03 December 2020

PARTNER FEATURE

Shelbourne Motor Group was founded by Fred Ward in 1973 as a filling station take over. Four decades later, the dealer group has continued to expand their business while remaining a family-run dealership, with an emphasis on transparency and exceptional customer service.

Today, they are recognised as one of the most progressive and fastest growing car dealer groups in Northern Ireland.

“We recommend any dealership to advertise their vehicles on CarGurus. In terms of the quality of leads we get from them, CarGurus is a great partner to work with.” Ronan Marshall, group marketing manager, Shelbourne Motors

The challenge

When Shelbourne Motors opened its newest showroom in 2019, it set very ambitious growth targets. To meet its goals, the biggest challenge it needed to overcome was pricing — both in terms of buying new inventory and selling existing stock — according to Sales Director Paul Ward. The team knew they needed to use data and technology to their advantage, so they turned to CarGurus for help.

The approach

Shelbourne Motors used the CarGurus’ Market Analysis Tool to ensure its forecourt was stocked with the right inventory mix. The tool helps the team identify in-demand vehicles in their local area to inform purchasing decisions at auctions and customer trade-in valuations.

Additionally, Shelbourne Motors used the Pricing Tool daily to price its vehicles as good and great deals. The tool allows the team to see where even a small adjustment to a vehicle’s price can improve a listing’s page ranking and deal rating. By leveraging this tool in the CarGurus Dashboard, Shelbourne Motors provided transparent yet competitive pricing on listings, which resulted in more engaged car buyers visiting the stock.

“We’re able to analyse the vehicles that we’re going to purchase against the market with CarGurus and see if they’re going to fit our market, but also be good value for our customers.” – Paul Ward

As the team started to see quality leads and interactions flow though, the dealership ensured its follow-up processes were in check. “We respond to reviews and enquiries within 24 hours. As a family run business, customer satisfaction is really important to us and we try to reflect that online as we do in the showrooms,” said Ronan Marshall.

Measuring the impact

The group worked closely with their dedicated account manager to optimise their account and analyse results. “We look at the interactions from customers in terms of phone, email, web traffic, and map views in our dashboard, and CarGurus provides good value for us. We’re very satisfied with the ROI we get,” said Ronan Marshall.

By leveraging Post Code Matching reporting, the group saw the number of car sales CarGurus influenced and calculated return on investment. Over seven months***, CarGurus influenced 14% of Shelbourne Motors total car sales, equalling a positive return on its marketing spend.

CarGurus is the #1 auto marketplace in the US* and the fastest growing online automotive marketplace in the UK amongst its nearest competitors.** We help dealers quickly and easily market their vehicles and connect with more engaged buyers. To learn more about the challenges CarGurus solves for consumers and dealers, call this number 0808 196 5475 or visit www.cargurus.co.uk/signup/AutoRetail

*Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Automotive – Information/Resources, Total Audience, Q2 2020, U.S. (Competitive set: CarGurus.com, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, TrueCar.com)

**Comscore MMX Multi-Platform®, Total Audience, Custom-defined list includes CarGurus.co.uk, Motors.co.uk, AutoTrader.co.uk, Gumtree.com, Q2 2019 – Q2 2020, UK

*** Post code matching data from June 2019 to December 2019, and including February 2020.

Tags: CarGurus, partner feature, Shelbourne Motor Group, Shelbourne Motors