Cars.com Inc. announced a new enterprise brand name in a recent press release. The company is uniting its various commercial brand names under Cars Commerce and doubling down on its platform strategy to better connect the industry with a simplified and tierless technology that spans pretail, retail and post-sale activities.

“The automotive industry has two critical, yet solvable, issues that directly impact the consumer: unnecessary complexity within retail operations and a battle between OEMs and retailers for customer control,” said Alex Vetter, chief executive officer of Cars Commerce. “Cars Commerce brings consumers, OEMs, retailers and lenders together to speed up operations, deliver more sales at greater profitability and reduce a dealer’s turn time by up to 20%.¹”

Cars Commerce remains focused on simplifying car buying and selling by eliminating complexity and increasing transparency throughout the local retail experience, where sales and service are best facilitated.

The new enterprise brand name comes with a streamlined and interconnected portfolio organized by four core capabilities:

• Marketplace: Central to the platform is Cars.com, the No. 1 most recognized marketplace brand.² Its role is critical to the pretail experience, allowing OEMs and retailers to merchandise inventory and promote their unique brand experience to 27 million in-market shoppers each month. Integrated into the marketplace is the company’s reputation technology that powers more than 13 million consumer reviews, making it the largest review platform in the industry, as well as digital financing and trade-in capabilities that speed transaction time with local retailers.¹
    
• Digital Experience: The marketplace audience is often driven directly into the retail experience through the platform’s websites and solutions. Industry-leading brand Dealer Inspire is a preferred provider with nearly every OEM, and for good reason: Dealer Inspire websites and technology include integrated reviews, AI-powered chat tools, instant financing, vehicle acquisition technology, and a lightning-fast user experience, turning browsers into buyers.
    
• Trade & Appraisal: Integrated into both the Cars.com marketplace and Dealer Inspire websites is Accu-Trade, a powerful data and technology provider that puts the right valuation on any vehicle every time. Nearly half of car buyers have a trade-in prior to purchase, and Accu-Trade speeds transaction time by enabling digital instant offers for consumers and equipping everyone in the dealership with turnkey and transparent acquisition solutions that complete an appraisal in under five minutes. Through nearly 600,000 appraisals completed this year, Accu-Trade has identified more than $30 million of potential savings in appraisal losses for dealers while consistently offering consumers the best prices for their used cars.³
    
• Media: Cars Commerce Media Network is a new brand that unifies all of the company’s media products, including Cars Social, FUEL IMV and its national advertising solutions. As the industry spends billions of dollars guessing which audiences are in-market for a vehicle, the company’s new retail media network empowers OEMs and retailers to reach proven in-market consumers while they are shopping. Cars Commerce inventory search ads drive a 56% lower cost-per-lead compared to Google, and when combining its video, social and display media products together customers gain a 32% increase in direct referrals to dealer websites⁴.

“We have built a platform with a differentiated and powerful combination of audience, reviews and content, technology and data – and there’s a word for it: Commerce,” said Vetter. “Cars Commerce affirms our strategic evolution and signals our continued commitment to unite the industry with a connected platform of technology solutions.”

The Cars Commerce brand and new visual identity system was created by FutureBrand, IPG’s brand-led business transformation agency. For more information about Cars Commerce and its connected platform capabilities, visit: www.carscommerce.inc. 

¹Cars Commerce internal data, September 2023
²Cars.com brand tracker, Q2 2023
³Cars Commerce internal data, YTD September 2023 
⁴Cars.com case study, July-November 2022

Learn more at www.carscommerce.inc.