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Type
Web Platform, Development
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Sector
Motor, Leisure
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Technologies
Javascript, PHP, CodeIgniter, MySQL
New & Used Cars For Sale
CHANGECARS is a brand new, custom designed and developed web platform, that allows users to search, find and enquire about vehicles. The idea for this web platform was born out of the necessity to provide users with peace of mind and confidence knowing that all the vehicles listed on the website are sold by manufacturer approved dealers.
Buying or selling a vehicle is one of the largest financial transactions most of us will ever make. The number of horror stories of vehicle sales by dodgy dealers going wrong is not uncommon. This is the exact same problem that CHANGECARS aims to solve by connecting interested purchasers with highly reputable dealers.
The name says it all
Elemental took the proverbial bull by the horns from the get go, firstly by designing classy, high quality user interface designs. Searching, filtering and finding an ideal vehicle, in a systematic and rapid way is paramount to the success of the website, letting people find what they want and speedily.
Mobile engagement with websites is massive and the entire user journey on various sized devices was included in the entire design and development process.
Integration
In order to launch and gain the trust of the public, we needed to ensure that the website housed an adequate number of vehicles.
To accomplish this we had to onboard many of the biggest names and platform providers in the motoring industry, such as Motus, iX and CFAO, to name a few. Oh boy, here’s where things get interesting.
Many of these household names have their own IT platforms with which they manage their stock (vehicles) and incorporate sales leads (enquiries). This was no doubt a challenge, as we needed to adapt the web platform and develop custom functionality and automation to allow the CHANGECARS platform to “speak” to these third party systems, in order to exchange data back and forth in a flawless manner. Problem solved! Over the years Elemental has done loads (and we mean LOADS) of custom web integrations with third-party platforms and APIs. This bespoke development work proved to be another feather in our cap when it came to integrating with all the different providers. All integrations run in a self-operating manner and the platform is set up to scale as more and more dealers come on board.
Certain dealers don’t have all these fancy data feeds and lead management systems, so for them, we designed and developed a dealer portal that allows them to load all their vehicles and manage their leads.
PROVIDING ACCURATE VEHICLE DATA TO USERS
You may or may not know but vehicles actually have a huge stack of information related to them. There are truckloads of makes and models that you've probably never even heard of (we were stunned when looking at the data).
In order to provide users with the best experience and the opportunity to make the best decision before enquiring about a vehicle, we want to present the user with as much accurate information about a specific vehicle as possible. A substantial amount of data about a vehicle is received from dealers but there is also the risk that some of it may be incorrect or inconsistent, which could prove to be a problem to the savvy vehicle seeker.
To formulate a solution to this possible problem, we decided to integrate (yes another integration, yippee!) with global information and intelligence company TransUnion. TransUnion hosts a wealth of accurate information in their databases related to vehicle information. All of this information is standardised and TransUnion can be seen as the official data provider.
Through the integration with TransUnion, CHANGECARS and its users benefit by having up to date and highly accurate information about each and every vehicle on the website.
Do you need the services of a solid web development agency?
Companies around the world choose Elemental as their tech partner for the design and development of custom websites, web apps, software, and mobile apps. We work with businesses of all sizes, from agile startups to well-established enterprises, to bring their ideas to life. Let's discuss your vision and explore how we can turn it into reality.
MORE TO COME
CHANGECARS have only recently launched, yet we've quickly introduced many new features and functionality. This is all happening while onboarding new dealers and generating a stack of vehicle enquiries from the public.
Impressive as that may be, this in reality is only the tip of the iceberg, we've got a long roadmap ahead with many powerful and exciting features that we will be rolling out on an ongoing basis.
Some of the features include a customer portal where users can login and sell their vehicle privately to pre-approved dealers, allowing the dealers to view what's on offer and make bids to these private sellers. Other nifty features include the ability to wishlist vehicles, setup and receive alerts on vehicles that match what you're looking for and also for the ability to save searches that you perform on a regular basis.
Innovation and evolution are at the center of the CHANGECARS platform, with lots to come in the exciting future that will benefit both the dealers as well as the users of the website.
So do yourself a favour and head on down to https://www.changecars.co.za and find your new set of wheels, with the satisfaction of knowing that all vehicles advertised on the website are from manufacturer approved dealers.
INTERESTING FACTS
The CHANGECARS platform has evolved and grown in such a short space of time. In the first two months, we've gone from having approximately 2 000 vehicles to over 13 000.
This continues to grow daily and the goal is for CHANGECARS to be the number one vehicle buying platform that buyers can trust. As the good old adage goes "Trust is never deserved, it is earned", this is testament as the website houses some of the biggest motoring brands in the world such as Ferrari, Bentley and Porsche to name a few.
WE LOVE A GOOD CHALLENGE
We wanted to give the user power when it came to searching and finding the vehicle that they wanted. We knew that we had to provide users with an array of search and filtering tools, but we also wanted to keep the User Interface (UI), slick, clean and classy.
The end result was achieved through various iterations of playing with different design layouts and factoring in how the users would be presented with multiple search criteria to easily narrow down what they were looking for. The end result is stunning and continues to evolve, as the website morphs and grows.
Do you need the services of a solid web development agency?
Companies around the world choose Elemental as their tech partner for the design and development of custom websites, web apps, software, and mobile apps. We work with businesses of all sizes, from agile startups to well-established enterprises, to bring their ideas to life. Let's discuss your vision and explore how we can turn it into reality.
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