Ashley Karr
Posts by Ashley Karr
What’s Hot on the CarGurus Consumer Blog: November 2016
CarGurus’ consumer blog, http://blog.cargurus.com, serves tens of thousands of auto shoppers every month with reviews, auto-show reveals, and lots more.
Here’s what CarGurus users were most interested in during the month of November.
3 Ways to Respond to the New-Car Sales Slowdown
As you may have heard, sales growth in the new-car market is slowing. There’s a general consensus in the industry that new-car sales will plateau this year or next.
A number of factors are to blame.
First, the recession severely depressed the auto market. Sales surged in the last few years as consumers began buying again, but now things are returning to normalcy.
Second, people are keeping their cars longer – a side effect of improved build quality.
And while today’s drivers continue to replace their cars, fewer young people are getting their licenses. Plus, the Millennial generation is burdened with billions of dollars of student loan debt. Millennials are delaying big purchases like homes and cars as a result.
As the new car market softens, how can you take advantage and even grow your sales in a challenging market environment?
Warren Henry Auto Group Boosts Its Close Rate With CarGurus
South Florida’s car market is red-hot. Our own data shows that the number of CarGurus users in the Miami area has more than doubled in the past year.
Warren Henry Auto Group is well-positioned to take advantage of this growth, with 6 dealerships in South Florida – including Broward County’s first Lamborghini store.
So how is Warren Henry capitalizing on market trends to win more sales?
Platform Deep Dive: Return of the Mac Edition
While the internet is moving towards mobile – and this holds true at CarGurus, which gets 62% of its user traffic from smartphones – desktop computers aren’t going away.
After all, people still prefer desktops for making purchases. Sixty-six percent of online consumer spending happens on PCs.
Auto shoppers continue to rely on desktops, as well. So let’s take a closer look at desktop use on CarGurus. How does the CarGurus user base split between Windows and Mac? The answer may surprise you.
Another Great Reason to Activate SSL: Improved Analytics
We recently posted about this blog’s switch to SSL. The only difference you’ll notice is the “https” in your browser address bar, but SSL promises greater security, more confident users, and higher search rankings.
There’s one additional benefit to SSL that we thought deserved its own blog post: better analytics.
Why We’ve Activated SSL – And You Should Too
Next time you visit your bank’s website – or Facebook.com – take a look at the full URL. You’ll see “https” instead of “http” at the beginning of the URL, signifying that you’re accessing the site via a secure connection.
Now, the same level of security you expect for your personal or financial information is being used on dealers.cargurus.com. What prompted us to enable SSL on the CarGurus dealer blog?
Lead-Gen Report: Where Do Shoppers Submit the Most Leads?
The CarGurus platform handles more than 20 million unique visitors every month, and hundreds of thousands of those people submit leads via email or phone. That gives us a unique level of insight into what auto shoppers are interested in – and where in the country they are most active.
For this lead-gen report, let’s take a look at regional lead data to identify which cities have the most engaged digital auto shoppers.
Major Life Events Drive Millennial Interest in Car Ownership
We recently explored auto buying habits for younger Millennials – those just out of college. Contrary to much of what has been reported in the media, these young people are interested in buying cars and trucks.
It may be the case that passing a major “life milestone” (i.e., graduating from college) is what spurs young shoppers to start searching for a car. With that in mind, it’s interesting that older Millennials, those aged 25 to 34, also appear to be jumping into the market.
What’s Hot on the CarGurus Consumer Blog: April 2016
The news and reviews on our consumer-facing blog, blog.cargurus.com, help shoppers make more informed purchase decisions. (There’s content for enthusiasts, too. Check out this feature on how the Ford Mustang sells in Germany.)
Once a month, we look at the CG consumer blog’s analytics to identify the most popular posts. Read on to find out what digital shoppers were interested in last month.