eBay Motors and the Large Market Franchised Dealer

[eddyshaf]

HELP!

Are you a Franchised Dealer in a Large Market area?

Are you using eBay to market your pre-owned inventory?

Do you see value in the eBay propostion?

What is the opinion trend of the overall eBay Motors experience?

Are these questions you think about...or am I just weird?

I would love to hear from a few dealers before posting my answers to these same questions, but the bottom line is I am looking at the 2011 budgets and cannot get my head around the numbers - any input would be greatly appreciated -

Thanks,

Edward Shaffer
Park Place Dealerships

 

[Matt Wise]

Hello Edward,

I'm an Internet Director for a couple of dealerships that are in between large markets. First off, eBay Local lets you market all of your vehicles, new and used, for a flat monthly fee. However, those vehicles are not listed as "live" auctions. They are labeled as "Classified Ads" with a Buy It Now/Best Offer tag. I believe that you are given a 200 mile radius by zip. Many OEM's send your Certified inventory to eBay Local automatically. A lot of dealers are not even aware that their cars are listed on eBay!

To maximize our results, we post all of our new vehicles with photos, as well as our used. We receive approximately 30 phone calls per month and another 20 email leads. Keep in mind that we are over 100 miles away from a major market. I am not a fan of eBay National. I haven't had much success with national auctions for numerous reasons. What I like best about eBay Local is that customers in a 200 mile radius are willing to schedule an appointment to see the vehicle in person versus wanting to complete the transaction over eBay from 1000 miles away. Not only does this help us hold gross, but it seems like most "casual" eBay users would rather drive 200 miles to see a vehicle in person, even if your price is slightly higher. Touch, smell and feel. Hope this helps!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Ed, I have found that typically you need to have a dedicated "eBay Department" to really make it work. eBay can be a nice profit center but it does take a lot of work.

Good advise Matt. Thanks for sharing!

Ed, I'm sure you know this but just incase - be sure to check out Texas Auto Direct.

 

[Matt DoCampo]

I am a big fan of eBay National. I was previously at a premium-luxury/exotic store and relied on eBay to market our inventory nationally. Now I am at a German luxury brand and integrating eBay into our marketing activities.

Some keys to success:

- The listing needs to sell the car not just generate leads. 40+ photos and a AAA+++ description. Video is even better.

- eBay is its own market so every car listed needs to be "eBay competitive." If you feel a used car will bring more money locally than on eBay, I would hesitate to list it. And that's the key. No one is telepathic though, so it may take some time to get your formula right. Which takes me to my next point...

- I highly recommend having a dedicated eBay guy. Especially someone with eBay experience. At my previous dealership we funneled the leads throughout our sales team. It worked because there were only 3 sales people. By and large, all of our deals were out of our market so our guys knew how to sell over the phone. At my current dealership, I started out by pointing the eBay sales calls to our sales team. I regret that decision because most of our staff can't put together an out of state car deal to save there lives. Recently, I changed our call tracking number to point to my Google Voice number and I have my photo and a short bio in the listing.

- Constantly shop the competition. I surf eBayMotors when I'm bored. I'm a car junkie and love that dealers take a ton of photos because I can window shop with ease. Along the way I've picked up a number of improvements to my listings.

I can go on and on about my trials and errors with eBay national.

 

[eddyshaf]

Thanks to everyone who has responded with their comments and feedback. It is much appreciated.

Allow me to clarify my opinion and see if it will generate any additional conversation...first let me state that we have long term, well established eBay sales consultants using a solid process.

After looking at the past 24 months of sales data from our 8 rooftops in the DFW MetroPlex (see www.parkplacetexas.com ) I have made the following observations regarding eBay sales vs. local retail deals:

• Front end gross is generally comparable - eBay is slightly higher
• F&I Gross is substantially lower on eBay deals
• eBay deals rarely (if ever) involve a trade
• eBay deals are usually out of state (and not generally a neighboring state)
• With one location as an exception, eBay does not increase our inventory turn rate
• Sales of 'core' inventory do not occur on eBay

Bottom line - eBay does not help us achieve any of the fundamental goals of a used car operation...at least not the goals as I see them. And it is expensive - we spent more on eBay in the past two years than on Cars.com!

I can fully understand the Texas Cars Direct model,and I admire them greatly...don't get me wrong. But they do not enjoy many of the advantages we have as a franchised dealer in a large market.

The litmus test in the curent market is DISC - Does It Sell Cars? The twist here is...Does It Sell MORE Cars, or are we just spending more money to sell the same number??

 

[ed.brooks]

In no way, shape, or form am I an eBay expert, but Matt said something that got my curiosity going;

- eBay is its own market so every car listed needs to be "eBay competitive." If you feel a used car will bring more money locally than on eBay, I would hesitate to list it. And that's the key. No one is telepathic though, so it may take some time to get your formula right.

While no one is telepathic, numerous dealers have tools like ours and others available that analyze supply & demand as well as pricing. I'm wondering if anyone has been using their analytics to compare local vs national supply & demand as well as pricing in order to help make the "sell locally or list on eBay" decision?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Does ebay offer a scarcity report?

What are people on ebay searching for VS number of listings? Take it a step further and break it into regions.

 

[Len Critcher]

The litmus test in the curent market is DISC - Does It Sell Cars? The twist here is...Does It Sell MORE Cars, or are we just spending more money to sell the same number??

Ed,

Park Place is a different beast. You are in a large market with massive local name recognition, perfectly positioned stores covering the DFW Metroplex, an incredible website Park Place Texas Auto Dealers in Dallas | Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Porsche & Luxury Vehicles in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Bedford, Grapevine & Plano , great staff, and you are not selling on price alone. I do think it is possible that eBay National is not a winning model for you as a major strategy. What are your thoughts on eBay Local?

 

[ImportGuy]

seems like this thread stopped two years ago but I will try to revive it. I spend almost $2k on national auctions on eBay last month and now playing with the thought to sign up for eBay local. Sounds like a decent deal for the money(around $1k per month) but I somehow cannot find anybody with a testimony on eBay Local. I asked the eBay rep. to give me some numbers or examples of dealers in my region (southern Missouri) but did not get anything. They include a 200 Mile radius around the dealership which would include some nice metro areas like Kansas City, St. Louis, Tulsa, Little Rock and Springfield. But then again are we a Mazda, Hyundai, Subaru Store and would somebody rally drive three hours to pick up a Sonata or a mainstream used car? Hope to finally somebody with some eBay local experience

 

[flosho]

Was just searching through old posts and read through this. Great info.

I, much like ImportGuy, am looking for some advice on eBay's "Motors Local Classifieds" subscription.

Currently I list vehicles nationally and only put 2-5 on eBay at a time (out of 30 cars for sale). We still spend close to 1k a month. Wondering if anyone here has used the subscription method and what their feedback is, and if you would share it?