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THE Booran Motor Group, which has a large footprint across Melbourne’s south and east through 14 dealerships, has become the first auto retailer to offer buyers the option of subscribing to a car by simply clicking on a link to leading subscriber operator, Carly, from its vehicle stock listings.

Booran is the first dealer group nationally to implement the service which was developed for Carly by I-Motor, a leading provider of website and digital marketing services to dealers.

Carly, a division of Collaborate Corporation, is seeking dealers to supply vehicles to meet the demand for its subscription “ownership” system.

It has secured collaboration agreements with Hyundai Australia, SG Fleet and dealers including the Suttons Motor Group to supply vehicles under the flexible ownership model as an alternative for dealers to sell a car outright for cash or finance.

I-Motor manages more than 700 dealer websites. These display more than 50,000 vehicles and display more than 50 million page impressions each month.

The new Carly Car Subscription Solution allows participating dealers to choose cars from their online stock listings that they wish to make available for the subscriber service managed by Carly.

Chris Noone, the CEO of Collaborate, told GoAutoNews Premium: “We have developed the technology where we can apply a subscription button on any I-Motor dealer website.

“All the dealer needs to do is sign a commercial agreement with us, which Booran has done, and they just go into their dashboard in their I-Motor website and they select the cars they want to provide for subscription.

“Then any customers who are coming to the dealer’s website will see that subscription button on that car. We dynamically apply that subscription button on the dealer website.

“So the traffic is already coming to that website and therefore no extra marketing is required. What we are doing is providing an additional way to monetise that vehicle with no additional expense or marketing effort.”

Mr Noone said the link to Carly from the dealers’ stock listings meant that a customer “can actually subscribe to the car they want online and potentially pick it up tomorrow”.

“With this I-Motor technology, there is really no extra work required. The dealer just has to tick a box on the I-Motor dashboard and the car is immediately available for subscription,” he said.

“So it is a pretty seamless thing and we expect the momentum to increase rapidly.”

Mr Noone said that the only limitation to the take-up of Carly subscriptions was a limitation on the supply of cars and that the company’s focus has been on securing an increased supply of motor vehicles for subscribers.

“Now with this I-Motor technology going live, we have a number of dealers and SG Fleet and with Hyundai about to come on stream as well, we can now turn on the tap for the supply of vehicles and increase the demand side,” he said.

Mr Noone said that Carly has a three-way focus of working with the OEMs, working with dealers and working with fleet managers with their ex-fleet vehicles.

Chris Noone

“So we are going after the vehicles wherever they are available and the added advantage we have with dealers is that we can work with new stock and also work with their used stock,” he said.

“The appeal to car owners was that it involves a minimum 30-day commitment. Not a commitment for three years or more.

“And if you decide you have the wrong car, the worst thing that can happen is that you have the wrong car for 30 days and then you can switch it for a car that is more suitable for you.”

Mr Noone said that, for the moment, the new online subscriber feature was only available to dealers who were using the I-Motor web platform.

Booran Motor Group has 14 dealerships across Melbourne’s south and east. Franchises include Citroen, Holden, HSV, Hyundai, Isuzu Ute, Kia, MG, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Skoda, Suzuki and Volkswagen.

By John Mellor

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