July 29, 2020

TradePending Trade vs The Competition – A Dealer’s Definitive Guide to Trade-In Tools

Based upon our last count, there are over 30 trade-in tools available on the market today. How does any dealership have time to sort through them all? And who are the TradePending competitors?

We love making things simple. Here’s how TradePending’s Trade compares to some of the more common dealership trade-in tools in the market.

Speed = Conversion

A critical factor in driving conversions is how quickly a consumer can complete the trade-in tool’s process. Fast, short and easy creates more conversions. Long, tedious, and VIN-based trade-in tools suffer, as consumers abandon the process.

Time to completeSNAPKBB Instant Cash OfferKBB Lead DriverBlack BookTrueTradeCarFax
Desktop

14s

1m 51s

1m 26s

1m 37
s

1m 38s

2m 14s

Mobile

22s

2m 05s

1m 38s

1m 54s

1m 57s

2m 30s

 

Seen enough? Schedule a demo

Trade-in Tool Feature Comparison

Since 2014 we’ve been laser-focused on building the best feature set possible. Our goals:

  • Give consumers the transparency they crave about trade-in valuations, and get it to them quickly.
  • Provide dealers with more trade-in leads than any other solution, achieving the right balance of quality and quantity.
  • Help dealers source more used car inventory.

Our innovations continue to lead the industry. You can see for yourself who keeps up, and who doesn’t.

SNAPKBB ICOKBB Lead DriverEdmundsBlack BookTrueTradeCarFax
Uses local market data instead of national averages

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Requests / requires user to enter VIN

NO

YES

YES

NO

NO

YES

YES

Flexible trade-in ranges and costs

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

?

NO

Shows users local market comparables

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Users get trade value <30 seconds on desktop

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Users get trade value <30 seconds on mobile

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Sends events to Google Analytics

YES

?

?

?

?

?

?

Customizable design, placement and styling

YES

NO

NO

YES

YES

?

YES

Facebook page integration

YES

?

?

?

?

?

?

Google My Business integration

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Never drives users to another site

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

Actively competes with you for leads

NO

YES

YES

YES

YES

YES

YES

 

Ready to see a demo of Trade?

Why these trade-in tool features matter

TradePending market reportUses local-market data instead of national averages

Does a 1,400 square foot home cost the same in San Francisco, CA as it does in Marietta, GA? Of course not. Similar to real estate, vehicles are bought and sold for different prices throughout the country, with prices varying between regions, states, and even within 100 miles. 

Trade is the only dealership trade-in plugin that measures local retail “ask prices”. Our methodology adjusts value based upon a proprietary matrix of reduction calculations, as well as retail supply and demand forces. Most importantly, TradePending updates these values daily to stay in-tune with the market.

Requests / requires user to enter VIN

Asking or requiring customers to enter their VIN in order to receive a trade value is the biggest conversion killer of them all.  Users quickly abandon the process because:

  • No one remembers their VIN or has it handy.
  • 60-80% of traffic to a dealer’s website is mobile. Typing in a VIN on mobile is terrible user experience. Plus, the consumer may be nowhere near their vehicle…they’re mobile!

Flexible trade-in ranges and costs

Flexible trade-in ranges and costs

Foreign luxury vehicles require different reconditioning fees than domestic cars. Advertising costs vary from dealer to dealer, as does overhead. Only TradePending enables dealers to adjust their trade-in ranges to reflect the financial reality of buying and selling used vehicles.

Shows users local market comparables

Drawing an analogy again to real estate, home purchases are always accompanied by data from comparable homes. Both buyers and sellers receive a more transparent view of the market. 

TradePending remains the only trade-in widget to show consumers where the vehicle fits in the local market compared to other similar vehicles. This visibility also empowers sales and BDC teams to have data-driven discussions about the value of a trade-in.

Shows local market comparables

Users get trade value <30 seconds on desktop & mobile

Desktop: Using type-ahead search on desktop significantly reduces the time to complete a trade-in form, therefore increasing conversion rates. 

Mobile: Typing on mobile phones is a terrible experience. Tapping to choose a year, make, model, trim speeds up the form completion and conversion rates. The vendors that request and require users to type in their VIN on a mobile phone see their conversion rates plummet.

Overall: We’re intentional about which questions we ask, and which we don’t. By reducing the amount of unnecessary questions, coupled with a fast user experience, we see dramatic increases in form completions and conversion rates.

Sends events to Google Analytics

Marketing teams love us for this feature. They can easily report on the ROI of Trade, compare it to their other vendors and plug-ins, and measure the increased value of consumers that complete the trade-in tool process. 

Customizable design, placement and styling

When you’re trying to build your brand, and maintain consistency across all of your channels, being able to customize the design and placement of a trade-in tool’s call-to-action buttons, appearance, and styling is a must for any dealership.

Facebook page integration

Integrating trade-in offers directly into your Facebook page provides free advertising and more trade-in leads. What’s not to love? Despite the added benefit, none of competitors seem to have this feature, nor make it known to their customers that this is even a thing.

Google My Business integration

Similar to Facebook integration, GMB integration lets users hop into a trade-in landing page directly from your GMB listing in search results. One TradePending customer has seen 15% of their trade-in leads come from enabling this feature. We provide so much more than basic trade-in tool functionality.

Never drives users to another site

Many competitors want the user to visit their own site, where they can capture their information and own that customer relationship. This is such a bad idea for dealers, we’re stunned it still happens. Why? Read the next paragraph.

Actively competes with you for leads (3rd party lead reseller)

To sum up, TradePending competitors offer inferior technology, fewer conversions, and a poorer user experience. Then you remember that these big brands spend millions every year to build their big brand (not yours) in order to drive consumers to their sites. They then want to sell you and your competitor these leads, many of whom have already been on your site.  Ouch.

If you’ve made it this far, it’s time to see for yourself what makes Trade the industry leading and highest-converting trade-in tool. 

Schedule a demo of Trade

Trade-In Tools for Dealers

Haven’t had enough yet? While not exhaustive, here’s our latest data on all of the various TradePending competitors available today. It’s overwhelming. Make things easy on yourself and pick TradePending’s Trade tool, the industry leader.

Accu-Price
AutoLeadStar
AutomarkSolutions
AutoNation Express
BlackBook
CarFax
eAutoAppraise
eDealer
Edmunds
FormGeneric
GetAuto
GetTradeValue.com
Guaranteed Trade Value
Intice
Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer
Kelley Blue Book Lead Driver
Modal
NADA
Offer by TradePending
Perq/FatWin
ProMax
PureCars
ScoutAuto
ShiftDigital
Trade by TradePending
TheAppraisalLane
TradeInValet
TradeSii
TradeVue
TrueTrade by TrueCar
YogaPlugin

If you made it this far, you should really click here to schedule a demo of Trade