Rolling out grid view for desktop search
Over the past 90 days we’ve been testing a new design for the vehicle card and alternative layouts for search results on desktop. Following this quantitative testing, and subsequent tweaks, we’re confident that the grid view is favoured by consumers and is delivering on package & PPC performance, so we're in a position to roll it out to 100% of our desktop audience.
Summary
Auto Trader are advancing the search experience to meet the evolving needs of consumers in an increasingly complex marketplace.
Principles of the changes include greater consistency, accessibility and conversion.
Changes are data driven and rigorously tested to prove effectiveness before being scaled to include our whole audience.
The aim is to deliver a slicker experience helping the consumer find what they are looking for faster.
What’s included in the latest changes?
Vehicle cards - Redesigning the vehicle card for desktop brings it closer to what exists today across app and mobile web, creating a more consistent search experience for users.
Grid view – The new vehicle card lends itself to a grid view layout on desktop. This makes it easier for consumers to view more options within a single window.
Carousel images – The vehicle card also allows the consumer to view up to 4 larger images within the search view, allowing them to find the right vehicle faster.
Infinite scroll – Search results on desktop now feature infinite scroll, without pagination on the results, this is consistent with what exists across app and mobile web.
How have we tested the latest changes?
We started by spending time with consumers to understand more about their preferences when it came to viewing search listings on desktop. We used eye-tracking software to understand the most important elements of the current search card, using this insight to create a new search card and subsequently a grid view layout. We could then test them side by side, interviewing consumers to understand their preferences and continue to iterate.
User testing gave us confidence that consumers find it easier to consume information in a grid view when searching for a vehicle.
Once we were satisfied with qualitative consumer testing results, we started to test the changes in a controlled fashion with our live audience. This test started with 1% of our desktop audience and scaled to 10% over a two-month period. Following this quantitative testing, and subsequent tweaks, we’re confident that the grid view is performing well and are in a position to roll it out to 100% of our desktop audience.
-
More than 11 million users turn to Auto Trader each month to browse a range of vehicles in a rapidly evolving marketplace. This traffic generates more than 18 million searches each day, and our search experience plays a pivotal role in connecting buyers to their next vehicle. So, it’s vital that we continue to invest in refining that experience to meet the changing needs and expectations of consumers.
Mobile platforms account for the majority of activity on Auto Trader, but it's important that we evolve our desktop experience too, so consumers get a great experience regardless of how they access Auto Trader. While consumers might typically buy a car once every few years, their expectations of marketplaces are set by the digital experiences they encounter every day, and therefore the way that consumers search, browse and engage with content online is always advancing, bringing with it new norms.
-
At Auto Trader we’re committed to our investment in technology, so that we can maintain the best search experience that keeps buyers coming back to your adverts. Part of that includes making our platform easier to navigate, generating a broader audience of engaged buyers, regardless of their experience or knowledge of the products they are browsing for.
We're confident that our prominence packages continue to deliver the performance uplifts we'd expect in the grid view on desktop.
-
As with any changes we make on platform, decisions will be informed by data and made with a view of consumer preference and browsing observations. They’re also rigorously tested against old designs, so that by the time they are live to our whole audience, we can be completely confident that they deliver the additional value they’re designed to.
-
We have rigorously tested the designs and journey for the new grid view. We spent over 30 hours using eye tracking technology to understand consumers' scanning patterns and focus areas in search, this gave us a rich understanding of what consumers were truly looking at. These tests highlighted that consumers were focussed on vehicle imagery and vehicle information at this stage of their journey, rather than retailer information. Information about the retailer became more important once they had found a car they were interested in and visited the product page. During our live testing to a % of audience on site, we have not seen evidence of this impacting the conversion across search through to advert view. Retailers should continue to showcase their brand in the ways they can which appear on the product page.
We’ll keep you updated on changes we’ve implemented in this blog. Please check back if you’d like to know more about changes we’re making in the coming months.