Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sonia Jain: I didn’t – I don’t think I gave the growth. We had another year of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth associated with that portion of the business. But I will tell you that like increasingly on a go-forward basis, as we continue to integrate products across the platform, being really precise on that number, becomes a little bit more challenging as we continue to focus on cross-selling. In terms of total website customers, I think Alex may have mentioned we ended the year with about 7,300 and that includes, to be clear, includes customers acquired through D2C.

Doug Arthur: Right. So, that’s 950 in the fourth quarter, okay. Because I think the number you have given out on Q3 for website management was 6,300.

Sonia Jain: 6,350.

Doug Arthur: 6,350, sorry. Okay. So, I don’t mean to harp on this, did the growth slow a little bit as the comps get tougher in the fourth quarter or it continued on a very strong trajectory at Dealer Inspire?

Sonia Jain: Yes. So, there is kind of like this one-time bump from the addition and like bringing D2C onto our platform. And then we also saw continued growth at both DI and B2B in the fourth quarter in terms of new website launches. We have talked a little about it particularly maybe a couple quarters ago that we are going to continue to add websites as part of the Dealer Inspire business, but we have largely secured all of the endorsements that are out there. So, the pace of which, if the website is getting added, the cadence is going to change a little bit because it’s not as though you suddenly win a big piece of business with 800 customers that you can go after whereas we are adding customers, we are also very focused on cross-selling, up-selling, moving folks up the Dealer Inspire package levels to get them more features and options that help them drive their business. And that would show up in ARPD.

Doug Arthur: Okay. And I guess actually on ARPD, I mean obviously up 7%, very solid, although sequentially it looked a little lower, is that the D2C impact?

Sonia Jain: Got it. Yes. We would have been basically at sort of 9%. If you adjusted out D2C, they just come in with a slightly lower ARPD.

Doug Arthur: Great. Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino from Barrington Research. Please go ahead.

Gary Prestopino: Hey. Good morning everyone. Couple of questions, Alex or Sonia, what amount of CreditIQ, how many dealers have now signed up for CreditIQ by year-end?

Alex Vetter: We have to get back to you on an exact number. As you know, we folded the CreditIQ solutions into our top tier packages. So, I would say north of…

Sonia Jain: It’s over 11,000.

Alex Vetter: 11,000, I was going to say it’s north of 10, but north of 11,000.

Gary Prestopino: Okay. That’s fine. And then in terms of this marketplace repackaging, you said about 76% of dealers had opted for a higher tier at this point?

Sonia Jain: Yes, over 70%.

Gary Prestopino: Okay. Is that about the peak of where you think you are going to get at, at this point, or – and you still think there is room to move that needle higher?

Alex Vetter: In terms of the dealers on premium packages or…?

Gary Prestopino: Yes. That are opting up for higher tier packages, yes?

Alex Vetter: Yes. I mean I think it’s very clear to us that the inventory turn rate of dealers in our premium tiers is significantly faster than dealers that participate at the basic tiers. So, yes, I see a path for us to continue to demonstrate to dealers that when they spend more with us, their business is improved. And so I do. At the same time, we are rolling out additional new solutions like VIN Performance Media that I think that premium tier will continue to buy, which will further create top tier dealer group who is all-in, versus maybe dealers that run with just more our marketplace as their only spend. And so there is growth for both, Gary, I guess would be the point. And so we might always still have a 20% of the dealers that are in the lowest cohort of spending, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t grow too.

Gary Prestopino: Okay. That’s great. And then Alex, maybe, and I know it’s a very different company than it was years ago, but in the period of 2009, 2010, where we were coming off a real big trough in auto sales, what going into ‘11, ‘12, ‘13 where sales were up pretty nicely, what was the dealer behavior and the OEM behavior at that point? Was it to kind of in mass go for more services that the company offered or is it basically a slow ramp that moves with the increase in car sales over time?

Alex Vetter: Boy, it’s hard to compare the past with the present because so much has changed, Gary. Particularly, I would say the level of digital sophistication by the industry is significantly higher. And so we were doing far more education in those earlier periods than we are today. I think what’s exciting to me now is that not only were the OEM upfronts much more engaging by the car companies, but now the interest from EV automakers and dealers that previously were on the sideline with us, the level of inbound interest to, hey, my vehicles aren’t selling as quickly as they used to, what can you do for me, is much more inbound today than it has been in prior years. We have always had to go out and educate, and now I feel that shift is happening.