car dealership is looking for an efficient tool to quickly get your vehicles online, increase website traffic, and boost sales, using LESA’s DVI could be a great place to start.

Get Started with LESA Today

Speak with a LESA representative today sales@lesautomotive.com

LESA’s New Technology, Ultra 360 spin, Offers Important Advantages Over Traditional 360 Spin

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Online car shopping has grown exponentially during the last two years pushing car dealerships to create a stronger online presence. This trend does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon as car shoppers prefer to visit the car dealership less and to use online tools when looking for a new car.

So how can a car dealership display it’s inventory on their website? Buying a car is a huge purchase for most consumers, and it is important dealerships equip shoppers with all the information they need to make such a large purchasing decision. LESA’s new feature, Ultra 360 spin, is an innovative technology compared to traditional 360 spin that is helping consumers view the car as if they were there in person thanks to the use of video.

Let’s take a look at traditional 360 spin vs. Ultra 360 spin and the advantages Ultra 360 spin has in helping consumers make important purchasing decisions. 

What is Traditional 360 spin and How Does It Work?

Although traditional360 spin is not technically video, numerous car dealerships have added it to their websites. Traditional 360 spin offers interactive images that allow your customers to view the exterior of a vehicle from every angle.

Traditional 360 spin works similar to a flip book, and is a collection of consecutive photos that creates the illusion of a spin allowing you to view multiple angles of the car. If a consumer views a traditional 360° spin image on their computer, they can drag their mouse to rotate the vehicle. If the image is viewed on a tablet or mobile device, all it takes is a swipe of the finger to rotate the image.

What Is Ultra 360 spin and How Does It Work?

Ultra 360 spin uses video technology to provide seamless and smooth visibility into the condition of the vehicle on the outside and the inside of the car. Ultra 360 spin technology scrubs video footage back and forth giving the car shopper the ability to view numerous angels of the vehicle with the swipe of a finger or click of a mouse. 

The AI spotlight technology allows shoppers to easily zoom on important car details such as cup holders, buttons, tires, steering wheel, navigation and more. Ultra 360 spin technology offers a completely different and more transparent view of the vehicle making it easier than ever to successfully shop for a car from the comfort of your home, without missing any important details. 

For Ultra 360 spin to be implemented, walk around videos must be recorded of each vehicle. Once the walk around vehicle videos are recorded, your dealership can benefit from both vehicle videos and Ultra 360 spin. 

The Advantages of Ultra 360 spin over Traditional 360 Spin?

Traditional 360 spin is broken down into exterior and interior photos. The exterior photos can be rough or smooth depending on the exterior spin is constructed, which could lack the detail needed to view the car. With regards to the interior traditional 360 spin, it is just a 360 photo that is fixed on the arm rest, which allows for minimal detail to be seen since you are spinning from a fixed location. The consumers then must rely on hotspot photos, which they have likely already viewed in the photo gallery. 

Ultra spin, on the other hand, uses video technology to provide a new smooth and seamless view of the car almost as if you were viewing the car in person with the swipe of a finger. Spotlight features allow the consumer to easily view features that matter most in detail. compared to just a photo gallery or a fixed location. The visibility into the interior allows the consumers to see different angles as if you were shopping in person. Hot spots in traditional 360 spin are nothing more than photos that the consumer has already looked at, therefore providing no additional value to help them making important purchasing decision. 

Why Multimedia Features Are Important for Dealerships in 2022?

In 2022, it is time for car dealerships to elevate and innovate with multimedia. Multimedia combines text, graphics, audio, 360 spin and video that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. LESA multimedia player takes on a custom and innovative approach to having multimedia on a car dealership website. The LESA player allows the dealership to have numerous different features for each vehicle, with little effort. The simple tool can help empower consumers to make purchasing decisions without numerous trips to the dealership.

Data from a LESA study which analyzed dozens of car dealerships showed users that interacted with multimedia spent 3x the amount of time on a website then users that did not. Additionally, data from the study showed that car dealerships that implemented video features on their website saw an 400% increase in conversions on their website. Implementing video really can be the difference in turning car shoppers into car buyers. 

The Bottom Line

In 2022, photos won’t be enough to sell cars online. In a competitive environment such as the automotive industry, it is essential car dealerships tailor an online strategy to the preferences of the consumers they serve. Consumers continue to prove that multimedia is the most effective medium to learning and digesting information making Ultra 360 spin an attractive option for car dealerships looking to sell cars online.

Speak with a LESA Representative Today!

Interested in learning more about LESA Video Technology for Car Dealerships? Get Started and talk to a representative today! sales@lesautomotive.com

How Multimedia is Helping Car Dealerships Sell Vehicles

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What Is The LESA Multimedia Player?

LESA multimedia player takes on a custom and innovative approach to having multimedia on a car dealership website. The LESA player allows the dealership to have numerous different features for each vehicle, with little effort. The simple tool can help empower consumers to make purchasing decisions without numerous trips to the dealership. 

We talk more in depth about the player in our previous blog post, “Having a Great Website Includes Multimedia.”

How Will the Multimedia Player Help Sell Cars?

LESA analyzed Google Analytics data from car dealerships to evaluate the effectiveness of the multimedia player to really discover if it was helping car dealerships sell cars. The quick answer is YES, video is absolutely helping car dealerships sell their inventory. There are four ways that video and multimedia is improving the effectiveness of your website: 

  • Increasing session duration
  • Increasing pages/session
  • Increasing events/session
  • Increasing conversions 

Let’s take a deeper look as to how and why video is helping car dealerships sell vehicles. 

Increase Session Duration

We compared a user’s time spent on website when interacting with a multimedia player vs. not interacting with it. The results are astounding. A user that interacted with multimedia spent 3x the amount of time than a user that did not interact with video, increasing session duration by 300%. 

In our sample data of a car dealership we analyzed, the average session duration for a user that interacted with multimedia was 10:35 compared to only 3:02 for users that did not interact with multimedia. We saw similar numbers across a dozen other dealerships.

Why does the multimedia player increase the time spent on the website so drastically? Multimedia provides an engaging and educational experience for car shoppers. It gives them the transparency and the information they need to successfully shop for a car online. 

A good session duration across industry standard ranges anywhere from 2-3 minutes. As you may already know, there are a mountain of evidence that proves the more time a consumer spends on a website the more likely they’re likely to convert to a buyer.  

Increase Pages/ Session Duration

LESA also compared data of the average pages per session of a user that interacted with multimedia compared to a user that did not interact with video and found that video increased the number of pages viewed by 170% compared to no video. What does this mean? The dealership we observed showed that users that interacted with multimedia viewed almost 8 pages (7.92) compared to only 3.13 pages before leaving the website. This could be a huge difference for your dealership, meaning a user could potentially view 8 cars instead of 3 before leaving. 

Why does the multimedia player increase pages/session? The information that video presents to car shoppers keeps them engaged and confident that they are truly getting a great preview of the car. It heightens their curiosity and results in them viewing more makes and models the dealership has to offer.

Increase Events/Session 

An event is considered any activity that a user takes on your page. This could include button clicks, video plays, form submissions, looking at the description section of the vehicles, viewing the window sticker, scrolling down the page, and more. 

The multimedia player also had a substantial impact on increasing events/session compared to a user experience without interacting with video. In our analysis, we found that users that interacted with video saw a 150% increase in events taken on the webpage compared to users that did not interact with video. The average number of events per session in the dealership observed was 30 compared to 12. This 2.5X increase could help your car dealership convert shoppers into buyers.

Why do videos increase events? Videos interactive and educational nature help keep users engaged on your website, resulting in a user wanting to see and explore more of the website. Empowering users to take action on your website is the goal, and videos can help users take meaningful options resulting in converting car shoppers into car buyers.

Increase Goal Conversion Rate

Finally, and most importantly, video is proven to increase goal conversion rate. Many dealerships have already set up goal conversions in Google Analytics. Goal conversions could include submitting a check availability form, engaging in chat, clicking on the phone number to call, and more. In order to track how many consumers are converting. We are looking at the same consumers who interacted with the multimedia player if they also converted through the goal conversion tracking. This  allowed us to see there was a 400% increase conversion compared to consumers that did not interact with the multimedia player in the dealership we observed. The numbers were similar across over a dozen dealerships that were analyzed. 

An industry standard conversion rate is between 2-4%, however,  certain car dealerships using the LESA multimedia player with video on average are seeing a 14% conversion rate. This means that car shoppers really are turning into car buyers, and contacting car dealerships to take action. 

Take Action: Improve Your Website So Car Shoppers Become Car Buyers

LESA encourages each car dealership to review their Google Analytics and compare the session duration, pages per session, events per session, and goal conversion rates to the rates with the multimedia player analytics we shared above. Multimedia can without a doubt improve your website, and convert car shoppers into car buyers.

The Bottom Line: 

Using Google Analytics LESA proved that video is truly making an impact! Having a multimedia player such as the LESA multimedia can really help your car dealerships sell cars. It’s an easy and affordable way to convert car shoppers into car buyers. 

LES Automotive Multimedia: How Do I Get started?

Reach out to a representative today at https://www.lesautomotive.com/contact/

We’ll help you setup a custom report in Google Analytics that you can use to compare your key GA analytics before and after adding video to your site.