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Part II: Enhance Your Virtual Showroom with Multimedia and Measure it’s Effectiveness with LESA Stats Reports

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In Part I, we discussed the importance of having a great virtual showroom as online car shopping continues to soar in popularity. Static photos won’t be enough to engage online car shoppers, and a multimedia website experience continues to be dynamic and beneficial for car dealerships. 

LESA’s overall stats portal helps offers a comprehensive view to how your vehicle videos are performing on your website. Part II of the LESA stats report has numerous other statistics that continue to prove the effectiveness of multimedia and give dealerships insight into viewer behavior.  

Let’s take a look at the type of insights your dealership can get with our custom report. Below is a stats report from one LESA dealership, but we see similar patterns across our thousands of dealership analytics. 

Part II : Multimedia Results in Higher Website Engagement 

By Viewer 

Completion Chart: How much of the video watched was completed before moving on to the next video or leaving the website. 0-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, and 75+ %. 

If a customer watched 75% of a vehicle video, one count would be added to the 75-100% column. Across our data from thousands of LESA dealerships, the completion chart is typically U-shaped with 0-24% being high, and 75%+ being high.  

Viewer Makeup Chart: This chart represents the number of times a video was watched per unique viewer. If a unique viewer watched 4 videos they would be counted as a four-time viewer. 

What does this mean? Very few people watch half the video. People either quickly determine they are not interested in the car, or they will watch the entire video. In this dealership, we see that slightly more than 20% of people watched 6 or more videos. This is very common across the board from the data we have analyzed from all of LESA dealerships. Videos are very engaging and can help consumers stay focused on your website 

By Time Period  

View Engagements by days of the week: The total number of Video View Engagements that occurred on each Monday – Sunday for that month of reporting. This may help car dealership understand which days they have the most engagement each week, prompting them to post new content on these days. 

View Engagements by days of the month: The total number of Video View Engagements that occurred on each day of the month. If you see a spike, it could be due to a holiday such as July 4th. Usually, there is a spike on the weekends when people have time to shop for cars. This is common and can help you tailor promotions around peak days and hours. 

What Does This Mean? Spikes can happen due to holidays or weekends which helps car dealerships determine which days they should publish content and promotions.  

Video Engagement By Vehicle Characteristics 

Top 6 Vehicle Years: The top 6 Vehicle Years measured by view engagements. This should continue to trend upward over time as video continues to gain popularity. Our data continues to show that new vehicle videos are very popular! The data trending over time as shown that new vehicle videos are actually some of the most popular. 

Top 6 Makes Viewed:  The top 6 vehicle makes measured by views engagements. This can help car dealerships determine which cars are the most popular on their website. 

Top 6 Models Viewed: The top 6 Models, and all other models shown as ‘Other’, measured as percentages on a pie chart. The totals are from by view engagements for that Model. This can help car dealerships determine which models are the most popular on their car dealership website. 

What Does This Mean? It allows the dealership to do direct measurement of vehicles. For example, if the dealership has any doubt that showcasing new cars is necessary, the data will show you that new models are the most viewed (see below) and shooting new car videos is necessary. It can also help show which models were most viewed helping dealerships properly merchandise and stock cars that people want. 

Top 6 Vehicles: The top 6 Year/Make/Model measured in view engagements. Also included is the ‘other’ category which includes the number of engagements for the rest of the year/make/ models outside of the top 6. This can help car dealerships gauge which vehicles were the most viewed and popular on their website which could signal which cars are in highest demand. 

Top 6 Stock Numbers: The top 6 Stock Numbers measured in view engagements. Also included is the ‘other’ category which includes the number of engagements for the rest of the models outside of the top 6. 

What Does This Mean?. Dealerships can clearly see if having vehicle videos helped certain cars sell faster compared to those, they did not feature video for (based on hundreds of reports from LESA dealerships- the answer is yes! It does help.) 

By Interactivity  

Spotlight Activity: Tracks the total number of times each spotlight category was hit. This can be helpful to car dealerships in understanding which features of the vehicle are most important to the car shoppers.  

Ultra Spin  

Ultra- Spin 360 Engagements- # of swipes tracked when a user is spinning through Ultra- Spin.  

Time on Ultra-Spin 360- The total time users spent interacting with Ultra-Spin in the LESA video player on the dealership’s website(s), Cars.com, and anywhere else our LESA video player is interacted with, for that dealer.  

What Does This Mean? Based on the data from a dealership below, there were over 10 hours of Ultra Spin views on their website. Not only are consumers engaging on video, but they are also spending a lot of time engaging with Ultra Spin.  This highlights that multimedia is an important element of any successful website. It means that your dealership needs a multimedia experience with videos, photos and ultra-spin. They want to learn as much about the car in a multimedia experience.   

The Bottom Line:  

LESA stats report helps you track engagements and user behavior and measure which vehicles have more views, which models shoppers are more interested in, and which days/hours vehicles are more likely to sell. Stats help dealerships understand which vehicles the consumers are more drawn towards leading to more effective merchandising.  

Most importantly, LESA stats portal shows that a multimedia experience is what helps engage consumers, which results in increased time on your dealership website. Video, photos, and ultra-spin are all important elements in helping consumers get a full sense of the vehicle they want to buy. The stats from LESA’s reports and across thousands of dealerships prove that multimedia is what gives your digital showroom a competitive advantage to selling vehicles online. 

Get Started With Video Today 

In the competitive automotive industry, your car dealership is falling behind if you don’t integrate multimedia throughout your website. Connect with a representative today to get started. 

Enhance Your Virtual Showroom with Multimedia and Measure it’s Effectiveness with LESA Stats Reports

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Historically, dealerships have spent top dollar to ensure they have great show rooms to showcase cars. As the car shopping environment continues to transform digitally, dealerships should now put a greater emphasis on ensuring they have a great virtual showroom. Many car dealerships neglect the digital show room by showing static photos, but a multimedia experience is necessary to appeal to the new generation of online shoppers.  Your website is one of your greatest assets in 2022 and its essential to continually enhance and monitor performance

LESA online video statistics portal is helping car dealerships review their vehicle video website data to make better vehicle merchandising decisions and optimize their website. Additionally, LESA has thousands of dealerships with multimedia data which helps us analyze important consumer behavior and trends across the nation, helping give your dealership a competitive edge.

Let’s take a look at what the video statistics portal can offer your car dealership better understanding on how to help consumers that prefer visiting a digital showroom. Part I of this article will cover the overall video statics report, and Part II will break down specific details into what consumers are interested in and a deeper analysis of consumer behavior. Your dealership will benefit from understanding the impact multimedia has on your website.

Part I: Overall Video Statistics Report

The overall vehicle video statistics report offers a comprehensive view into how your vehicle videos are performing on your website. Let’s take a look at the dashboard and break down each part.

Total Video View Engagements: The total number of video view engagements from the dealerships walk around video traffic. This includes engagements from the dealerships website(s), AutoTrader, KBB, Cars.com, and others. For example, other engagements can come from the dealerships Facebook video inventory gallery, and views from a shared link of a full motion video.

Unique Video Viewers: The total number of unique video viewer IP addresses that accounted for watching at least one video. If more than one person from a single router IP address watch video, then only one unique viewer is counted for that routers IP address. For example, If two people from the same household watch videos of vehicles, they are treated as one unique video viewer for that routers IP address.

Total time on LESA Player: The total time spent on the LESA multimedia player on the dealerships website, including videos, photos, feature videos and 360 spin. This number gives a great representation of the impact multimedia has on your dealership website. This number is very important to monitor as the more time spent on your website, the more likely it is that people are interested in your vehicles. Dealerships can also compare this stat to similar metrics in Google Analytics prior to implementing multimedia to see the difference in engagement.

AutoTrader Engagements: The total number of view engagements from AutoTrader. This total is included in Total Video View Engagements.

cars.com Engagements: The total number of view engagements from Cars.com. This total is included in Total Video View Engagements.

KBB Engagements: The total number of view engagements from KBB. This total is included in Total Video View Engagements.

Vehicles with Video: The total number of both active and any sold vehicles shot with video within the specified month of reporting.

Total Vehicles Moved: The total number of vehicles in inventory that left the dealership.

For example, when a vehicle is sold it is counted as a vehicle moved.

Vehicles with Video Moved: The total number of vehicles in inventory that had video taken before they left the dealership.

Leads Received: The total number of how many times a customer filled out the “more information” form attached to the video. It’s important to keep in mind that leads from your website can come through many different ways, so the leads captured on the multimedia player are just a bonus to the numerous leads that come with having a video-centric website.

By Trends

Trends- Unique Video Viewers in last 12 months: A line graph displaying Unique Viewers that can span over the last 12 months. This helps a car dealership gauge how many new views the vehicle videos are bringing to the website.

Trends- Vehicles Moved in last 12 months: A line graph displaying the number of vehicles moved over a span of 12 months.

LESA has analyzed hundreds of dealership data, and has found there is a direct positive correlation between the video viewers and vehicles sold. The more viewers of videos results in an increase in vehicles moved.

By Technology

Engagement by Platform: The total View Engagements measured in a pie chart by Platform.

Mobile Phone, Desktop/Laptop, Tablet, are the platforms tracked. Any view engagements not traceable to a platform are listed as Other. This can help car dealerships understand the percentage of engagements that come from mobile devices. Websites may need to be specifically tailored to attract mobile users.

Websites may need to be specifically tailored to attract mobile users. Five years ago, traffic consisted from half desktop and half mobile. We have seen through analytics that mobile consists of 80%+ of visits. We highly recommend car dealerships to have a mobile friendly approach. Our LESA multimedia player is very mobile optimized and can easily accommodate for visitors shopping for cars on their phones.

How Is The Overall Overview Report Helpful?

This section allows you to see the impact that multimedia is having across your website and the dealer’s third-party car portal websites. You can gauge how many views, engagements and leads are being created from your LESA multimedia player. Additionally, you can keep track how many cars for sale currently have video, and how many cars with videos are selling.

We recommend that dealerships compare data from months prior to implementing multimedia via their Google Analytics  Channel to see the power of multimedia. Based on the data LESA has seen from hundereds of dealerships, it will prove the effectiveness and power of creating an  engaging and excellent digital showroom.

To be Continued

In Part II, we will break down the second part of the statitics report which will break down specific details into what consumers are interested in and a deeper analysis of consumer behavior.

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

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.

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

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

Written on . Posted in News.

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.