- Autotrader.com
- Leveraging the Internet as the Ultimate Automotive Retailer
In 1996 with the internet just a nascent idea, Cox Communications Manheim Auctions division teamed with ADP to save their 40,000 automotive dealer customers from being disintermediated from their customers by the arrival of the internet as an online research and shopping tool.
Ascension consultants were engaged as part of the original five person strategic team tasked with creating what today is the largest online automotive web site in the world boasting some 3 million vehicle listings and 14 million unique visitors each month.
Ascension consultants developed in-depth research studies targeting automobile dealers across America to understand their attitudes toward and usage of the internet. One of one in person interviews spawned a comprehensive dealer engagement strategy that could attract auto dealers to list their used cars on the site and purchase premium ad space to highlight their vehicles.
The result of Ascension work on AutoTrader.com was the development of a winning business model and the creation of the automobile industry's largest and most dominant online shopping marketplace.