CA2949099A1 - System for locating merchandise and negotiating the lowest selling price - Google Patents

Abstract

System for locating and purchasing a vehicle, where a customer may first enter vehicle search criteria into a computer. Next, the system may find multiple matches from a database or search competing retailer inventory. The system may also collect trade-in vehicle information from the customer. The system may retrieve the retailer cost of the vehicle and trade-in vehicle value, where upon customer affirmation the system may send out electronic messages to all or some retailers that show a positive search result. The electronic message may inform the retailers they are in a competition for a sale, including inventory stock numbers, competitor vehicle location, trade-in vehicle information, the retailer's cost, an offer to purchase, hyperlinks to photographs of the trade vehicle, and a value for a trade-in vehicle. The system may offer for sale to the customer, extended warranties and accessories specific to the vehicle search criteria.

Description

SYSTEM FOR LOCATING MERCHANDISE AND
NEGOTIATING THE LOWEST SELLING PRICE
Background of Invention [001] Automotive dealerships use a coordinated and sophisticated form of psychology and rehearsed process against a customer to obtain the maximum profit on each vehicle sale.
Automotive dealerships attempt to hide manufacturers rebates, lie about how much money they are profiting, keep the customer focused on monthly payment rather than price, distract the customer from speaking with competing dealerships, add additional insurance and cost without the customer's knowledge, and encourage emotional buying rather than logical purchases. The dealership attempts to provide as little information as possible and encourages in-person appointments, so they may control their customer using a psychological process which often results in large profits to the dealership.

[002] However, car dealerships are also highly competitive. Once a person has determined which options are desired on a vehicle, either by using a vehicle building tool on a manufacturer's website or by visiting a dealership, he/she may search for equivalent vehicles online or by phoning other dealerships. The customer may then offer the sale to whichever dealership provides the lowest price. The customer may also obtain the dealer cost on the vehicle through various web services and inform the dealer of the wholesale vehicle cost. This practice on the part of the customer/consumer is often effective at obtaining a savings of thousands of dollars over face-to-face negotiations with a salesperson, where the salesperson is seeking to control the customer through psychology and a proven process for maximizing dealership profit.

[003] It may however, take a customer a great deal of time to search for an equivalent vehicle online, who then may suffer the mental anguish of dealing with aggressive salespeople that state that they will only provide their lowest price in person, or that because there is a trade-in vehicle involved, that the trade-in vehicle must be inspected in-person to provide an accurate value.
These are generally lies designed to control the customer.

[004] Several websites and consumer systems designed to save the customer money have been attempted such as TrueCar, but this system requires the dealership participation of the program and therefore its success has dwindled. Unhaggle.com also requires dealership participation for low margin deals, but the participating dealership often does not have the desired vehicle in stock and the consumer often has to make compromises.

[005] Therefore, there is a need for a system which obtains the necessary customer information required by an average automotive dealership to quote a purchase price/payment on a vehicle, finds the vehicle that is sought, but then reverses the psychology onto the dealership sales employees, forcing them to compete for business with other dealerships, and allows a customer to efficiently obtains a fair market price from each dealership while minimizing the mental anguish of haggling against professional hagglers.
Summary of Invention

[006] A system for locating and purchasing a vehicle, where a customer may first enter vehicle search criteria into a computer. Next, the system may find multiple matches from a database or search competing retailer inventory. The system may also collect trade-in vehicle information from the customer. The system may retrieve the retailer cost of the vehicle and trade-in vehicle value, where upon customer affirmation the system may send out electronic messages to all or some retailers that show a positive search result. The electronic message may inform the retailers they are in a competition for a sale, including inventory stock numbers, competitor vehicle location, trade-in vehicle information, the retailer's cost, an offer to purchase, hyperlinks to photographs of the trade vehicle, and a value for a trade-in vehicle.
The system may offer for sale to the customer, extended warranties and accessories specific to the vehicle search criteria.
Summary of Embodiments

[007] Fig. 1 is a flow chart of the system and method of the invention

[008] Fig. 2 is an example of an advertisement for a trade-in vehicle Detailed Description

[009] Computer systems are used often for vehicle shopping by consumers. Various websites provide new and used vehicle information, which allow people to shop efficiently, but there are now too many websites advertising too many vehicles.
This has created a mass confusion for customers.

[010] A computer system may serve as a search engine, first by allowing a customer to enter or select many specific options of a desired vehicle. This may include colour, year, trim, option packages, and engine sizes. The information may be entered on a tablet, personal computer, phone, watch, or any computer device. The system may receive information from the customer over a phone to an operator, where the operator or someone else enters the information into a computer device. The customer may use touch tone phone dialing instead of a computer device. This information may be referred to as search criteria.

[011] The computer system may also allow the customer to enter trade-in vehicle information, or capture photos of the trade-in vehicle by a mobile device. The system may ask qualifying questions to determine whether the customer qualifies for rebates and/or incentives that are offered by the manufacturer of the vehicle desired for purchase. The system may ask the = customer how much money is still owed on a trade-in vehicle. The system may ask the customer to select or enter the name of their financial lender.

[012] A computer system may populate the inventory of a plurality of automotive dealership websites into a database. The system may search known websites and obtain vehicle information including the vehicle identification number or VIN, the year, option package, model, engine size, rear axle ratio, horsepower, stock number, colour, cab size, wheel base length, and accessories of a multitude of vehicles from a multitude of websites. Data may also be provided directly from manufacturers internal websites such as Chrysler's DealerConnect. If dealerships in retaliation, begin blocking IP addresses of the system to prevent system searches, the system may use the Tor network, virtual private network (VPN) tunnelling, or some other form of network bridging or onion routing to change Internet protocol (IP) addresses, so that the system may routinely search the inventory of dealerships websites and/or send electronic messages unaffected by any blocking attempts. These technologies have been proven effective even against the Chinese government for passing through a highly sophisticated government firewall.

[013] The system may have other sophisticated ways of obtaining information from a website, such as selecting a link that states words such as "more info" or "get info", that are present on the same page as a valid vehicle identification number. The system may also know or be taught how to use links such as "inventory"
or "new vehicles". The system may have reference to Captcha techniques for these words, if dealerships attempted to make the links difficult to read by a computer. The system may interpret "24 valves" are deriving a specific six cylinder model. For example, "24 valves" could be used on a new Dodge website to mean the 3.6 Pentastar engine.

[014] The system may then compare the desired vehicle selected by the customer against a database of known vehicles advertised by car dealerships within a certain geographical area to obtain matches. The system may search websites for the desired vehicle as well. The system may display the number of matches to the customer.

[015] The customer may have an option to make an affirmative selection, which will begin an aggressive negotiating practice against several automotive dealerships on behalf of the customer. The computer system may then send out an electronic message to each of the dealerships which advertise the correct vehicle unit that is sought by the customer. These vehicles may be near matches to the search criteria. The system may have operators make phone calls to the dealerships or the system may send computer generated or prerecorded voice messages. If there are more than 3 to 5 dealerships, the system may only use the most geographically convenient dealerships for the customer. The system may group smaller numbers of dealerships together, as to create a multiple mail out without appearing as though a dealership is competing against many dealerships. Limiting/restricting the number of competitors may make a sales manager more willing to compete. Furthermore, if bidding is limited to 3 dealerships, certain dealerships may pay the business model to be given preference for bidding. The electronic message may be sent through the "Contact Us" link and online form which is present on virtually every car dealership's website. Car dealerships are anxious to receive leads from customers and often pay hundreds of dollars to buy a lead, therefore the use of Captcha or another kind of security to discourage spam or computer-to-computer messaging are generally nonexistent. These Captcha systems may require the sender to identify words or numbers.

[016] If Captcha is required by the dealership website, the computer system may display the Captcha image to the customer and prompt the customer to enter this information so that the message is properly sent to the dealership.

[017] It may be important and hereby disclosed, that the affirmative option initiated by the customer may be necessary to avoid anti-spam laws. The system may be structured legally in a manner which avoids anti-spam laws, which have recently become stronger than ever. The customer may be provided with prompts and disclosures that clearly indicate that the individual customer is choosing to send an electronic message to these dealerships, not the system, where the system only drafts and sends the message on the customer's behalf based on information the individual customer provided, and information obtained by the system through other means that are later discussed.

[018] An example of an electronic message is depicted in paragraph 040. The electronic message may contain the name 7, phone number 25, and email address of the customer or any other contact information. The message may be structured in such a manner as to appear to have originated from a person. The message may clearly indicate that the message is coming from a service or from an auto generating system. The message may indicate the customer has paid a fee to auto-generate the electronic messages 26. The message may express interest in purchasing a specific vehicle 8 with a specific stock number 9. The message may express that more than one of the near equivalent vehicles have been located at competing car dealerships 12 within the same geographical area. The system may provide specific information including the names of the competing car dealerships 13 and stock numbers of similar vehicles 14. The information provided in the message may allow a sales manager to quickly verify he/she is in direct competition with other dealerships to sell the same vehicle to the same customer.

[019] The electronic message may contain information of a desired feature which was not known or obtainable from the dealership's website 11, such as a rear back up camera for example. When the dealership representative contacts the customer with a price and payment, they may also provide the differences that were undisclosed options to the customer. For example, one vehicle may have the rear back up camera but did not advertise this fact, while the other vehicle may not have the rear back up camera.
Nonetheless, the consumer may still be able to obtain an even more aggressive price from the dealership selling the vehicle without the rear back up camera, where the offered discount may be more than the rear back up camera is worth. This may be a necessary practice to convince the consumer to forgo an expressed, desired feature.

[020] The electronic message may further provide a statement of the customer's willingness to purchase the vehicle from the dealership that offers the lowest price 16. The message may further state that equivalent messages have been sent to the other competing dealerships 16 that have the near same vehicle advertised or otherwise known in their inventory. The electronic message may also state to a dealership that is geographically farther away than others, that the customer is willing to drive the extra distance for a price that is better than the competing dealerships that are geographically closer 21. The electronic message may request the dealer send specific information regarding the unit, such as features that are not advertised 15.

[021] The electronic message may further contain trade-in vehicle information regarding a vehicle the customer wishes to sell to the dealership 27. This trade information may include the year of the vehicle, the kilometers or miles, the option package, the accident history, amount still owed on the trade vehicle and name of the lender 19, and out of province, state, or country information.
The message may contain the general condition of the vehicle. The message may contain hyperlinks 20, attachment, or web addresses to close-up photos of the trade vehicle including the VIN plate or sticker, tires, windshield, body damage, side profiles, interior, and trunk. The system may display a trade-in value to the consumer, by obtaining a value from a known source such as Black Book, which operates a free online website. This may assist the consumer further in ensuring that the value offered by competing dealerships is fair.

[022] The electronic message may indicate the manufacturers website and rebates 18. The message may indicate whether the customer qualifies for certain incentives or discounts 17. This may further dissuade the sales staff from attempting to hide a rebate or incentive, since the customer appears to be demonstrating knowledge. The system may communicate to the customer the price the dealership paid for the vehicle, so that the customer may understand the profit the competing dealerships are trying to make. The system may have dealer vehicle cost information in a database. The customer may be charged an additional fee for this information.

[023] The electronic message may provide all the information that is required for the sales manager at an automotive dealership to be able to calculate accurate price and payment of the purchase vehicle without physically seeing the trade-in vehicle.
Because the sales manager has been made aware of the fact he or she is competing against at least one other dealership for the equivalent vehicle sale, the sales manager may be compelled to drop the price considerably, or risk losing the deal all together. The customer may be contacted by each dealership with a competitive and low margin price on the same vehicle because of utilizing this system.

[024] The electronic message may randomly or selectively change templates shown in paragraph 041, as to be more difficult to identify as electronically generated. Words, phrases, and terms may be used in different combinations as to simulate a message that was created by a human. This may make it more difficult for a sales manager to determine if the message was computer generated, by constantly changing the message structure, but still including all the necessary information.

[025] If the representative for the car dealership calls the customer and states that a sales manager at the dealership must see the trade-in vehicle in person to provide a quote, the customer may be instructed by the system in advance, to state calmly to the representative that the customer does not believe the need is true, and the customer may state the business will go to the dealership who provides the lowest price over the phone, text, or email. The electronic message may state the customer won't accept the aforementioned excuse from the dealership representative 24. The system may provide tips and rehearsed lines to the customer to answer dealer questions. The system may instruct the customer to resist coming down to the dealership until a price is negotiated.

[026] An electronic message may be received by a receptionist or an Internet leads manager at an automotive dealership. The message may be forwarded to a sales manager. The electronic message also may be forwarded by a customer retention management system (CRM) to the appropriate person.

[027] The system may not display to the customer the exact location of the matched vehicles until the customer has paid a transaction fee. This may prevent the customer from circumventing the business method, by simply contacting each individual dealership that advertises the desired vehicle and initiating a similar process to the system. The system may however, communicate to the customer how many dealerships are currently advertising the desired vehicle within a certain geographical area. The system may not allow the customer to set or manipulate the distance of the geographical area, which could allow the customer the ability to guess or deduce the location of the desired vehicle. The system has a distinct business advantage that a higher transaction fee may be more effective at convincing sales managers to their lowest price. As the system will become known by sales managers, it may be ignored by a sales manager if the service was offered for free or a low price. This would lead to widespread use by non-commitment shoppers who simply waste salespeople's time. However, sales managers that know a person has spent significant money to send out the electronic message, may be convinced that the lead is a legitimate buyer who knows what vehicle they want, and is simply initiating competition between a small number of dealerships. This is a common practice of an intelligent and aggressive customer, but certainly not most customers.

[028] The system may provide the contact information for various automotive finance companies to the customer, including the financial lender the customer currently has an outstanding loan on his/her trade-in vehicle, so that it is easier for the customer to obtain the exact amount owing on a trade-in vehicle before starting negotiations. Generally, customers know who the name of their lender on a current loan, but rarely have the contact number immediately available. The system may provide links that the customer can select to initiate phone dialing on their mobile device.

[029] The system may post/create an advertisement on a website to appear to be selling the trade-in vehicle FIG. 2, using information that was provided to the system by the customer. The system may post the advertisement in such a manner that it appears the advertisement was created by the customer. The system may automatically add an asking price which is higher than trade in = value, the asking price may be determined from a service or website such as Kelley Blue Book. When the advertisement is viewed by a sales manager through the link provided in the message, the sales manager may offer a higher value because the customer appears to be demonstrating accurate knowledge of the retail value of his/her vehicle.
= [030] The system may remove or delete the advertisement after a preset time period or at the request of the customer. The system may simply create a hyperlink to photos of the vehicle. The system may display the retail value of their trade-in vehicle to the customer. The electronic message may include an offer to purchase a vehicle if a certain sum is paid for the trade 23. The sum may be determined from a web service such as Black Book or Kelley Blue book. The sum may come from an internal system database.
[031] The system may provide the customer with the dealer's cost of extended warranty insurance on the desired vehicle to be purchased through a mobile device, computer, phone, voice, or text message. This would prrovide the customer a huge advantage in negotiating the extended warranty price with the finance manager. The desire for the warranty may be expressed in the message sent to the dealerships, but often sales managers are unable to provide such retail price information until the vehicle is sold. A finance manager generally isn't involved until after a vehicle is purchased. The system may further provide cost or competitor information on accessories, undercoats, warranties, life and disability insurance. The system may offer discounts by local businesses on aftermarket accessories, vehicle chemical treatments, warranties, and insurance for less money than the dealership. The companies that receive the diverted business may pay a fee for advertising or fee by each individual transaction. The system may offer financing of the extended warranties and insurance. The system may not require a second inquiry of information from a credit bureau, by inferring/determining the customer's credit rating by the vehicle purchased and interest rate charged by the other financial lender. For example, a person who is granted a $50,000 vehicle loan at 2.9% interest has much better credit than a person who purchases a $20,000 vehicle at 6.9% interest. The customer may be asked to provide a photograph of the contract. This may ensure that the customer's credit isn't weakened unnecessarily, while a finance company for the accessories, insurance, and/or warranties can effectively gauge the risk involved in the loan. The seller of the vehicle may allow the system to sell an extended warranty or another product to the customer. Those products may be specific to the vehicle that is sought. In exchange, the system may prioritize that specific seller in the search results for the vehicle sought. The system may pay a fee to the seller. The seller may on the other hand, offer for sale to the customer a brand of extended warranty, insurance, and accessories that are an affiliated with or owned by the system, where the system may receive a fee from the seller. The system may pay a fee to the seller for selling the customer an extended warranty or other products.
[032] The system may obtain the vehicle dealer's cost on the specific vehicle that was entered as search criteria by the user.
This information may be obtained through a website such as www.carcostscanada.com or Unhaggle.com. In the electronic message, the system may offer to purchase the specific vehicle for an amount based on the dealer's cost of the specific vehicle 22 and 10. In the electronic message, the system may offer to purchase the vehicle in exchange for a trade-in value that is determined by a known value from a source such as Black Book or Kelley Blue Book. The system may also communicate with the competing retailers by person, voice, mail, or any other known form of communication. The system may allow the customer to alter the offer to purchase as the customer sees fit. The system may offer these values as an educated suggestion as to customer as an aggressive starting offer.
[033] This system may use the same practice and methods for any other product other than vehicles with any type of retailer.
[034] The system may offer extended warranties, accessories, insurance, and other products for sale to the customer using the system. These products may be specific to the vehicle the customer has entered into the system.
[035] Fig. 1 is an embodiment of the process involved in the invention. Step 1 involves the system collecting information/search criteria from the customer, as described in this document. Step 2 involves the system searching for near matches vehicles by dealerships advertising the vehicle selected by the customer in Step 1. Step 3 involves displaying to the customer how many vehicles match the description within a predetermined geographical area, and giving the customer the option of initiating a bidding competition between some of or all the dealerships. Step 4 involves the customer initiating the bidding competition after paying a fee. Step 5 involves a mass or limited mail out of electronic messages to the respective dealerships, the message content described in this document. Step 6 involves displaying the specific locations and stock numbers of the near matched vehicles.
[036] The system may prove to be so effective with new vehicles, that dealerships may collectively pay a fee to the business model/system to prevent the system from being implemented for pre-owned vehicles, for the length of the patent term.
[037] If the customer is offering to purchase or expressing interest in a pre-owned vehicle from a dealer or retailer, the electronic message may include the wholesale value of the vehicle.
The wholesale value may be derived from Black Book, Kelley Blue book, or dealer auction sales results.
[038] It should be known that the system is not limited to vehicles and may be used for any kind of merchandise. Also, the entity selling the merchandise is not limited to dealers or retailers, and may in fact be a private seller. The term seller encompasses all entities that may be selling merchandise. The communications sent to a seller may be any form of known communication and are not limited to electronic messages.
[039] It will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or central characteristics thereof. The present examples and embodiments, therefore, are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein.
Example of Electronic Communication [040] "My name is John Doe (7) and I am offering to purchase your new black 2016 Ram 1500 SLT Crew 5.7L (8) advertised on your website, stock number F1679 (9). Your dealer cost is $38,083 (10) and the MSRP of the truck is $51,870 according to Unhaggle.com. I am also looking for a rear back up camera, which is not listed in your add (11). I have also found the identical truck (12) on Capital Dodge's (13) website stock number DF1433 (14), and Derrick Dodge's (13) website stock number S6734 (14). Please send me an additional information about your unit, such as a window sticker (15). I am going to purchase from the dealership that offers me the best deal, and I have sent similar messages to the two other dealerships (16). I qualify for the $1500 loyalty discount (17) as advertised on www.ramtruck.ca and I
know about the $7500 rebate (18). I have a 2010 Ford Fusion SEL
I am trading in, with 94389 kilometres, V6 4 door, power moonroof, leather, no accidents, tires are about a year old, one owner in province, brakes are probably about 50% and a cracked windshield (27). I owe $6322 to Scotiabank (19). I have it advertised on Ktim here www.kijm.ca/cars/47583747474774 (20).
Your dealership is farther away than the other dealerships, but I
will do the drive for a great deal (21). I offer to pay you $500 above your actual cost (22) if you give me $9,900 for my trade (23). I will be financing and my credit is good. A friend who sells cars says he does trade appraisals over the phone all the time for long distance deals, so please don't tell me I have to bring my vehicle in for a quote (24). My phone number is 604-555-5555 (25). I paid a fee of $20 to have this email sent out, through TaylorMade Disruptive Tech Inc. (26)"
Example of a Changed Template [041] "This is an offer to purchase your 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited with the Adventure Packager, stock #16SF4636.
www.unhaggle.com says your dealer cost is $38,183 after the $3000 rebate. We may qualify for the Hyundai loyalty rebate as well. My wife and I also found the identical unit at Gary Mo Hyundai in Red Deer, stock #H66956. We are trading in our 2016 Hyundai Sonata Sport Tech as we've decided we chose the wrong vehicle. It is like new in shape, tires about 75%, no cracks in the windshield, never smoked in. Here is a link on Craigslist with lots of photos, kilometres, and win. Htttp://craigslist.ca/v-view-details.html? We offer to purchase your Santa Fe for $500 over your dealer cost if you provide us with $22,500 for our trade, or we will take the best deal offer between the two dealerships. We have sent Gary Mo a similar offer. We don't owe any money will be paying cash for the Santa Fe. I am confident you have more than enough information to estimate a trade-in value before we drive down. Hopefully we can do business. Jason"

Claims (20)

Claims:
What is claimed is:

1. A system for locating and purchasing merchandise, the system comprising:
collecting a merchandise search criteria from a customer;
searching at least one of a database, a website, and a internet for near matches to the merchandise search criteria;
transmitting a communication to at least two sellers that advertise near matches to the merchandise search criteria; and stating in the communication to the at least two sellers that each seller is in a competition with at least one other seller, the competition to sell the near same merchandise to the customer.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication is an electronic message and the electronic message contains at least one of a hyperlink and an attachment providing photographs of a trade-in merchandise.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the merchandise is a vehicle, wherein the attachment and hyperlink comprises a picture of at least one of a close-up of a tire, a windshield, and a registration document of a trade-in vehicle.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication contains at least one of a near seller's cost of the merchandise and the near wholesale value of the merchandise, the wholesale value and the seller's cost retrieved from a database.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system displays a location of the merchandise after the system collects a fee from the customer.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system offers products for sale to the customer that are specific to the merchandise of the search criteria.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein at least one of the products offered for sale is an extended warranty.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication contains a near value of at least one of a manufacture rebate and an incentive towards the purchase of the merchandise, wherein the merchandise is a near match to the merchandise search criteria.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the system presents qualifying questions to the customer, and wherein the system determines whether the customer qualifies for at least one the manufacture rebate and the incentive, the determination based on answers provided by the customer.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system at least one of charges a fee to a specific seller and sells an extended warranty to a customer, wherein the system at least one of restricts the use of the system to new merchandise and prioritizes merchandise search criteria near match results to the specific seller.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication contains at least one of an offer to purchase the merchandise for a price which is a predetermined value above the seller's cost of the merchandise, and a near amount owing to a financial lender by the customer, the amount owing on a trade-in vehicle and the seller's cost retrieved from a database.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication sent to the seller contains a dollar value of a trade-in vehicle, wherein the customer offers to sell the trade-in vehicle to the seller for the dollar value.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication is an electronic message, wherein the system changes at least one of the electronic message structure and the electronic message template, the changed template and structure between at least two communications sent to at least two sellers.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication is an electronic message, and wherein the electronic message states that the customer paid a fee to at least one of auto-generate and send the electronic message.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system places a public advertisement for the sale of a trade-in merchandise, wherein the communication is an electronic message, and wherein a hyperlink to the advertisement is contained within the electronic message.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the system places within the advertisement an asking price which is higher than a trade-in value of a trade-in vehicle, the trade-in value retrieved from a database.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication contains at least one of a address, name, and a stock number of a competing seller, the competing seller advertising merchandise that is a near match to the search criteria, wherein a stock number of the competing seller corresponds to merchandise that is a near match to the merchandise search criteria.

18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the merchandise is a vehicle, and wherein the system determines the customer's credit rating based on at least one of a vehicle purchased by the customer and an interest rate charged to the customer by a financial lender.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system limits the number of communications sent, wherein communications are sent to a portion of sellers that advertise near matches to the search criteria.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system provides a contact phone number of a financial lender to the customer, wherein the financial lender has provided a loan to the customer for a trade-in vehicle.