Product News & Updates

Check out the latest Dealer.com product news and updates to help you make the most of your products and help your dealership succeed.

New Xtime Service Scheduler Enhancement

Now Available in Dealer.com Websites

Now you can view the Web Scheduler in a new easy-to-use, interactive format. When an Xtime Service customer is on a Dealer.com desktop website and navigates to the Service page to make an appointment, a full height modal window will appear on the screen rather than the current framed in experience. Buttons are also visible on the main screen, thereby eliminating scrolling. Test results have shown a 7% increase in service appointment scheduling with this new format. No action is required to use this new experience.

Check out the Release Notes in ControlCenter to learn more.

Don’t have Xtime Schedule? Find out more about how you can capture and drive service business and increase retention by providing a truly digital experience with Xtime Schedule by clicking below.

Product

News & Updates

January 2022

Dealer.com Webchat Provider Transition

New Provider – ActivEngage

Starting in early January, we will begin removing LivePerson products like Contact at Once! and activating chat products from ActivEngage. No change in pricing is associated with this migration.

You will maintain the flexibility to manage chat yourself, co-manage, or have ActivEngage fully manage the experience 24/7/365 with their team of automotive Customer Engagement Experts.

This move also allows us to provide a single chat platform across Autotrader, Accelerate My Deal, and Dealer.com websites, streamlining experience and providing deeper insights into their buying journey.

Please fill out this setup form to start the process.

2021

reCAPTCHA Badge Positioning Update

Cox Automotive has developed the ability to move the reCAPTCHA badge positioning. Previously, the badge was covering third-party tools with no option for movement. This new version will enable you to adjust positioning of the reCAPTCHA badge, choosing right or left along with determining the vertical offset.

Questions about the update? Contact your Performance Manager.

Additional Specials Campaign Manager Vehicle Filter Options

Dealer.com has added five additional vehicle filter options within Specials Campaign Manager. These options include Modal Code, Status, Classification, Fuel Type, and Featured Inventory.

View the Release Notes in ControlCenter.

New Interior Website Page Designs Now Available

Dealer.com’s User Experience team has designed new Interior Pages to help you enhance your overall brand perception and dealership experience. These new About Us, Contact Us/Directions, Service and Parts Center, and Schedule Service pages give site visitors a quality digital dealership experience from any device that is driven by user experience research and best practices.

Talk with your Performance Manager to see if these new pages are right for you. 

New to Accelerate My Deal: Shopper Document Uploads

Increase the actions your shoppers can take to speed up their vehicle purchase.

Dealer.com is proud to announce new functionality within our digital retailing solution, Accelerate My Deal, that helps your customers securely submit personal documents from any device. Once a deal has been submitted from your website, your customers can quickly upload necessary paperwork including Driver’s License, Proof of Insurance, W2 and Paystubs. Documents are stored within Dealertrack for easy retrieval, giving you a more complete deal jacket, saving time in-store, and minimizing document management errors. 

Doubling Down on the Data

Cox Automotive Data Solutions and Dealer.com work together to synthesize first-party buying signals from across our brands, and we put that data to work to help you understand in-market shoppers in your region.

Are You Sending Your Dealership to Tokyo?

Nearly 60% of U.S. adults plan to watch at least some Olympic events later this month.* Event-based video and display advertising buys are a great way to capture the attention of shoppers consuming new media. Dealer.com can help you reach shoppers streaming the Olympics, and other big events, across Connected TVs and other video platforms.

*Source: 22 June 2021, nscreenmedia.com

Managing Risks to Your Reputation

According to the SEO experts at MOZ, customer reviews shape your reputation and impact conversions, sales and service*, so how do you ensure your customers are reading the right things about your dealership? Dealer.com’s holistic Review Generation and Reputation Management services can help your dealership collect and thoughtfully respond to all customer reviews, so you can showcase your dealership’s commitment to customer service across key marketing channels.

*Source: Moz, The State of Local SEO Industry Report (2020)

Cox Automotive Digital Retailing is Now Accelerate My Deal

Cox Automotive Digital Retailing, the solution trusted by more than 7100 dealerships and endorsed by 30 manufacturers, has a new name. Effective June 14, 2021, the product name has been changed to Accelerate My Deal. There is no impact to functionality. The new name will be reflected in your next invoice. Please reach out to your Performance Manager if you have any questions.

Dealer.com Advertising Earns Accolades for Protecting Dealers from Cybercrime

Our Advertising solution has been honored for the fourth consecutive year with a Certified Against Fraud Seal from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), the leading global certification program fighting online ad deception and increasing trust in the digital advertising industry. Dealer.com is the only automotive advertising company to attain this important certification from TAG, and joins a roster of global brands including Google, Adobe, AT&T, WebMD and more.

Advertising in Action

Moe Saab, General Sales Manager of Downey Hyundai of Southern California, was looking for expert guidance. In a very competitive market, Saab was looking for a way to dominate his local market, go toe-to-toe with two bigger area competitors, and grow his dealership. In the search for a competitive advantage, Saab found Mario Martinez, his Dealer.com Advertising Analyst.

Now in ControlCenter: Watch the Page Designer Tutorials

Build full-width, responsive pages in minutes!

Previously, we told you about Page Designer, a new tool in ControlCenter that will help you build great looking pages for your Digital Storefront. Page Designer provides a flexible and powerful framework for you to design and deploy dynamic website experiences. Two new tutorials are now available in ControlCenter to help get you on your way!

Turn Data into Digital Marketing that Works

Dealer.com is powering consumer experiences from anywhere.

It takes powerful data to personalize digital experiences for your shoppers – wherever they are. With Dealer.com, you unlock the power of Cox Automotive data, which touches 75% of all automotive consumers in the U.S., to create conversations relevant to your customer’s place in the car shopping journey.

Giving Shoppers What They Want

Delivering a website experience personalized to each shopper’s needs is great customer service. In fact, recommending vehicles and relevant specials to your website visitors based on their preferences is a courtesy that helps your customer take that next step with greater expediency. In fact, last year, Dealer.com compared website visits where personalization was present with visits where it wasn’t.

2020

Personalization Inspires Website Engagement

Experience Optimization, Dealer.com’s personalization technology, is an important part of your Digital Storefront. It is also a demonstration of how Cox Automotive data and insights are used to help you deliver the best website experience for car shoppers. Earlier this year, we studied the impact that personalized content had on shopper website engagement and digital retailing performance.

Contact your Performance Manager or click here to learn more.

New Media Library Experience Now Available

Simplified media asset management in Control Center
Dealer.com newly redesigned Media Library experience makes it faster and easier for dealers to upload and manage images and video assets within Control Center. This no-cost upgrade marks another important milestone in the modernization of dealer tools within Control Center.

This is a no cost upgrade available now. Simply login to Control Center, navigate to Promotions and Specials, then Media, and select New Media Library. To ensure a seamless transition to the new Media Library, clients will continue to have access to the older version of the Media Library until further notice.

Contact your Performance Manager or click here to learn more.

Display Your Remote Services at the Digital Point-of-Sale

More than ever, customers want contactless, remote car buying options. We’ve launched a new customizable widget for your Vehicle Deal Pages (VDP) to help communicate your dealerships’ remote car buying capabilities. Facilitate at-home car buying and give your shoppers more confidence to take that next step. Contact your performance manager for more information or click below to read more about this new feature for your VDPs.

Upgrade Your Browser. Dealer.com Is Ending its Support for Internet Explorer 11

Earlier this year, Microsoft opted to end its support for Internet Explorer 11 to focus on features with its newer search engines, Edge and Chromium. In order to ensure a safe and secure browsing experience for our customers and yours, the Dealer.com Platform will no longer support the Internet Explorer 11 browser after 12/1/2020. What does this mean for you?

About 1.1% of all traffic to the Dealer.com network uses Internet Explorer 11. Shoppers using the outdated browsers will be notified of the upcoming changes when they visit your website for a period of 60days, andwill be encouraged to update their browser.

If you currently access ControlCenter via through the Internet Explorer 11 browser, please ask your IT department to update your browser to a newer version, such as Edge, Chrome or Firefox. If you have any questions about this change, please click here or contact your Performance Manager.

New Features Provide Deeper Engagement in Video Ad Content

To help you deliver inventory, service, and sales messages with greater precision across key video channels, Dealer.com has released several key updates to our turnkey video advertising solution:

Target Low-Funnel Shoppers on Facebook: Target in-market shoppers on Facebook, including those who have researched vehicles on Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.
True-ViewFor Action on YouTube: Win more clicks with your video ads by displaying a “Shop Now” call-to-action throughout the entire video. (Remember, you only pay when shoppers watch all the way through).
New Fixed Ops & Digital Retailing Videos: Extend your marketing message with new Fixed-Ops and Digital Retailing video templates, now available with our flexible and fast turnkey solution.

For more information about our turnkey and custom video offerings, and about special promotions going on now, contact your Performance Manager, or click below to learn more.

“Start a Deal” with Shoppers with Digital Retailing and VinSolutions Connect CRM

Build trust with shoppers by sending personalized deals directly from VinSolutions Connect CRM. Shoppers can view complete deals through a simple link sent over email, text or messenger. Offers sent through Start a Deal are recorded automatically within the CRM.

New SRP Design Coming Your Way

Delivering a digital storefront experience for more than 12,500 dealerships gives us unprecedented access to data that helps us improve the consumer journey. This fall, we will begin upgrading clients- at no cost- to a new responsive inventory search experience. The new SRP features more convenient tools to help your shoppers reach the right vehicle and delivers a more efficient path to your VDPs from any device. Reach out to your Performance Manager for more information.

For personalized training, please contact the Performance Management team at 1-888-426-0205 or submit a Request Form.