Both eCommerce and automotive shopping websites rely heavily on data to optimize customer experiences. While these industries may seem distinct, there are significant overlaps in how they use data to measure success and enhance performance. By mapping common eCommerce metrics to ASC events (Automotive Standards Council events), automotive dealerships can learn how to use these insights to improve their lead generation, customer engagement, and sales.
In this article, we’ll explore how eCommerce companies use their data and what automotive dealerships can learn from their approach to improve their use of ASC events.
What is the Automotive Standards Council?
The Automotive Standards Council (ASC) is an industry organization that establishes guidelines and standards for how automotive businesses, particularly dealerships, track and manage customer interactions on digital platforms. The goal of ASC is to create a standardized approach to collecting and analyzing online user behavior, which allows automotive companies to have consistent, actionable data for improving customer experience, optimizing lead generation, and increasing conversions.
By developing and maintaining a framework of ASC events—specific customer actions such as “Click to Call” or “Form Submission”—the council helps automotive businesses better understand the effectiveness of their digital strategies, ensuring that key customer behaviors are captured and analyzed in a uniform way. These standards are designed to give dealerships insights into the customer journey, helping them make data-driven decisions to improve their marketing and sales efforts.
This standardized approach also facilitates comparisons and benchmarking within the industry, allowing dealerships to measure their digital performance against competitors and industry norms.
What are ASC Events?
The Automotive Standards Council (ASC) defines a set of standardized events, known as ASC events, to help automotive dealerships track user interactions on their websites, ensuring consistency in data collection and analysis across the industry. These events capture a wide range of user behaviors, from viewing vehicle details to submitting forms and engaging with media. Below are some of the key ASC events, their descriptions, and associated data parameters, which are essential for optimizing dealership performance through data-driven decisions:
Key ASC Events:
asc_pageview (Engagement)
- Description: Triggered when a new page is viewed by a consumer on the dealership’s website.
- Parameters: Includes information like page type, product details (e.g., item ID, make, model), and location data.
- Use Case: Helps track which pages (e.g., vehicle detail pages, search results) are most popular, allowing dealerships to optimize content for higher engagement.
asc_retail_process (Engagement)
- Description: Triggered when a customer completes a significant step in digital retailing tools, such as financing applications or trade-in tools.
- Parameters: Tracks the flow name, outcome, and the stage of the retail process, as well as product details.
- Use Case: Enables dealerships to monitor the effectiveness of digital retail tools, identifying bottlenecks in the process (e.g., where customers drop off during financing applications).
asc_cta_interaction (Engagement)
- Description: Triggered when a customer interacts with a Call to Action (CTA) element on the website, excluding specific interactions covered by other events (e.g., form engagement).
- Parameters: Tracks elements such as CTA text, color, order, and outcome (e.g., whether the action resulted in a click or other engagement).
- Use Case: Helps optimize the performance of CTA buttons, banners, or links, ensuring high visibility and encouraging conversions.
asc_form_engagement (Engagement)
- Description: Triggered when a customer interacts with a form on the website, tracking each point of engagement during the form-filling process.
- Parameters: Tracks details such as form name, form type (e.g., test drive request), and status of the engagement.
- Use Case: Provides insights into form abandonment rates, helping dealerships optimize form length and complexity to improve submission rates.
asc_form_submission (Conversion)
- Description: Triggered when a completed form is submitted with customer details (PII), typically sent to the dealership’s CRM.
- Parameters: Includes submission details, form type, product details, and the department receiving the submission (e.g., sales or service).
- Use Case: Tracks successful conversions through form submissions, enabling dealerships to gauge the effectiveness of lead generation efforts and follow up accordingly.
How to use ASC events like an eCommerce Giant.
However, while the ASC events framework provides essential insights, automotive dealerships can still learn a lot from the more advanced and mature analytics practices in the eCommerce world. eCommerce companies have long mastered the art of using customer data to drive conversions, personalize user experiences, and optimize every aspect of their sales funnel. So, how can automotive dealerships use eCommerce metrics and strategies to get the most out of their ASC events?
1. Total Revenue vs. Total Leads: Maximizing Value Per Engagement
In eCommerce, Total Revenue is the most critical performance indicator. Companies like Amazon and Shopify merchants track their revenue in granular detail, focusing on product categories, customer demographics, and marketing channels to understand what drives sales. By analyzing revenue patterns, eCommerce businesses can optimize pricing, improve product offerings, and better allocate marketing resources.
In the automotive sector, dealerships measure success through Total Leads, which is captured via ASC events like “Click to Call” and “Form Submissions.” While these leads may not translate into immediate revenue, they are key indicators of customer interest and potential future sales. Learning from eCommerce, dealerships can break down lead data to analyze the specific vehicles, services, or promotions that drive the most interest and focus their efforts on these high-value opportunities.
Example for Dealerships: A dealership might notice that a significant number of ASC form submissions are linked to searches for electric vehicles (EVs). By focusing marketing efforts on EVs and creating tailored offers for these visitors, the dealership could increase conversion rates from high-intent leads.
eCommerce Example: Nike tracks revenue from product categories like running shoes vs. lifestyle sneakers, adjusting promotions based on sales performance. Automotive dealerships could similarly track lead performance by vehicle category (e.g., SUVs, sedans, EVs) and tailor their promotions accordingly.
2. AOV (Average Order Value) and Its Automotive Equivalent: Lead Value Analysis
In eCommerce, Average Order Value (AOV) is a key metric used to measure the average value of each transaction. Companies like Sephora use upselling techniques (e.g., suggesting complementary items) to increase AOV, ensuring that each customer spends as much as possible during their purchase.
For automotive dealerships, there is no direct equivalent to AOV, but analyzing the value of leads can provide similar insights. By examining which leads convert into high-value sales (e.g., luxury vehicles or additional services), dealerships can focus on generating leads that are likely to produce the highest return.
Example for Dealerships: A dealership might analyze ASC events and discover that leads generated through searches for high-end SUVs tend to convert into sales with higher margins. As a result, the dealership could invest more in targeted marketing for these vehicle types.
eCommerce Example: Apple increases AOV by offering accessories and extended warranties. Similarly, dealerships can increase the value of leads by bundling services (like extended warranties or maintenance plans) with high-value vehicle purchases.
3. View_Item_List and View_Item: Similar to Browsing and Product Views in eCommerce
In eCommerce, the view_item_list and view_item events are crucial for understanding how customers interact with products before making a purchase. View_item_list represents a customer viewing a list of products (e.g., a category or search results page), while view_item tracks when a customer views the details of a specific product.
In automotive dealerships, these behaviors are captured by ASC events such as asc_itemlist_pageview and asc_item_pageview. These events provide insights into which vehicle categories or specific models are capturing the most attention, similar to how eCommerce businesses analyze which products are most frequently viewed before purchase.
Example for Dealerships: By tracking asc_itemlist_pageview events, a dealership could learn that most visitors are interested in SUVs over sedans. They could then optimize their inventory or marketing campaigns to promote SUVs more prominently, increasing engagement and potential sales.
eCommerce Example: Zappos tracks view_item_list to see which categories (e.g., men’s shoes vs. women’s shoes) generate the most interest. They can adjust product placement or category prominence based on user behavior. Dealerships can apply this strategy by tracking which vehicle categories lead to the most views or leads and promoting those categories accordingly.
4. Retail_Process: The Automotive Equivalent of Checkout in eCommerce
In eCommerce, the checkout process is where customers complete their purchase. Optimizing this stage is crucial to minimizing drop-offs and ensuring that potential buyers convert into paying customers. eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Amazon excel at simplifying this process through features like one-click purchasing, saved payment methods, and guest checkouts.
In the automotive industry, the asc_retail_process event captures a similar series of actions that lead to a significant outcome, such as financing applications or trade-in valuations. Optimizing these flows is just as crucial in converting potential leads into sales, as customers navigating financing or trade-in processes need smooth, efficient experiences.
Example for Dealerships: A dealership could track asc_retail_process events and find that users often drop off during the “financing application” step. Simplifying the financing tool or offering a live chat option during that stage could help reduce drop-offs, similar to how eCommerce businesses reduce abandoned carts.
eCommerce Example: Shopify offers features like abandoned cart recovery to ensure that users who drop off during the checkout process can be re-engaged. Dealerships can similarly optimize the retail process by reducing friction in their financing or trade-in tools, improving the overall experience and lead conversion.
5. Sessions: Gauging Interest and Engagement
In both eCommerce and automotive shopping, Sessions represent user visits to a website. Tracking sessions helps businesses understand how users engage with their sites, where they drop off, and what actions they take. eCommerce companies like Zappos analyze session data to see which product categories or pages receive the most engagement, allowing them to optimize for better performance.
For automotive dealerships, tracking ASC session events provides insights into how users interact with different vehicle pages, service offerings, or financing tools. This allows dealerships to optimize user experience across their site, improving engagement and increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Example for Dealerships: A dealership could track ASC session events and find that sessions on sedan pages lead to fewer form submissions compared to SUV pages. By tweaking the messaging or offers for sedans, they can improve engagement and increase leads.
eCommerce Example: Zappos segments session data to optimize user experience across devices. Automotive dealerships can apply similar strategies by optimizing mobile layouts for vehicle detail pages to capture more leads from mobile users.
Bridging the Gap Between eCommerce and Automotive Shopping
While ASC events provide a framework for tracking key customer interactions in automotive shopping, there is much to learn from how eCommerce companies use data to drive success. By adopting strategies like optimizing the lead generation process, analyzing engagement with vehicle detail pages, and streamlining the retail process, dealerships can make the most of their ASC events, improving conversions and growing their business.
As the automotive industry continues to evolve in the digital age, adopting these advanced data practices from eCommerce will be crucial to staying competitive and delivering an enhanced customer experience.
