CarMax redefined the entire used car category by focusing on the buyer experience, but the buyer experience has come a long way since they started in 1993. More and more people are searching online for their next car. I’ve bought cars on Ebay and Craigslist, but there are many other places to purchase a vehicle online. How can CarMax compete digitally when they don’t even sell cars on the web?

Ann Yauger, Director of carmax.com had to answer that question personally. We had a chance to hear Ann Yauger and Andrew Miller, former Assistant Web Marketing Manager at CarMax explain some of the challenges they faced as they modernized carmax.com.

Since sales don’t happen online for CarMax, attention was focused on building customer enthusiasm, converting visitors into shoppers and relevant content for car buyers. But that was just the beginning. CarMax needed better eCRM, search and online experience. Strides have been made in all aspects of their digital presence. In April 2006 CarMax was on page 6 in search results for used cars. In January 2007 they came up on the first page organically and through key word searches. Carmax.com was redesigned for users and for crawlers. They currently bid on over 900,000 keywords with small words accounting for most.

CarMax started with the user experience in mind and continues to hold the experience as a core value on the lot and on the web. Search engine marketing is not expensive compared to other methods. It yields greater accountability, measurement and a better buying experience. The benefits can be difficult to grasp if you focus on the details, but a good expert can fix that for any sized company. CarMax is a $7.5B publicly traded company that was able to become digitally agile in a short period of time because they focused on the end user, not the technology. The technology is there for the taking. You don’t have to be a nuts and bolts techy to make it happen. Focus on what people want and the technology will come to you.

Filed under: Luis Carranza, Marketing Trends, Miscellaneous, Strategy, Technology, VCU Brandcenter