Deal Central Concept Study

The Core Marketplaces Team at Cox Automotive was creating a brand new product that allowed vehicle shoppers and dealers to communicate with each other throughout the entire vehicle shopping/buying process online whether remote (scheduling test drives, supplying trade-in information, finalizing a sale) or in-person (configuring upgrades, verifying trade-ins, negotiating a deal). I created a study to address both dealer and shopper’s needs to provide design recommendations to the Product Team for creating an intuitive flow.

Background

There has been an ongoing discussion among the product and UX teams about how aligned the online consumer 360 shopping experience needs to be with the in-store, sales view experience. Over the next couple years, there will be a transition from two distinct applications – one for an e-commence experience, and one for the dealer-assisted sales experience – to one converged application for a more trusted and seamless user experience.

Research Goal

  • Understand what design and content elements need to be the same across the at-home/remote and in-store online experiences for consumers to maintain trust in the brand

Research Objectives

  1. What elements of the Test Drive, Payment, Accessories, and Trade-In flows do users expect to be different when in the store v. remote?

  2. How do the differences in the designs impact their perception of trust in the platform overall?

Methodology

  • 6 Consumers (UserTesting Panel)

    • Purchased a vehicle in the last 30 days

    • Conducted research online and visited dealerships

    • Personas: Experiencer, VIP, Straight Shooter, Guarded

  • 6 Dealers (Internal Dealer Panel)

    • Current Deal360 Users; Sales Managers; Salespersons; BDC Agent

Design Recommendations

Overall Impact on Sales Conversations and Flow

  • Consider reducing data redundancies between consumer and dealer views. Too much info may negatively impact successful dealer sales conversions.

  • Designs should be streamlined and minimal. Avoid offering too much data during the sales process.

Schedule a Test Drive

  • Provide details about the dealership on the test drive page, including phone number, location, and hours of operation.

Vehicle Tour

  • Consider removing this feature from the dealer view, as it is not necessary for a successful sales flow.

  • Dealers prefer to reserve some discussion points by not sharing excessive details about the vehicle's features during the test drive using the Vehicle Tour screen.

Trade-In

  • Consider adding additional consumer data point captures, including pay-off amount, additional condition questions, VIN scan, and aftermarket add-ons.

  • Users seek design familiarity (e.g., KBB) from our products, and were searching for that in an Estimated Value range rather than one value, for consumer trust.

Accessories

  • Salespeople should not have access to certain data, such as MSRP and Wholesale Costs. Consider removing these data points to avoid distractions.

Payment

  • Shopper View Settings was not well-received and felt deceptive in some cases. Consider removing this from the dealer view (exception: payment grid).


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