Why VINFactor and Why Now?
I’ve been asked recently why we've launched VINFactor, and why the timing is right for this product.
Over the past 9 months, we’ve had a chance to speak with and get feedback from hundreds of dealers.
Through these conversations, we’ve repeatedly heard from dealers that they’re tired of many of their existing software solutions (some examples include: “this software costs too much”, "why do I have software if my team won't use it?”, “this doesn’t provide me with actionable insights”, "I have to work too hard to make it work for me”, "my guys can't be tied to their desk to do their jobs", and "I need something that’s always on”).
Dealer Feedback on Current Industry Software Tools
We've summarized all of our dealer feedback into the following areas:
Actionability: Tools need to do a better job of telling the dealership employee exactly what to do it and why.
Interoperability: Dealers still have multiple software tools running on their machines that don’t communicate with one another.
Cost: Many software solutions are simply out of reach for the average dealer, and especially the smaller franchised and independent dealer.
Accountability: It’s still hard for a dealership to consistently measure the results they're getting as a result of paying for any given solution.
The Auto Industry is Getting Harder
In parallel to all of the software solution-specific challenges listed above, by all indications it looks like things are going to get tougher in the future for car dealers.
In his new book, Dale Pollak just devoted the whole first chapter to “Margin Compression” and how dealers’ razor-thin margins will continue to be under siege.
A laundry-list of industry challenges might look something like this:
Dealers continue to have HR and staffing challenges (as evidenced by record-high turnover rates).
The big dealer groups continue to consolidate and get bigger, making it harder for the smaller and mid-sized players to compete.
Ecommerce players like Carvana and Shift are a threat, and dealers are bracing for Amazon to potentially enter the market (assumedly with a similar model).
Dealers continue to be challenged with digital advertising allocation and attribution.
Dealers face slower showroom traffic as consumers are better informed due to online research, and thus visit fewer physical dealerships before buying. (Which means that dealer conversion rate to sale is higher for showroom traffic, but it's harder and harder to get consumers into your store to begin with.)
And longer term, there are great uncertainties around the future of autonomous cars and changing perceptions of vehicle ownership by the younger generation of car shoppers.
If the market softens in the near future and sales decline, it will be even more critical to get the most profit possible out of every single sale.
Why VINFactor and Why Now?
Given all of the issues above, we are focused on helping dealers navigate all of this uncertainty and pressure.
We think VINFactor is the tool to help.
What is VINFactor?
With VINFactor, dealers decision-making will never be the same.
Our always-on solution works in the background to provide real-time, local market intelligence to support your employees never making a mistakes again.
VINFactor brings local market context to a dealer’s vehicle acquisition, pricing or disposal decisions.
VINFactor helps dealers make better decisions, and thus improve profits.
How Does it Work?
VINFactor works across every website or browser-based software to recognize any 17-digit VIN number.
VINFactor helps you know what you’re going to be competing with in your local market in real-time, before you buy.
VINFactor helps you understand if you should buy and why, and which vehicle attributes increase or detract from value in your local market on the specific VIN you’re evaluating.
VINFactor is for dealers who never want to buy the wrong vehicle or overpay again, increase turn rate, profit per car and eliminate aged inventory.
About VINFactor
We conducted 400 dealer interviews over the last nine months. We found the same objections shop over and over again ("what is what is wrong, what should I do, how should I do it?”).
Dealers complain that they have too much data, too much information, too many tools -- but have no way of distilling all of this down into actionable insights that will "move the needle" on their business.
VINFactor improves inventory turn, increases profit per unit sold and drives increased gross profit for dealers.
Get VINFactor for free for a limited time: www.VINFactor.com.
