Reinventing the car search: AutoPages.com CEO on video, mobile, and the future of car shopping

Reinventing the car search: AutoPages.com CEO on video, mobile, and the future of car shopping.

If you've been in the market for a car lately you know that the world of car shopping is changing fast, with an influx of new technologies to help make it easier to find what you're looking for. Our business
columninst Mark Wells sat down with AutoPages.com CEO Guido Blat in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Las Vegas at the 2009 Digital Dealer Conference to learn about what's new and hot.

MW: Sounds like AutoPages.com has had quite the year ... partnerships with Google, YouTube and AOL Autos, Zoozoz 3D search, and you're working with some large dealer groups. So, what's the big new thing these days in the world of car shopping?

GB: In one word: video. Shopping for a car will never be the same. These days, at a site like AutoPages.com, a shopper can "test drive" thousands of vehicles instantly from the comfort of home, checking them out from every angle inside and out.

Many companies claim to offer "videos", but few know how to do it right. We have some of the most advanced multimedia anywhere, and our full screen video tours are far beyond anything else out there. For a car buyer, it's a breath of fresh air ... it feels like you're sitting in the car, you can almost smell the leather. It's a great way to shop that saves both buyers and sellers a lot of time. We're here at
the forefront and excited about helping bring dealers into the new era.

MW: Your company also publishes a print publication, the AutoPages.com auto shopper magazine ... how do you see that fitting in to this new digital age?

GB: Over the last two decades, millions upon millions of copies of the Auto Pages print magazine have gone through the hands of auto shoppers in the Northwest. With more than a hundred pages of cars and trucks for sale, the magazine is a symbol of our established name awareness for auto shoppers, and our long term presence in the market ... "you'll find it in the Auto Pages." Some have asked me why we
still print magazines, given all of our online networks. I always tell them the same thing ... we'll stop printing the magazine once people stop picking it up. The internet is a powerful tool, but you
can't reach everyone that way. Right now, tens of thousands of auto shoppers are picking up our print magazine every week, and so it's a great way to reach buyers. It's one of the many media channels
through which we push our advertisers' inventory ... along with the online classifieds networks, the video networks, the mobile networks, and so on.

MW: Speaking of mobile, there has been a surge of interest in mobile applications lately. Why do you think that is happening now?

GB: Without a doubt, it's because of the newest smartphones, especially Blackberry and the Apple iPhone. These two are responsible for 95% of online mobile traffic. Only few years ago, cellphones had
tiny screens that only showed a few lines of text, and the idea of using your phone to find a car was a joke. Over the last year or two, that's all changed, and AutoPages.com is leading the way. There is an
AutoPages iPhone app which can be downloaded for free at the Apple iTunes store, and we also have an AutoPages Mobile app for users of other smartphones. With either one, you can search for a vehicle or
dealer near you, look at lots of detailed high-res photos, and call the dealership for details with only one tap of the screen. Best of all, our app is built with Google Maps, so if you've found a car you
like, it will give you step by step instructions to where that vehicle is located, starting at your current location. If you're out on the road car shopping, it can save you lots of time and hassle.

MW: OK, one last question ... where do you see the world of auto shopping in ten years? What new trends and technologies do you see on the horizon?

GB: As more and more people use tools like the full screen video tour, dealers are going to start seeing more and more customers who come onto the lot, walk straight to a car and say "I'll buy it!".
They've already kicked the tires at home. More and more customers will also be arranging financing online before stepping foot on the lot. For dealers, there will be fewer cold walk-ins and more and more
"ups" in the form of sales leads from online networks. A profitable dealership is like a finely tuned performance car. We're the gas station, where you can fill up the machine with a fresh high octane
tankful of "ups" ... and you're on the road to more sales.
As for 10 years down the road ... buying a car is emotional, and we in the media would do well to find ways to help decrease the inherent tension of the car shopping experience. I think that websites, no
matter how powerful their functionality, should feel simple, easy and friendly. That's always been our approach at AutoPages.com.

auto pages is the author of this article on auto pages. Find more information relating to seattle autopages, and autopages.com here.