During 2020, TRADER Corporation issued its first ever Best Priced Dealer Awards.
Issued to 330 dealers across Canada, the awards took place in March and September.
The awards recognize the efforts of dealers, both franchise and independent, for their consistent efforts in providing vehicle buyers with outstanding pricing and value.
Each winner was determined by the AutoTRADER.ca IQ inventory algorithm, which analyzes real-time pricing data of over 450,000 vehicles on the marketplace to offer a statistically backed benchmark for the country.
Greatest percentage
The top dealerships in the marketplace who had the greatest percentage of good and great pricing badges on their vehicle inventory were the ones declared the respective winners.
The awards are particularly impressive, recognizing the challenges many dealers faced as a result of provincial government lockdowns in the spring designed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Ian MacDonald, Chief Marketing Officer at TRADER, the feedback from the awards has been tremendous.
“Literally the week after we announced the first round of awards, COVID-19 hit,” he says, but even so, dealers proudly displayed their awards in the dealership, and online through their Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles. “It was really great to see that,” he says.
Very rewarding
MacDonald notes that not only have the awards, proved great in terms of recognition for dealers, but for the team at TRADER they’ve proved very rewarding too.
“Over the years, we have developed a lot of different products, services and systems that help dealers,” he says, “but it is really rewarding for us when we’re able to offer something to a dealer that can help them convert to actual sales for vehicles and related services that is a value add as opposed to a paid product. It is just a way for us to say thank you for being on the marketplace and contributing to the experience of that marketplace by offering great vehicles at great prices.”
MacDonald notes that as we move forward and transparency regarding the vehicle transaction becomes increasingly important, the need for dealers to build genuine trust with consumers is critical.
Significant step
He says that initiatives such as the TRADER Best Price Dealer Awards, represent a significant step in helping boost that sense of trust and transparency by demonstrating a clear track record of a dealer’s success in providing the best product for consumers at the best price.
“The magical recipe, on top of what makes AutoTRADER so successful,” says MacDonald, “are the dealers who are consistent in their actions as well as the millions of consumers that purchase vehicles. We could not achieve this success without them, so we are really happy that we’re able to recognize our dealer partners in this way and that the awards have been so well received by them.”