The two crucial developments that have transformed the face of automotive industry are evolving customer expectations on one hand and digitization of the service protocols on the other hand. In response to the above, automotive dealers are under pressure to pivot the operational structure of their business. The retail experience is unlike what it was a few years back. Today’s customers are well informed and can easily shop around for the best value.
In addition to the price advantage, today’s customers are also more focused on the overall purchase experience. The set of challenges car dealerships confront today necessitate the dealers to overcome the constraints in the traditional business model and move on to adapt a robust dealership management system that can help create an efficient digital environment. In this regard, Google’s Structured Data proves very useful in nurturing their dream mission as observed by experts providing SEO for automotive company.
Some challenges retail automotive dealerships face
The list of challenges faced by the retail automotive dealers is quite long. However for our quick reference, we can list out a few including the stiff online competition, digital transformation, delays in supply chain, evolving customer needs, shifting sales strategies, increasing emphasis on digital communication, and the growing need for more efficient dealership processes.
To enhance the effectiveness of the inventory management, the automotive industry needs to combine the historical data with real-time information to enable accurate forecast of demand. This can rule out the need to hold obsolete inventory and boost up the enterprise’s profit potential. In all of these areas and several others, Google’s Structured Data seems to implement some robust processes and transform the effectiveness of car dealership inventory.
Google’s Structured Data mark up highlights
Google’s new structured data markup has immensely simplified how car dealership inventory is displayed.
Henceforth, Google can support car dealerships with vehicle inventory markup.
Dealers are now able to add structured data and display on Google, the cars available for sale.
All issues with regard to markup can be fixed easily by New Search Console.
Google’s enhanced method for car dealerships lets them display the inventory of their vehicles put on sale on Google platforms and Google search.
With a robust support, structured data markup has simplified how vehicle inventory details are supplied to Google, which has made is easily accessible to a dealer of any size.
Structured data for vehicle listing lets the car dealers display the information of the cars available for sale on Google Maps, Google Search and Google Business Profiles.
The structured data has enabled a revolutionary search experience for the buyers as they can filter the results in terms of availability of the vehicles with other useful information such as pricing and features. At present, this feature is available on mobile as well as desktop in English in the US.
How Structured Data Markup has streamlined the dealership listings
Google offers new ways for car dealers to display their inventory listings. This includes adding mark up to the dealer website’s HTML code to provide the data pertaining to available vehicles. While the earlier approach required the dealers to upload the data feed files, the new markup method is straightforward and simple to use.
Dealers can use the structured data to integrate the details like availability, vehicle descriptions, pricing, and other crucial information into their existing listing pages. This new possibility has enabled the dealers to work far more efficiently than before.
Besides using structured data markup, car dealers can input their inventory information to Google using data feeds that are uploaded to the vehicle listing portal. Both these approaches have their own advantages and are found suitable for different purposes.
Structured Data Markup is a straight forward process and is easy to manage. However, the changes might take longer to be detected by Google. Feed file uploads might need efforts in terms of system development. Nevertheless, it ensures that Google quickly detects all data in the inventory. If a dealer chooses to use both these methods, it is necessary to ensure that the data in the feeds and markup match with each other in order to prevent any inconsistencies.
Take away
Despite the evolution of the digital environment, consumers are expected to attach a lot of value to personalized and quality service. It is therefore necessary for dealers to safeguard their existing business and processes while trying some operational improvements. This can be done by improving their existing dealership management system and implement a streamlined approach across the daily routines.
Google has simplified the search and filter mechanisms and has introduced new ways through Structured Data Markup to showcase the vehicle inventory. Therefore, retail automotive dealers can immensely benefit from setting up data feeds on Google’s portals or implementing structured data markup into their listing pages. Combining this with your investment and efforts towards SEO for automotive company, you are sure to discover a boost in your performance, sales, growth, and profits.