Sharing wasn’t working for Lookers
Until they came to Equator, Lookers were using a shared digital platform, alongside their rivals. In a busy, highly competitive market, this just wasn’t good enough. Lookers needed their own, unique virtual space where they could do their own thing, taking performance to the next level.
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Reinventing the wheel
We began with a discovery phase, gathering feedback from customers, analysing car industry benchmarks and looking at other sectors to find learnings we could apply to the car-buying journey. Then we interrogated technical architecture, systems, and processes. Buying a car should be fun.
We settled on a concept of ‘effortless intelligence’, where searching would be seamless and easy, but still surprising and exciting. Using Looker’s CRM data and Sitecore’s power to personalise, we applied the personal showroom experience to the online vehicle search experience.
“We defined the project to ensure the customer was at the heart of every decision we made.”
Jamie Jefferson, CCO
How we made it work
We built the new site on cloud-based infrastructure, with a multi-faceted import mechanism to bring all stock available throughout the Lookers Group network into one place.
We also broke down the barrier between new and used cars, and integrated the national vehicle register database. Pages and components were built to deliver a more personalised experience to customers, and caching assets in multiple locations has given us super-fast loading speeds.
Technical implementation of Sitecore
We developed a bespoke, integrated sales platform to handle real-time sales of Lookers’ combined stock - that’s around 15,000 vehicles at any one time. Meanwhile the task of advertising a car on line was reduced from two days to 15 minutes. The system integrates with internal stock systems, with data supplemented from manufacturer databases.
Sitecore personalisation capabilities allow profiling of users for tailored promotions, and integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides seamless synchronisation of data from website to forecourt. Finance providers are integrated into the flexible, component-based design.
Performance exceeded expectations
"We have seen an improvement in conversion rates, user experience, and operational excellence. Working with the Equator team was a pleasure"
Nigel McGinn, Lookers’ CEO