The Challenge
This online car selling aggregator wanted to enable auto transportation feature when they send the purchase leads to dealerships.
The client did not have any transportation assets. They would have to rely on transportation logistics infrastructure that currently exists.
Our aggregator client required a mechanism to reliably quote a price that the dealer and the vehicle transport business handling the shipment would accept. This transportation cost should be factored into the car's sale price.
The cost of auto transportation fluctuated at a considerably greater rate than the cost of a car. As a result, the offered price was only valid for a limited time.
Since aggregators moved a large number of dealership inventory, the solution needs to scale and the transporter of the vehicles should be able to handle large quantities of vehicle shipments.
In addition, the user experience for the car buyer should be easy and seamless.
- Dealers should be able to offer automobile shipping at the same price.
- Dealers should be able to book auto transportation using the transporter that is included in the lead from the aggregator when the consumer buys the car.
- The solution needed to scale across dealership inventory and transport volume.
The Strategy
The following strategy is developed for execution. The focus was on building an integrated solution that can be deployed at scale.
Build a solution that integrates all the pieces of car buying including, financing, lease/buy, car price, title, insurance, tax, with auto transport cost.
Identify a real-time quoting and booking system for auto transport and perform end-to-end integration.
Make sure the customer is quoted with an accurate price while quote expiry and requoting is managed properly.
Scaling must be addressed from a technology perspective as well as on the logistics end.
Finally, a scalable pricing model needs to be developed that addresses the needs of aggregators, dealers and logistics operators.
- Integrated solution deployed at scale.
- Real-time quoting and booking for auto transport.
- Scalable pricing model for aggregators, dealers and logistics operators.
The Execution
API integration between the aggregator's customer-facing commerce site and the dealership transportation portal.
Provided a mechanism for the consumer to acquire real-time transportation prices at the moment of quoting the car price.
The aggregator to dealership interface is modified to address the transportation add-on.
When the dealership was ready to book the customer's car, it reconnected to the portal to place the auto transport service order.
Dealerships have a portal from which they can track their shipments.
Invoices and payments are set up between dealerships and transportation companies.
Dealers are able to work with any transportation company of choice, which allows for significant scale.
In case of returns, a solution for returns was built into the system.
- End to end solution optimized for online buyer experience.
- Real-time transportation prices during quoting.
- Tracking, invoicing, payments and returns built into the system.
The Results
Online car selling companies added a new revenue stream on their existing platform without significant investment.
Dealerships are able to move cars much faster out of their lots because of the national coverage for sales.
Transportation logistics companies got benefited by the new inflow of shipping orders.
Dealerships sold more automobiles and lowered repo expenses.
This became a win for online car buyer, online car seller, dealerships and transportation logistics companies.
- New revenue stream on the existing platform.
- Cars moved faster out of dealership lots.
- More shipping orders for transportation logistics companies.
