298%
ROI in eight weeks
Based on funnel benchmarks
+7.3%
Used VDP conversion rate
3.80% → 4.08%
6
Additional used sales
From 144 extra CTA clicks
1 of 3
Pilot stores measured
Mercedes-Benz store only
Dealers spend heavily to get shoppers to the vehicle detail page. Most of the return depends on what happens once they arrive.
A Mercedes-Benz dealership, part of an 18-location dealer group in the south-central U.S., added Carvia to its inventory pages. In the eight weeks after launch, its used-vehicle pages drew 51,348 sessions. The question was how much of that traffic would convert.
The Challenge
The dealer already had meaningful traffic on its inventory pages. The opportunity was not to buy more of it. It was to convert more of the shoppers already arriving.
A vehicle detail page is where a shopper decides whether to raise a hand. If the page does not answer vehicle-specific questions, the shopper leaves to find answers somewhere else, and the dealer pays for the visit without a lead to show for it.
What Carvia Changed
Carvia went live on August 6, 2026, across three of the group's rooftops that share the same used inventory.
On each vehicle page, shoppers can get answers about the specific vehicle in front of them without leaving the dealer's site, then continue to a test drive or an availability request.
The results in this study come from the Mercedes-Benz store, the one store where Carvia had access to the dealer's analytics.
The Conversion Lift
Used-vehicle conversion rose from 3.80% to 4.08%.
That is a 7.3% relative lift in the share of used-page sessions that end in a test-drive or availability request. It happened while used-page traffic grew 25%, a period when more traffic usually pulls conversion rates down.
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Used-page conversion rate | 3.80% | 4.08% | +7.3% |
| Test-drive and availability actions, used pages (8 weeks) | 1,587 | 2,095 | +508 |
The +508 includes the added traffic. The calculation that follows credits Carvia only with the lift in conversion rate, not with the extra volume.
Why 7.3% Matters at Scale
A 7.3% lift sounds modest until it meets the denominator.
The store had 51,348 used-vehicle sessions in the eight weeks after launch. A 0.28 point gain in conversion across that traffic is about 144 additional test-drive and availability clicks.
Each of those clicks is a shopper who raised a hand and, without the lift, would not have. The next step is to follow them through the sales process.
From Extra Clicks to Extra Sales
51,348 sessions became 6 additional used sales.
Applying top-tier dealership funnel rates to the 144 additional clicks gives the path below.
51,348
Used-vehicle sessions
144
Additional test-drive and availability clicks
43
Leads
17
Appointments
11
Showroom visits
6
Additional vehicles sold
How we calculated it: 30% of clicks become leads, 40% of leads become appointments, 62% of appointments show, and 58% of showroom visits close. These are top-tier dealership rates, so the result is an estimate, not a count of attributed sales. At industry-average show and close rates, the same lift works out to about 4 additional sales, and at conservative rates to 3.
298%
ROI in eight weeks
Based on the dealer's eight-week Carvia spend and a standard used-vehicle gross-profit benchmark, the 6 additional sales return nearly $4 in gross profit for every $1 spent.
A modest lift in VDP conversion paid for Carvia several times over.
One Store Measured, Three Stores Live
Every figure above comes from the Mercedes-Benz store, the only one of the three pilot stores where Carvia had analytics access.
All three stores share the same used inventory in the same geography, so we expect 298% understates the full impact. We have not measured the other two stores, and this study does not claim a group-wide number.
Why Conversion Improved
Shoppers stayed, researched, and then converted at a higher rate.
These figures explain the mechanism behind the conversion lift. They are supporting evidence, not the headline result.
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory-page visitors who engage | 53.5% | 56.4% | +2.9 pts |
| New-vehicle bounce rate | 45.0% | 39.6% | -12% |
| New-vehicle engagement rate | 55.0% | 60.4% | +5.4 pts |
| Active time on new-vehicle pages | - | - | +7% |
| Additional shoppers engaged with inventory (8 weeks) | - | - | ~1,300 |
The dealer's own daily data points the same way. On the third of days with the highest engagement, 4.4% of used-page sessions ended in a test-drive or availability request. On the lowest-engagement third, it was 3.4%. When more shoppers engage, more of them raise a hand.
Used-page figures compare the 56 days after launch (August 6 to September 30, 2026) with the 56 days before. New-vehicle bounce, engagement rate and time-on-page figures compare August 6 to September 10 with the 36 days before launch. Engaged shoppers are post-launch users multiplied by the change in engagement rate. This is a before-and-after comparison, not a controlled test.
What This Means
Dealers already spend heavily to get shoppers to the VDP. The opportunity is to make that traffic work harder once it arrives.
Carvia helped this dealer sell more cars by improving the conversion of traffic it already had.
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