Auto Trader Product Talks #1 — Confidence, Trust and increasing Conversion online
At the end of October we hosted our first Auto Trader Product Talks. This event brought together a group of product thinkers for an evening of great food, drinks, and interesting talks around the theme of how websites and brands build trust online.
We were privileged to be joined by a Psychology Professor, two Chief Product Officers and one of our own Product Leads, who each shared their individual stories joined by several common themes around how to build trust online.
For anyone who wasn’t able to join, or equally anyone who watched the talks live and would like a reminder or reference, the talks from Ben, James, Polly and Kim are available below.
Professor Ben Ambridge, Psychologist, University of Manchester & Endless Gain
First up was Ben, an Academic Psychologist from the University of Manchester, who’s talk focused on what academic psychology can teach us about e-commerce. Ben’s talk presented data from 28 different studies that looked at the factors that predicted when people have (and don’t have) trust in a particular site, and weighted the factors that build, and undermine, trust.
Ben shared with us that the number one predictor of trust (rather surprisingly) is not the integrity or reputation of a site, but it’s usefulness, and went on to share the different ways that sites can build trust with their users.
James King, CPO, Feefo
James shared how the COVID acceleration in online retail resulted in new companies, and new industries, trading online for the first time, making trustworthy user generated reviews more important than ever.
97% of people read reviews online before making a purchase, but half of them are impacted by fake reviews, and James shared some of the ways that Feefo work with their customers to ensure that the reviews they present are genuine, and how this can remove cognitive load from the buying journey.
Polly Caldwell, Product Lead, Auto Trader
After the break, Polly built on the data shared by James to demonstrate how Auto Trader have adapted their advertising products to respond to car buyers starting to be more ‘location agnostic’, giving retailers the opportunity to reach buyers all over the country.
Polly shared learnings of launching and scaling the Market Extension product, and how factors like reviews and transparent information are important to give car buyers the confidence to buy their next car in a brand new way. Polly also reflected on the changes that retailers need to make to their systems, people and processes if they want to fully embrace the opportunity of remote sales, and that in the automotive industry, not all businesses are ready for this (and that is OK).
Kim Faura, CPO Checkatrade
And last but by no means least, Kim closed AT Product Talks with the story of Checkatrade and the role that they play to help build confidence in a sector with historically low levels of trust.
Kim shared their approach to ensuring the quality of tradespeople on the platform via recommendations, vetting and monitoring, and how they have recently extended this into their guaranteed proposition. Checkatrade’s focus has now moved beyond just ensuring the quality of tradespeople, to balancing the demand and supply in the marketplace too.
Keep an eye out for Product Talks #2 early in 2023 👀.
