Welcome to 2021!

As we start the new year its appropriate to look back on the last few months of 2020 for the most popular sources of Leads, Test Drives, and Sales amongst kiwi dealers in December.

Overall activity was down in December 2020 with Leads decreasing by approx. 19% from November to December, Test Drives decreasing by 6.3% and Sales decreasing by 7.4% month to month.

When reviewing the volume of leads loaded in December 2020, we saw the same top 3 lead sources as has become standard – ‘Web – Classified’, ‘Web – Dealer’ and ‘Brand’ making up the top 3.  All 3 sources of leads decreased from December to November with ‘Web – Classified’ decreasing by 10.5%, ‘Web – Dealer’ decreasing by 17.6% and ‘Brand’ sourced leads decreasing by 18.7% from month to month.

Web - Classified - Down 10.5% (vs 4.0% decrease in November)
Web - Dealer – Down 17.6% (vs 3.6% increase in November)
Brand - Down 18.7% (vs 23.7% increase in November)
December 2020 vs November 2020

With several stat holidays it’s perhaps not surprising that we saw Test Drives decreasing overall in December.  Test Drives from ‘Web – Classified’ sources decreased by 5.1% - following a decrease of 8.4% in November.  Following last month’s surge where we saw ‘Dealership Visit’ Test Drives increase dramatically in November, we saw a more modest increase of 3.1% in December.  The third most popular source of Test Drives was from ‘Web – Dealer’ leads, however Test Drives from this source decreased by 20.3% month to month.

Web - Classified – Down 5.1% (vs 8.4% decrease in November)
Dealership Visit – Up 3.1% (vs 41.5% increase in November)
Web - Dealer – Down 20.3% (vs 3.1% increase in November)
December 2020 vs November 2020

Most sources of Sales decreased across the board, with Sales attributed to ‘Web Classified’ sources decreasing by 1.5%, Sales attributed to ‘Web – Dealer’ decreasing by 20.5%.  Due to the increase of dealers using the Dealership Visit source we have seen Sales from this source increase by 17.3%.

Web - Classified - Down 1.5% (vs 5.0% decrease in November)
Web - Dealer – Down 20.5% (vs 2.7% increase in November)
Dealership Visit – Up 17.3% (New to top 3)
December 2020 vs November 2020

So far 2021 has started strong.  From the 5th of Jan onwards we’ve seen some strong performance with Leads and Test Drives volumes so far exceeding volumes we have typically been seeing over the first part of the month for the last 3 months.  Make sure to check the PlayBook again next month to see the most popular sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales in January 2021.

After a strong start to the month last week, the week to December 13th was solid with a slight drop of 1% MTD from November, but still at 3% higher than October MTD.

Two consecutive Saturdays with very high levels of Test Drives has seen the number of Test Drives tracking at 16% greater than MTD for a similar period in November.

Like other KPI’s, after a surge in the first week of December we saw a solid week of Appraisals from the 7th to the 13th December – 5% up MTD from November.

​After the first week of December Sales volumes were down, the high Leads and Test Drives yielded fruit with a high week of Sales swinging to increase 2% MTD.  

Logins to AutoPlayAuto.com have remained at a consistent level with little change from October and November MTD.

When it comes to motivating people there's a saying - you can use the carrot or the stick.  So much of managing sales people comes down to this - do you put your foot down and enforce compliance or do you offer some other form of incentive?

With incentivizing behavior there are several different ways of doing so.  Offering features that help salespeople manage their time, connect deals and generally sell more cars is one such way, and historically a big focus for AutoPlay. 

Another way to incentivise is with cold, hard cash.  At AutoPlay we don't have this kind of remit, but we have regularly been involved in providing data to from the Sales Pipeline for dealers, groups and OEM's that enables them to set KPI's to manage salespeople and dealers.

In 2021 AutoPlay will be launching AutoPlay Rewards - a brand new way to incentivise behavior and action through AutoPlayAuto.com.

AutoPlay Rewards allows OEM's, groups and dealers to offer salespeople the chance to earn points based on completing certain actions within AutoPlay - from keeping Awaiting Action leads under a threshold, to keeping response times under 60 minutes. 

Click on the image below to cycle through a presentation for AutoPlay Rewards.  If you would like to know more about how AutoPlay Rewards can work for your dealership or network please contact matt@autoplay.co.nz 

November was an interesting month.  Overall Test Drives and Sales were down on October levels and it's possible we would have seen the same with Leads but for a large push of leads from OEM's to dealers late in the month.

Leads from Web – Classified sources decreased significantly with a 4.0% decrease from October to November - however this is still the number one source of leads across AutoPlay customers.  Leads from dealer sites remained solid with a 3.6% increase, however a late surge of leads pushed from distributors/OEM's saw the volume of brand supplied leads increase by 23.7% from the previous month.

Web - Classified - Down 4.0% (vs 1.4% decrease in October)
Web - Dealer - Up 3.6% (vs 17.3% decrease in October)
Brand - Up 23.7% (vs 18.4% decrease in October)
November figures as at midnight 31/11/20

Overall Test Drives were down from October to November.  Test Drives attributed to 'Web - Classified' leads decreased by 8.4%, yet this source still remains the most common way to generate Test Drives.  Like Leads, Test Drives from Dealer Websites remain fairly reliable with a 3.1% increase month to month.  For the first time in several months a new source has cracked the top 3 with 'Dealership Visit' increasing by 41.5% from October to November and pushing 'Direct' out of the top 3 sources of Test Drives.  However this does not represent a sudden change in buyer behavior, but rather the impact of some dealers changing how they classify leads in AutoPlay.  The reality is that walk in Test Drives are likely more common than the data clearly shows as 'Direct' is still in the top 5 - though whether this represents a true attribution of the source of Test Drives is questionable.

Web - Classified – Down 8.4% (vs 4.3% decrease in October)
Web - Dealer – Up 3.1% (vs 2.7% decrease in October)
Dealership Visit – Up 41.5% (New To Top 3)
November figures as at midnight 31/11/20

The sources of sales have become more diverse over the last month with many sources of Sales that are smaller volume actually increasing (including a surge of Sales attributed to Dealership Visits).  However with Sales attributed to 'Web - Classified' sources and 'Repeat' sources both down, the overall trend in Sales is down from October to November. 

Web - Classified - Down 5.0% (vs 7.7% decrease in October)
Web - Dealer - Up 2.7% (vs 6.6% increase in October)
Repeat - Down 8.3% (vs 7.8% decrease in October)
November figures as at midnight 31/11/20

Overall, from the data we see at AutoPlay the market is still seeing activity, but trending slightly down as the year ends.  Due to the timing of Christmas and New Years we won't be publishing the December stats in the next issue of the PlayBook.  Keep an eye out in January 2021 for all the details on how we fared in December 2020.  

After a turbulent year, we have found activity stabilising over the last few months.  Whilst activity in October was slightly down from September, we are still not seeing the “dead cat bounce” that many expected after the last round of wage subsidies ended.  In October Leads were down 2.2% from September levels and still well short of the peaks we saw in June after the first nationwide lockdown. 

Conversely Test Drives are slightly up from September with a small 2.4% increase – likely due to the bump in leads we saw in September coming to fruition.  Overall Sales recorded by AutoPlay customers are down 4.7% from September to October and reinforce the idea that whilst we are still seeing high levels of activity it is slightly less easier than it was earlier in the year to convert your leads to sales.

Leads - Down 2.2%
Test Drives - Up 2.4%
Sales - Down 4.7%
October figures as at midnight 31/10/20

Leads from Web – Classified sources were in line with the overall decrease across all sources at 1.3% decrease from September.  Interestingly though leads from dealer websites and from the brand suffered greater than average decreases in excess of 15% - suggesting that other less popular sources of leads either suffered smaller drops, or actually increased from September to October. 

Web - Classified - Down 1.4% (vs 0.8% decrease in September)
Web - Dealer - Down 17.3% (vs 15.1% increase in September)
Brand - Down 18.7% (vs 12.4% increase in September)
October figures as at midnight 31/10/20

Although Test Drives slightly increased from September to October the top 3 sources of Test Drives all decreased last month.  The primary reason for this is that we saw some significant jumps in Test Drives from these sources in August and September – meaning these decreases can be viewed as more of a normalisation of these KPI’s rather than a statistically significant decrease.

Web - Classified – Down 4.3% (vs 10.6% increase in September)
Web - Dealer – Down 2.7% (vs 4.4% increase in September)
Direct – Down 7.3% (vs 29.0% increase in September)
October figures as at midnight 31/10/20

Of the 3 main KPI’s AutoPlay track by source we have seen Sales have been the most strongly affected by the COVID rollercoaster.  In October we saw Sales decrease by 4.7% and this overall decrease was mirrored across the top 3 sources of sales.  Sales attributed to Web – Classified sources decreased by 7.7%, sales from Web – Dealer sources decreased by 6.6% and sales from Repeat customers decreased by 7.8%.

Web - Classified - Down 7.7% (vs 1.8% decrease in September)
Web - Dealer - Down 6.6% (vs 1.6% increase in September)
Repeat - Down 7.8% (vs 8.1% decrease in September)
October figures as at midnight 31/10/20

Overall, from the data we see at AutoPlay the market is still surprisingly robust.  As Xmas approaches it will be interesting to see if this continues or whether we finally start to see activity taper off.  Make sure to check back next month to see the top 3 sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales for kiwi dealers.

The article below will be published in an upcoming issue of Autofile magazine. 

AutoPlay has a wealth of reporting information for your dealership.  Contact your Account Manager to find out more about our comprehensive reporting suite.

In July we saw a slight drop from June to July across all KPI's with lead volume decreasing 4.6% from June, Test Drives decreasing by 4% and sales decreasing by 4.5%.  August was trending similarly to June until the return of Level 3 in Auckland/Level 2 in the rest of NZ on August 12th.  With the added hurdles in trading, combined with a general slowdown in economic activity August has seen significant drops across the board.  You can read more about the downturn in AutoPlay tracked KPI's HERE.

As of 28th August the top sources of leads remain unchanged from previous months with 'Web - Classified' and 'Web - Dealer' taking out the top two spots, and leads from 'Brand' being the third most common source of leads for Kiwi dealers (AutoPlays customer base is heavily skewed towards franchise dealers).

Web - Classified - Down 24.7% (vs 0.2% decrease in July)
Web - Dealer - Down 28.4% (vs 2.2% decrease in July)
Brand - Down 34.2% (vs 6.7% decrease in July)
August figures as at 3.25pm 28/08/20

As a face to face activity Test Drives were always bound to suffer with Auckland unable to trade.  Test Drives are down across the board, but interestingly the top 3 sources of test drives, whilst unchanged have been noticeably more impacted in August that the less common sources of Test Drives.  

Web - Classified - Down 28.1% (vs 2.9% increase in July)
Web - Dealer - Down 39.5% (vs 3.3% increase in July)
Direct - Down 40.6% (vs 0.1% increase in July)
August figures as at 3.25pm 28/08/20

After strong months in June & July sales have decreased again in August.  Whether this would have occurred as forecasted by many people WITHOUT the return of Covid impose shutdowns we will never know.

Web - Classified - Down 17.3 (vs 6.9% decrease in July)
Web - Dealer - Down 33.5% (vs 4.1% decrease in July)
Repeat - Down 21.0% (vs 6.2% decrease in July)
August figures as at 3.25pm 28/08/20

When NZ last returned from Level 3 lockdown we saw the market bounce back fairly quickly with strong June and July results for most dealers.   With Auckland returning to Level 2 on Monday 31st August it will be interesting to see how quickly the market bounces back this time.  AutoPlay will bring you all the details in future editions of The PlayBook.   

With Auckland in Covid Level 3 from 12th August until 31st August we've seen a definite slowdown across the main KPI's that AutoPlay track across our customer base.  Obviously Auckland has borne the brunt of it but we are also see slowdown through the rest of NZ as well.  

If you are interested in the top sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales in July 2020 check out our post here.  This month we thought it would be more valuable to share some recent information about how the market is performing.

The first week of the return to Level 3 in Auckland/Level 2 in the rest of NZ saw the biggest dip with the week of the 12th seeing leads decreasing considerably.  The week beginning the 17th rebounded slightly but AutoPlay customers are still generating 18% fewer leads MTD than in July, and 26% fewer leads MTD than in August (as at 23rd August 2020).  Cumulatively performance is still much better than May, but well below June and July levels.

With limited to no face to face sales contact permitted in Level 3, and a heightened sensitivity in Level 2 Test Drives were always going to suffer with the resurgence of Covid-19.  So far up to 23rd August we've seen a decrease of 21% MTD from July, and 26% MTD from June.

Like Test Drives, Appraisals were always bound to suffer with less f-2-f trading as an activity that is mostly done face to face.  Of all the KPI's AutoPlay track Appraisals have proven to be the most impacted at Level 3 with 21% fewer than the same time in July MTD, and 31% down MTD from June.  

During the shutdown in Auckland we have been heartened to see dealers are still logging into AutoPlayAuto.com to manage their leads.  We have seen a decrease of 8% MTD from July, and 9% MTD from June, but as you can see from the graphs above, logins have mostly remained constant over the last few months.  This highlights the importance that dealers place in managing leads and we view it as a great positive sign that dealers are adapting well to working digitally.

When we next post we hope to be able to bring you some positive numbers as Auckland returns to Level 2 from 31st August.