Increase Profits with Better Vehicle Listing Data

Increase Profits with Better Vehicle Listing Data

Presenters: Richard Adams, Senior Account Executive, Connotate

Moderator: Gina Cerami, Vice President of Marketing, ConnotateDate: September 18, 2013

Presenters

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Richard AdamsSenior Account Executive

Gina CeramiVice President of

Marketing

About Connotate

• Headquartered in New Brunswick, NJ, with offices in Irvine, CA and London, UK

• Developed by world-class scientists at Rutgers University and the University of Southern California

• Portfolio of patents for applying machine intelligence to Web data extraction and monitoring

• Strong financial backing: .406 Ventures, Castile, Prism Ventures

• Current Connotate formed through acquisition of Fetch Technologies in 2012

Marquee Clients

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What Connotate Does in Other Industries: Transform Web Data into High-Value Assets

• Online ad stats reporting• Competitive intelligence• News aggregation• Background check• Price optimization• Investment research• Market research• Regulatory updates

• Sales intelligence• Business risk assessment• Data directories• Aggregate construction bids• Supply chain monitoring• Brand monitoring• Voice of the Customer• Social media monitoring

Some of Our Many Use Cases:

Where Connotate “Fits”

• Connotate is an expert in automating Web data monitoring and extraction• Our solution is the “automation engine” for some of the world’s leading innovators in related industries• News and publishing – the Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, Edmunds

• Finance – Nasdaq, Lipper, Dow Jones, Alacra

• Retail – O’Reilly, Shopzilla

• Connotate is enabling technology for auto dealers and support system providers (digital marketing/inventory)• We are not a competitor or a dealer – we are a software developer

• Our customers in the auto industry are primarily providers of inventory management and digital marketing solutions

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Topics for Today’s Discussion

• The challenge – extract quality vehicle listing data accurately, affordably and at scale

• Our value proposition

• How Connotate does this

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The Challenge

The Vehicle Listing Data Challenge

• Dealers need solutions to accurately predict how inventory will flow across the lot and how to price• There is market demand for innovative solutions but you need comprehensive, up-to-date vehicle listing data

• The data volume is enormous and constantly changing• 2M new cars on the market; and 1.5M to 2M used cars in the U.S.

• 40,000 listings enter or exit inventory every day• You need to know when a vehicle is added or removed• How can you capture all of this data accurately, quickly and at an affordable cost?

• It is expensive to license standard data feeds from traditional providers

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How Do You Obtain Vehicle Listing Data?• Licensed data feeds

• Feeds deliver one big data set, typically once a day

• It’s difficult to obtain “just the changes” to a listing – you are provided with the entire standard feed

• Scripts and Web scrapers• Semi-automated – but the cost of engineering is high

• Accuracy is still a problem when scripts break • It takes longer then necessary to add a new network• Maintenance is extremely costly over time

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Polling Question: How Do You Obtain Vehicle Listing Data Today?

How are you currently obtaining vehicle listing data?

We license data feeds for vehicle listing data

We are using in-house scripts and scrapers to automate this process

We are using BOTH licensed feeds and automated approaches

We are not collecting vehicle data yet but we plan to in the future

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The Connotate Value Proposition

The Connotate Value Proposition

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What Connotate Does for Vehicle Listings

Connotate automates vehicle listing data collection:• Highly scalable data retrieval system• Perform an entire sweep of VIN data every 3 days• Grab “just the changes” twice daily• Filter by zip code, region, etc.• Delivered in XML or any form

Less expensive than licensed feeds

More profit for you!

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Reduce costs – grow profits

Polling Question: If you are buying licensed data feeds today, what is the value to you?

$250,000 or more per year

$50,000 to $250,000 per year

$10,000 to $50,000 per year

Less than $10,000 per year

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The Connotate Workflow

The Connotate Workflow

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Step 1. Data Inputs and Configuration

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Connotate automatically pre-fills input parameters to access Web sources and find new listings and changes to current listings (the “delta”)

Step 2. Data Retrieval – Precise Navigation

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Connotate’s precise navigation retrieves the data and images requested.

Connotate Transforms the Vehicle Data into the Format You Need

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Step 3. Data Delivery

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Connotate delivers clean, precise data in the format you require.

Clean, Consistent, Consumable Data

Scope and Expansion of Vehicle Listing Data• Connotate’s current library supports automated

access to the most reliable and extensive vehicle listings available

• We can customize our library to suit your needs very quickly and re-purpose it into your private library

• If you require access to sources that are not in our library, we can add in a new source quickly

• Initial deployment time depends on the complexity of the site but it is relatively short

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Case Study

Digital Marketing Firm (for Auto Dealerships)• Connotate helped this firm achieve aggressive

growth goals by expanding its database of pre-owned vehicle data

•  Each day, Connotate extracts and aggregates millions of data points from public Web sources to deliver updates on local vehicle price comparisons, optional features and vehicle reliability

• Connotate reduced data collection costs while ensuring comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of used vehicle inventories nationwide.

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Polling Question: The Value of Automated Web Data Collection

Are you convinced that an automated Web data extraction process can help accelerate your data collection processes?

Yes – we are doing this now

Yes – we are planning to automate in the near future

No – not at this time

I need more information before deciding

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Scope Your Project: 5 Steps

Scoping Your Project: Steps to Success1. Decide which Web sources of vehicle

listings will be most valuable for an automated data collection effort

2. Make a list of those sites with the access URL

3. Contact Connotate

4. We’ll provide a customized cost estimate

5. Sign a contract and enjoy hassle-free ad statistics collection!

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Q & A

Connotate will email a link to this presentation as well as a copy of the slides to you within 2 business days.

If you have an immediate need and would like us to contact you about a forthcoming project, please email us at info@connotate.com or call (+1) 732-296-8844.

For more information, visit www.connotate.com or www.connotate.co.uk

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