More consumers are moving towards using chat as their preferred way of communicating with businesses. According to a recent national survey, more than half of all Americans prefer to message rather than call a business, and six out of ten reported an increase in their business messaging.

By signing up with the OfferUp Automotive Dealer Program, dealers get access to a suite of tools to procure quality leads from OfferUp’s marketplace, which facilitates millions of car sales every year

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As the Detroit News stated, there is high demand, and few options with the average used price of 1 to 3-year vehicle rising to $41,000 according to CNBC. In fact, many pre-owned vehicle models’ prices are higher than the MSRP of a brand new car. Combine that with gas prices averaging above $4.38 per gallon, buyers and dealers don't have many options.

OfferUp's Ready-to-Buy indicator for Verified Dealers doesn’t just automatically sort your car shopper leads and prioritize who is ready to buy and who is not. It also gives you several key indicators about your car shopper.

Lead Info Tags is a simple lead form that car shoppers receive when they first interact with your dealership. Any time a car shopper interacts with a promoted placement and wants to chat with a dealer, the car shopper will be prompted to provide name, phone, email automatically if requesting a “rapid response” from you.

By signing up with the OfferUp Automotive Dealer Program, dealers get access to a suite of tools to procure quality leads from OfferUp’s marketplace, which facilitates millions of car sales every year

While many dealers see the importance of chat and real-time communications, some dealers are still prioritizing legacy communication strategies including phone calls, emails, or form-fills when interacting with a car shopper. For today's car shoppers, the data shows that they are looking for a different shopping experience. Car shoppers want to chat.

According to Jessica Caldwell, from Edmunds.com, "the chip shortage is wreaking havoc on new vehicle production all while we're also seeing surprisingly healthy car shopper demand." This increase in demand is also being seen for pre-owned car sales which have seen sales increase 36% from February to March, and up 117% in March alone compared to last year according to Cox Automotive. Because of this demand, dealerships across the US are being confronted with the reality that there is little inventory and will remain so for the foreseeable future. To help automotive dealers, OfferUp has some tips that dealers can take right now, as well as proactively working with its Verified Dealer to source inventory from private sellers in its leading mobile marketplace.

With more than 4,200+ dealers on OfferUp today, we have seen what works and what doesn't. Here are 3 habits that successful Verified Dealers have in common that help them drive more loyalty with car shoppers, get better engagement and more converted leads, and higher car sales.

Millennials recently surpassed baby boomers as the largest living generation, and their influence can be felt throughout the automotive industry. For auto dealerships, understanding Millennial car shopping preferences is necessary but represents a unique opportunity for dealers to transform their business and significantly improve their ability to sell vehicles to America's largest generation.

According to a recent article by Autotrader, 6 out of 10 car buyers are open to looking at other vehicle options when they first start shopping. Here are 5 questions that OfferUp's dealer partners say help them engage with online car shoppers the right way and get the information they need to be successful.