Shift Digital in Birmingham has developed advanced software to help multiple automotive brands better reach their customers.
In the automotive universe, the latest technology isn’t always evident in the new vehicles rolling off dealer lots. It’s found in the powerful computers and software that drive the design, engineering, and even the marketing of these cars, trucks, and SUVs.
One of the companies using advanced software to market vehicles is Shift Digital in Birmingham, which is using AI to help automotive brands and their retailers more surgically target their marketing and advertising dollars.
Shift collects data generated by consumers’ online activity — from shopping to website browsing, vehicle configuring, making service appointments, and entering trade-in information — and gives its clients information they can use.
Shift, which has 35 automotive brands as clients, says it collects data from 80 million customer leads, which equates to billions of pieces of data from anything an individual does online.
“The next phase of our business is combining all of that technology into one first-party data
platform,” says Matt Van Dyke, President of Shift Digital. “What we’re doing now is helping our clients activate the data.
“We’re now able to take that shopping data using AI to organize the customers into segments, to make it easier for dealers to more effectively target marketing efforts.”
Shift also is using AI to compare various shoppers’ online “journeys,” to see which ones end up as actual sales. From that data, AI can figure out which potential customers are most likely to end up as buyers. Using that information, dealers can work to close the deal.
Another area where AI is making inroads is trade-in valuation. An app has been developed that allows customers to take pictures of their vehicle from different angles to help dealership personnel assess the value of the car or truck.
“People talk about getting the right message to the right customer at the right time,” Van Dyke says. “It’s the Holy Grail of automotive marketing. The challenge with that is there are so many disparate systems that have all this data. What AI is so good at is gobbling up that data and turning it into something actionable.”
Shift Digital got its start in 2008 by integrating close to 50 different Customer Relationship Management (CRM) service provider systems with factory systems. It currently has 750 employees, 450 of whom are in Birmingham. It also has offices in Toronto, Dallas, and Southern California.
“The cost of vehicles is up 30 percent since the pandemic,” Van Dyke says. “We’re trying to eliminate the pain point of dealers having to spend more money than they have to on demand-creation, and help brands and retailers assemble data in a way that can provide personalized experiences for customers.”
