mfldirect
New ecommerce platform delivers market-leading buying experience
The new ecommerce platform for mfldirect offers a personalised and streamlined buying experience to help car dealerships search for, shortlist and purchase high quality, underwritten stock quickly and seamlessly.
mfldirect, part of Motability Operations (MO), is one of the UK’s largest wholesale used vehicle suppliers, selling more than 200,000 cars a year to dealers across the UK. With 80% of all sales being conducted through the website, mfldirect wanted to optimise the user experience to build on its industry-leading reputation for customer satisfaction and to drive commercial performance. The new website marks the first phase of MO’s five-year vision for mfldirect, with dealers sitting at the heart of these plans.
Along with fellow MISSION Agency, CX specialists Ethology, we won the opportunity to work with Motability Operations – setting the strategic foundation and vision for this transformative digital programme.
In order to deliver a truly user-centric platform, we combined industry-leading technologies with in-depth user research, working with dealer networks and independent traders across the country. We interviewed MO stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand business context, needs and objectives and conducted trends research in the automotive and retail sectors for a view of how techniques and technologies could improve the buying experience. Analytics data provided another lens through which to understand user behaviour and commercial impact.
From these insights we created a project vision and five-year roadmap to guide the development of a single platform and user experience designed around mfldirect’s dealer customers. Our research also allowed us to develop needs-based user profiles which we tested to make more informed design and prioritisation decisions.
The new website allows car dealers of all sizes to access a greater level of information ahead of publication to get a full view of the vehicles available and make better-informed purchasing decisions in advance. Customers can tailor the homepage to suit their needs and more easily identify and research the vehicles they want, ahead of them going on sale. Real-time updates give dealers the latest stock information immediately, preventing disappointment at peak periods.
Since user needs and behaviour aren’t static, the platform is designed to allow for continuous innovation, using high value 1st-party data to evolve with customer’s needs, regularly optimising and incorporating new features. We also worked with the MO communications team to develop an updated brand identity to inform and inspire dealers at the time of launch.
Craig Ford, Head of Digital Solutions at mfldirect, says: “I’m genuinely excited about our new platform and the positive impact it is going to have on our dealers. Bray Leino and Ethology worked closely with our customers to design a smoother, less stressful and highly personalised purchasing experience, giving every dealer the opportunity to secure the cars they are after when they visit the site.”
Kate Cox, Bray Leino CEO, says: “This impressive piece of collaboration with fellow MISSION Agency, Ethology, reimagines the buying experience by putting the user well and truly at the centre of the design process. We’re delighted to have put mfldirect at the forefront of retail UX and look forward to seeing this fantastic and ambitious brand grow further as a result.”
For more information on how Bray Leino’s Digital team can drive growth for your retail brand, contact Austen Donnellan, Business Development Director.