In our latest GoTrader Carology Bitesize, we are joined by Jonathan Tonge, Director of Product at gotrader.ca, to discuss the first ever AI-powered automotive marketplace solution in Canada, Upgrade Optimizer – AI, deep diving its functionalities, the benefits it provides to dealer partners, and more. Tune in to learn more about this groundbreaking new offering!

TORONTO, ON – August 23, 2023 – gotrader.ca, Canada’s largest and most trusted automotive marketplace, has announced the launch of Upgrade Optimizer – AI, a breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI) technology that is set to deliver efficiencies to the management, likewise spur performance for promoted dealership placements, through the gotrader.ca Listing Upgrade product portfolio. As ever, the goal of this investment is to help Canadian automotive dealerships sell more cars, more quickly and more profitably.

Following over two years of research, testing, and optimization of this cutting-edge technology, as well as the formation of a dedicated AI Data Science team to maintain and optimize the offering, the company is now making its first-to-market AI technology available to all dealer partners across Canada.

Listing Upgrades help dealerships amplify their marketplace presence by promoting inventory listings into prime search results positions on gotrader.ca. Upgrade Optimizer – AI is a managed service that harnesses the full potential of AI and data to determine the most effective Listing Upgrades for a dealership’s inventory mix, evaluating over 300 million data points, including car shopper demand, consumer trends, and merchandising quality. The model is continuously re-learning and adapting, through real-time performance and marketplace data, to leverage relevant and up-to-date information when selecting the most suitable Listing Upgrades.

Investment will increase addressable market and accelerate the development of new offerings

TORONTO, ON — May 27, 2021 — Activix, a leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for the automotive industry, today announced that it has received a strategic investment from TRADER Corporation, a portfolio company of private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo.

“This investment will accelerate our growth plans in Canada, fast-track our product development, and enable us to serve our customers even better,” said Olivier Tétrault, President and Founder of Activix.

Activix boasts the most innovative CRM system in Canada, allowing car dealers to consolidate inbound lead management with showroom and salesperson activity into one streamlined dashboard. Both sales and service efficiency are enhanced via the technology, while Activix also offers innovative training solutions to dealership employees.

“Activix has built a truly transformational CRM product which enables car dealerships of all sizes to significantly improve their efficiency and sales conversions via robust technology backed by dedicated customer support,” said Sebastian Baldwin, President and Chief Executive Officer at TRADER Corporation. “We look forward to helping Activix scale their business, as well as exploring the opportunities to help our dealer partners be more effective by leveraging synergies between Activix and TRADER’s other software offerings. Those include TAdvantage websites, 1-SOURCE inventory management and Motoinsight Digital Retailing, among others.”

We sat down with The Murray Auto Group third generation owner Chris Murray and General Manager Chris Emery, to discuss how they utilize the vAuto Provision Suite. They shared their experience and the impact the products have had on their dealership.

The Murray Auto Group joined the automotive industry in 1926. Since then, the group has grown to create numerous dealerships across Canada.

How were you introduced to vAuto?

Chris Murray: We actually signed up with one of vAuto’s competitors and we ran with them for almost a year and a half. We just felt it wasn’t giving us the information that we were looking for and so we made the decision to migrate over to vAuto. We first signed up in November 2013. We don’t mandate anything in our group but we strongly encouraged it and now I would think pretty much all our stores are on vAuto.

Who utilizes the tool the most in your dealership?

Chris Murray: The main user would be our General Managers who oversee the used cars, they would be the power user, daily or hourly.

How do you run your business differently since using vAuto?

Chris Emery: The main way vAuto streamlines things is the speed of gathering information, we can look at everything in the marketplace so that’s how the tool has made a difference to the business.

Also, the ability to track effectively and in one location so we can track all the stuff that matters to us, how many appraisals are we winning? How many appraisals are we seeing? When you have that data in front of you, looking at it day in and day out it allows you to stay on top of it and kind of drive those numbers up. Because you’re driving those numbers up you’re selling more cars and selling faster.

What is the biggest advantage you’ve experienced since using vAuto?

Chris Murray: It gives Chris [Emery] or any of the other sales managers here information to make a smart decision and also gives us some tools to be able to show the customer why things are the way they are. Before it was all gut-feel, this is what I think and this is what I feel. We’re here, we’re able to have actual data to show customers that our price is right or this is why we’re paying you “x” for your car, nothing more, and nothing less.

How would you describe the ease of use with vAuto?

Chris Emery: I think it’s pretty simple for a sales manager to get in and kind of understand what’s going on.

Chris Murray: It’s simple to learn and use, but, to learn how to use everything that it offers? Its massive, it has so many tools. As far as figuring out how to use the system? Most dealers should be able to figure it out.

Where do you see the most benefit?

Chris Emery: The appraising is what we use the most, followed by pricing, staying on top and making sure all our inventory is in line with where it should be. Then to a lesser extent stocking and then merchandising and wholesaling, in that order.

Would you recommend using vAuto?

Chris Emery: I think in this day in age if you’re not using [vAuto] then you’re not really serious about managing your used car lot.

However, I wouldn’t recommend it for our competitors, [laughs].

Chris Murray:  I think it helps us make better decisions. I think with vAuto, you need to have it, that’s why I strongly encouraged it to all the dealers in our group.

What are 3 main benefits that vAuto has brought to your dealership?

Chris Emery: Speed of decision making, accuracy of decision making, ability to manage large used car inventory.

Chris Murray: Accountability over how the General Manager manages the inventory, intelligent conversations over our used strategy, speed and accuracy of the data, management tool.

Last week, TRADER Corporation was presented with the Digital Publisher of the Year Award at Digital Day 2017, hosted by the Advertising Club of Toronto (AdClub)

Digital Day is the largest annual networking event for the Canadian online advertising community. Each year, AdClub presents the People’s Choice Awards to recognize outstanding digital content and campaigns, as voted by its members.

The call for nominations was open to AdClub members for 2 months leading up to Digital Day 2017, and the winners in each category (Agency, Publisher, Vendor, and Campaign) were selected based on popular vote.