Equator revs up Lookers with Sitecore

18/07/2019

The Lookers Group has launched a revolutionary digital platform with support from Digital transformation agency Equator; transforming how users search for and buy vehicles.

The motor vehicle retailer wanted to challenge conventional online vehicle search methods but was previously using a shared platform, which limited their ownership, flexibility and scalability.

Following an in-depth discovery phase, the concept for the new website became ‘effortless intelligence’. The idea that a user should never have to work hard to find their dream car. The journey through the search process would need to be friction-free. And at every turn, the user should be surprised and delighted.

“While the new site is elegant and sophisticated from a look-and-feel perspective, it also makes the most of Lookers’ CRM data and Sitecore’s capabilities to personalise the vehicle search experience and replicate the personal touch of the car showroom,” said Group Account Director, Duncan Richardson.

Taking cues from Sitecore’s effectiveness with seamless search integration, the team went a step further – moving to a dedicated search model with cloud-based infrastructure. This dedicated search facility supplies the necessary data by a multi-faceted import mechanism – built in a microservice architecture – to fully realise the stock available to customers from every arm of the Lookers Group.

The new site has crossed a traditional barrier: showing new vehicles alongside traditional “nearly new” cars and integrating the national vehicle register database, curated by CAP. To do this, Equator wrapped a management portal around the master dataset, while also enabling Lookers staff to promote a diverse range of new vehicles into their online search facility.

Furthermore, by using a dynamic configuration of Sitecore’s Experience Platform, Equator enabled advanced component-based building blocks to give Lookers’ content authors the flexibility to cater to every business objective. With personas and goals in place, these pages and components will deliver more personalised experiences to customers based on behaviour.

Lookers COO Nigel McMinn added: “We worked with Equator over an extensive period of research, design, build and testing to develop our industry-leading web platform that was integrated to the company’s core systems. The website has now launched very effectively. We have seen a vast improvement in conversion rates, user experience and operational excellence. Working with the Equator team was a pleasure, and we are delighted with the result.”

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