Latest / Auto Collabs / The New Way Consumers Shop for Cars (And What Dealers Must Do Next with Amie Lindaas

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The New Way Consumers Shop for Cars (And What Dealers Must Do Next with Amie Lindaas · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Welcome to Auto Collapse. You're listening to an exclusive series recorded live at Automobility LA 2025, in partnership with Cars Commerce.
• 0:08
  All right, I am sitting here at Automobility LA at the LA Auto Show, hanging out with Amy Lindas, Director of Marketing Research with Cars Commerce, cars.com. Thanks so much for joining me here on the stage. Absolutely.
• 0:21
  It's great to be here. All right, so just a moment ago we were chatting and, and you kind of lit up when you said, "I love thinking about the customer journey."
• 0:29
  What about the customer journey when, when you think about how people are engaging when they're shopping kind of excites you, and, and why do you like digging into discovering what the customer's doing?
• 0:40
  Well, to be honest, I'm a big car enthusiast. And while studying the, the consumer journey is part of my job, I'm also an avid car shopper. So I am constantly- [laughs] You're always in market, right?... shopping.
• 0:52
  I'm building out my 911, you know, like just- Yeah... always doing that kind of stuff. So I experience those pain points, too, and I understand the frustrations that people go through when, when shopping for a car.
• 1:03
  So to me, like, digging into that research, it's, it's just, it's, it's fascinating and it's a ton of fun. Yeah. That's really cool. I love the fact that you're like, "I'm always in market." [laughs] Exactly.
• 1:13
  "So I know what ads are running. I know how the, the, the behavior in shopping mode i- it feels like." You know, one of the huge conversations in all of business right now is how to leverage AI.
• 1:26
  And I think, um, you know, businesses are using it for efficiency and things of that nature.
• 1:30
  But, um, really crossing the divide to how consumers are interacting with it, specifically in their shopping journey, is something as retail we're trying to figure out. Like, figure out how, how that relates to them.
• 1:43
  Can you talk a little bit about the research you're doing in how a consumer is actually interacting with AI and leveraging it or, or just, like, consuming it on their end? Yeah. Absolutely.
• 1:53
  So we recently ran a survey with in-market car shoppers and recent car buyers to understand how they're using AI in the process. What's really surprising is that 83% had used an, an AI tool in some capacity. Wow.
• 2:09
  So that usage is, is really going up. And when you say AI tool, you mean like a- So that's just in general. Yeah. Like ChatGPT, Gemini, that kind of tool.
• 2:18
  So of that 83% that have used an AI tool, almost half have used an AI tool specifically for car shopping. Wow.
• 2:28
  So it's, you know, the, the numbers are, are increasingly growing, and people are finding that AI is actually a great way to shop for cars because you can do those comparisons and, you know, different makes, different models all comprehensively in one place.
• 2:45
  It becomes that one-stop shop. You don't have to go from website to website.
• 2:50
  Well, I think what, what's important there is even a year ago when you talked about consumer-level adoption of AI, it was so little, I mean, under the 10%.
• 3:00
  And the curve of just access to those types of tools and the recognition that those types of tools can help in shopping journey is so much different now.
• 3:09
  And the fact that 50% are going to those tools as a mechanism for understanding what to do next, right? Right. Right. Right.
• 3:18
  And I think it just illustrates the fact that there isn't really a comprehensive way to, like, do all this research, collect all of this information, and AI's really been kind of filling that void.
• 3:32
  What that tells me is that there's probably a little bit more understanding of how to prompt or how to ask questions.
• 3:39
  Consumers are actually researching differently now because they can ask different, more deep questions, and you guys have really thought about that at Cars Commerce.
• 3:48
  How do we take what consumers are learning in their own journeys and draft that into the shopping behavior in retail? Talk a little bit about some of those new enhancements. Yeah. That's a great question.
• 3:57
  So if you think about this, over 70% of shoppers coming to cars.com are undecided on make and model. Okay. So they get to the homepage, and the first thing they're prompted to do is select a make and model.
• 4:12
  And so for the vast majority of shoppers coming to the site, that's not the optimal way to search for a car. Ah.
• 4:19
  So they wanna say something like, "I'm looking for an SUV that can fit three car seats, has a towing capacity of at least 3,000 pounds, has heated seats, heated steering wheel, and adaptive cruise control."
• 4:33
  And so now they've put in all of those wants and desires, and they're surfaced with listings that match that exact criteria. They don't have to try and find all of those filters.
• 4:45
  I can't find heated steering wheel, you know? So now- Yeah... it just becomes more in the shopper's control of surfacing the relevant listings that are gonna meet their needs.
• 4:56
  Well, and on the retail level, we've said for years that m- the majority of customers when they come into the showroom or submit a, an inquiry online, they actually end up buying something completely different.
• 5:06
  A lot of that journey is because you select a year, make, model that you think you see out on the road or, or maybe your friend has one, and it ends up not meeting your criteria, meeting your needs.
• 5:16
  And so we're dr- it sounds like drafting more of that forward into the shopping journey instead of on the back end. Yeah. Yeah.
• 5:22
  And what's great about it, too, is that you're getting surfaced cars that you might not have thought would meet the, the-... criteria or check that box. Yeah. And so it's opening doors as well.
• 5:35
  I think it's, you know- Yeah... a win-win for OEMs and shoppers alike. Yeah.
• 5:39
  Because, you know, now it's kind of the sky's the limit, and as long as you're putting in what, what your needs are, what your wants are, you're being matched with vehicles that'll meet that criteria.
• 5:50
  So the new thing is called Carson, right? Yes. Which I love all of these names coming out- Yes... of AIs. I'm sure there's some, you know, reason why. I mean, the cars name is kind of in it, right? Yeah.
• 6:00
  Um, but what, what are people doing right now? What, how are they starting to interact with that AI? You kind of said a little bit of it, but what are some of the early insights into how shoppers are actually behaving?
• 6:11
  Yeah. So we, we launched Carson on our homepage, which is our AI-powered search tool, which I explained, you know, you can put in your criteria, and it's going to surface listings that match that criteria.
• 6:24
  But what's great about Carson, what we've seen, is that shoppers on cars.com using Carson are twice as likely to come back to the site compared to other shoppers. Wow.
• 6:34
  They're saving three times more vehicles compared to other shoppers.
• 6:39
  They have a higher conversion rate from a search results page to a vehicle details page, and they generate twice as many leads compared to other shoppers. So the engagement is through the roof. Right.
• 6:52
  And we're really excited about the opportunities that this is presenting. So they're actually going deeper into the engagement, getting in touch with the dealers- Right... things like that, yeah.
• 7:00
  They're finding what they need.
• 7:02
  And what's really interesting about this is that we have an opportunity to understand, okay, once that shopper has narrowed down that make and model, now we can start to surface the relevant next step.
• 7:18
  Like, do you wanna get an estimate for your trade-in? Do you wanna pre-qualify for a loan? Do you wanna schedule a test drive?
• 7:25
  And you can send that information to the shopper at the time that it's most relevant, so they're going to be more receptive to it because it's the logical next step. You have a much- Yeah...
• 7:36
  clearer picture of that journey. You're not just kind of throwing things out there and hoping, "Submit a lead. Submit a lead." Yeah. I haven't decided on what I want yet.
• 7:45
  You know, uh, when, when we, when you think about the entire customer journey, it doesn't just end at, "Hey, I'm interested," it's now what's that dealer relationship look like.
• 7:55
  When a dealer is thinking about how to con- uh, communicate with a customer that's been through this type of new journey, what should they be thinking about in the mode of communication, how they're working with that customer, and what the, you know, what the relationship needs to feel like that might differ from maybe some of the ways that we've done that in the past?
• 8:13
  Yeah. We asked a really interesting question.
• 8:15
  We asked, um, for the in-market shoppers, okay, let's say a chatbot gives you, um, three vehicle recommendations, and you send those off to a dealer and letting the dealer know, "Hey, a AI chatbot recommended these three vehicles."
• 8:31
  And the dealer says, "Oh, hey, those are great vehicles, but I think you'll really love, you know, X, Y, and Z." And, you know, over two-thirds said they're receptive to hearing what that salesperson has to say.
• 8:45
  So a lot of users see AI-powered search tools as kind of that starting point, but they're still open to dealership recommendations. Yeah.
• 8:55
  You know, it's not the end-all be-all necessarily, but it's a really good foundational start for them to understand kind of their must-haves versus their nice-to-haves and going into the dealership more prepared.
• 9:08
  But ultimately, it's that dealer that has to truly understand, like, what their budget is, what, what, you know, the features are that they won't compromise on, and what vehicle's going to best match their needs. Yeah.
• 9:23
  I, I think that's really cool for a dealer to understand, like, hey, if people are more in this recommendation, they understand that the, that this is, like, uh, there's optionality out there, that the dealer can really lean into that in their communication.
• 9:36
  So, uh, that's a, that's a totally different vibe than just, like, "Oh, you want that car? Come in and buy it," right? Right. Right. Right. And I think it's important still to make that connection.
• 9:46
  I mean, you don't wanna just make a sale, you wanna make a lifetime customer. Yeah. So, you know, don't, don't try and sell them something they can't afford or something that's not going to meet their needs.
• 9:57
  Just listen and recommend. Like the 911 you've been shopping for, right? [laughs] Well, Amy, thank you so much for giving us a bit of your time.
• 10:05
  I think it's so insightful to understand what consumers are doing all the way on the front end of the research through the, through the platforms like cars.com to, to do that, and then for the dealers to be able to consume that and have a great customer communication and increase the viability of the shopper journey turning into a sale.
• 10:21
  So- Yeah... thanks for hanging out with us- Oh... today at the LA Auto Show. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Thank you for listening to this LA Auto Show session, brought to you by Cars Commerce.
• 10:32
  At More Than Cars, we're obsessed with uniting people around one big idea: to make retail auto an industry that people fight to join.
• 10:40
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