CHICAGO, Oct. 17,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com Inc. (NYSE: CARS), an
audience-driven technology company empowering automotive, today
announced a new enterprise brand name. The company is uniting its
various commercial brand names under Cars Commerce and doubling
down on its platform strategy to better connect the industry with a
simplified and tierless technology that spans pretail, retail and
post-sale activities.
"The automotive industry has two critical, yet solvable, issues
that directly impact the consumer: unnecessary complexity within
retail operations and a battle between OEMs and retailers for
customer control," said Alex Vetter,
chief executive officer of Cars Commerce. "Cars Commerce brings
consumers, OEMs, retailers and lenders together to speed up
operations, deliver more sales at greater profitability and reduce
a dealer's turn time by up to 20%.¹"
Cars Commerce remains focused on simplifying car buying and
selling by eliminating complexity and increasing transparency
throughout the local retail experience, where sales and service are
best facilitated.
The new enterprise brand name comes with a streamlined and
interconnected portfolio organized by four core capabilities:
- Marketplace: Central to the platform
is Cars.com, the No. 1 most recognized marketplace brand.² Its
role is critical to the pretail experience, allowing OEMs and
retailers to merchandise inventory and promote their unique brand
experience to 27 million in-market shoppers each month. Integrated
into the marketplace is the company's reputation technology that
powers more than 13 million consumer reviews, making it the largest
review platform in the industry, as well as digital financing and
trade-in capabilities that speed transaction time with local
retailers.¹
- Digital Experience: The marketplace audience is often
driven directly into the retail experience through the platform's
websites and solutions. Industry-leading brand Dealer Inspire is a
preferred provider with nearly every OEM, and for good reason:
Dealer Inspire websites and technology include integrated reviews,
AI-powered chat tools, instant financing, vehicle acquisition
technology, and a lightning-fast user experience, turning browsers
into buyers.
- Trade & Appraisal: Integrated into both the Cars.com
marketplace and Dealer Inspire websites is Accu-Trade, a powerful
data and technology provider that puts the right valuation on any
vehicle every time. Nearly half of car buyers have a trade-in prior
to purchase, and Accu-Trade speeds transaction time by enabling
digital instant offers for consumers and equipping everyone in the
dealership with turnkey and transparent acquisition solutions that
complete an appraisal in under five minutes. Through nearly 600,000
appraisals completed this year, Accu-Trade has identified more than
$30 million of potential savings in
appraisal losses for dealers while consistently offering consumers
the best prices for their used cars.³
- Media: Cars Commerce Media Network is a new brand that
unifies all of the company's media products, including Cars Social,
FUEL IMV and its national advertising solutions. As the industry
spends billions of dollars guessing which audiences are in-market
for a vehicle, the company's new retail media network empowers OEMs
and retailers to reach proven in-market consumers while they are
shopping. Cars Commerce inventory search ads drive a 56% lower
cost-per-lead compared to Google, and when combining its video,
social and display media products together customers gain a 32%
increase in direct referrals to dealer websites⁴.
"We have built a platform with a differentiated and powerful
combination of audience, reviews and content, technology and data –
and there's a word for it: Commerce," said Vetter. "Cars Commerce
affirms our strategic evolution and signals our continued
commitment to unite the industry with a connected platform of
technology solutions."
The Cars Commerce brand and new visual identity system was
created by FutureBrand, IPG's brand-led business transformation
agency. For more information about Cars Commerce and its connected
platform capabilities, visit: www.carscommerce.inc.
¹Cars Commerce internal data, September 2023
²Cars.com brand tracker,
Q2 2023
³Cars Commerce internal data, YTD September
2023
⁴Cars.com case study, July-November 2022
About Cars Commerce
Cars Commerce is an
audience-driven technology company empowering automotive that
simplifies everything about buying and selling cars. The Cars
Commerce platform includes the flagship automotive marketplace and
dealer reputation site Cars.com, innovative digital marketing
technology and services from Dealer Inspire, industry-leading
trade-in and appraisal technology from Accu-Trade, an exclusive
in-market media network, and powerful and predictive AI
technologies that enable more efficient and profitable retail
operations. Cars Commerce is the essential partner to stay one step
ahead in automotive. Learn more at www.carscommerce.inc.
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SOURCE Cars.com Inc.