Online Auto Auction Settlement Tool

Background

The client, an auto action company, was seeing lower than expected adoption of its online auction tools. The client suspected that this was due to a combination of usability issues and customers’ general aversion to technology. The client had produced a revised interface design in order to improve usability and wanted feedback on this as well as insights into customers’ perceptions and sentiment toward the online tools and what value they provided.

Process

I conducted usability testing with customers using paper prototypes. The customers were asked to go through the prototype to perform a variety of common tasks.

To investigate their customers’ usage of their online auction site and the reasons why they do and do not use it, I performed contextual research with car buyers for dealerships of various size, interviewing them in their workplaces and discussing their purchasing practices, use of online auctions, and any pain points they experienced in the purchase and settlement process. Additionally, I performed observational research at the auction lanes themselves.

Findings and Recommendations

Customers were successful at completing tasks and navigating the paper prototype, and perceived the redesigned interface to be easier to use than the current state. However, most customers preferred buying at the physical auction lanes rather than online for a number of reasons:

• Seeing the cars in person is important
• Buyers value the personal connections that they make with other dealerships and buyers at the auctions in person
• Customers want to inspect the cars themselves rather than rely on the auction company’s condition reports
• Customers who buy a small number of vehicles at a time are more likely to buy online
• Customers who mostly buy off-lease or factory-certified vehicles are more likely to buy online
  
  

Customers do not value or trust the auction company’s condition reports, making them more suspicious of buying online:

• Customers do not feel that the auction company’s reports are sufficiently detailed
• Customers feel that the people performing the inspections are not knowledgeable and are unqualified to do so

“Hire people that know what they’re doing! My friends all agree … it’s a nightmare”

“If I buy a car that’s $3,000 dollars or under, it’s ‘As Is.’ I need to see it. If they get the condition report wrong, I’m screwed.”

After it became clear that the majority of the customers simply prefer purchasing vehicles in the auction lanes, we brainstormed potential offerings that would be valuable to them. Emerging from this discussion, was the idea of an online settlement tool. This could potentially alleviate the common issue of long lines after the auction had concluded. I produced wireframes of an interface and used storyboards to illustrate the concept and user flows.

As the majority of buyers carry a smartphone and make use of it while at the auction lanes, such a system would be focused around a mobile experience with the option of a more traditional desktop web experience available at kiosks found at the auctions.

Response to the concept of an online settlement tool is primarily determined by the user’s preferred method of payment, with some primarily paying using a line of credit and others paying by check.

Customers who pay using a line of credit value and appreciate the idea of an online settlement tool. A common pain point for them is waiting in lines at the auction to settle their account or calling sellers to settle by phone.  A system for quickly and easily paying online via mobile device or kiosk would allow them to avoid lines or phone calls.

Customers who pay via check are not very interested in an online settlement tool, as they typically mail a check to the auction company and consider the process complete. However, it did become clear that there were needs that the auction company could better meet.  Though they didn’t wait in line to settle, they did typically have to wait in line for a summary of the vehicles they had purchased. A system that would let them quickly and easily print their summary report or email it to their accounting department from a kiosk or mobile device would allow them to pay for their vehicles more quickly.