JIMEX - Personalizes Customer Communications to Increase Bidding at Online Automobile Auctions

1. JIMEX Case Study
GOAL: EXPAND B2C SALES
Only Japan-based businesses can bid at automobile
auctions hosted in Japan. But JIMEX, which is based
in Japan, offers an ecommerce website with an online
bidding tool that allows dealers and consumers all
over the world to participate in the auctions. The
site enables global customers to access over 100 car
auctions taking place in Japan and get the best deals
from each auction.
SOLUTION: PERSONALIZED
COMMUNICATION VIA HUBSPOT
JIMEX
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN
www.jimex.co.jp
ABOUT JIMEX
Established in 2007 with
headquarters in Japan,
JIMEX is a global exporter
of used and new Japanese
vehicles—working with a
network of loyal customers
online throughout the world
in the Caribbean, the US,
South America, Europe, East
Africa and Oceania as well
as central and southeast
Asia. The company offers
a wide variety of cars,
buses, tractors, trucks and
motorcycles while exporting
25,000+ units every year. The
company’s technology allows
customers to participate
directly in Japanese vehicle
auctions where they can
bid on more than 50,000+
vehicles every day.
JIMEX
Personalizes Customer Communications
to Increase Bidding at Online Automobile
Auctions
Normally, it would
have been time-
prohibitive to load
that much data
into HubSpot, but
Scribe enabled us to
complete the task in
just two weeks.
“
”Luis Ramirez
Head of Marketing for JIMEX
Historically, JIMEX customers have been dealers operating outside of Japan who purchased
multiple cars per month. But the company saw the opportunity to expand its business by selling
directly to consumers around the world that needed new or used vehicles, high-performance
vehicles, or replacement parts.
To expand B2C sales, JIMEX decided to build a communication system that had the potential to
personalize and differentiate the ecommerce experience for consumers. Seeing marketing automation
as a key element of that solution, the company decided to deploy HubSpot to automate its inbound and
outbound marketing programs. To personalize the services offered to individual customers and increase
customer activity in the auctions, JIMEX decided to push real-time updates out to customers as they
participated in the online vehicle auctions.
To facilitate that communication, the company realized it needed to integrate HubSpot with a number
of unique data sources, such as predictive customer analytic systems, past auction results, specific
characteristics of available vehicles, and consumer preferences. This would ensure each customer receives
personalized information on the vehicles they are most likely to purchase.

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JIMEX Case Study
“The key was to find a solution that could pull information from
the multiple sources we use into HubSpot in real time,” says Luis
Ramirez, Head of Marketing for JIMEX. “When a customer loses
out on a particular auction bid, we want to immediately present
them with other vehicles they can consider in order to maintain
their interest and keep them active at our site.”
Based on a recommendation from HubSpot, JIMEX deployed
Scribe Online. The cloud-based data integration solution was
first used to connect HubSpot to a large SQL database that
contained auction data such as specific vehicle characteristics,
bid history, and past purchases. This data allowed JIMEX to
personalize communications about upcoming auctions to each
consumer’s preferences.
However, the JIMEX vision didn’t stop there. In subsequent
phases, the company planned to integrate its HubSpot system
with Twilio, an IP phone call logging and SMS communication
system, to collect additional consumer information for
targeting prospects. JIMEX also planned to integrate HubSpot
with the HeaP analytics tool, which can record and analyze the
steps visitors take on the company website. The company can
then use Amazon RedShift to correlate the data to customer
email addresses and other key identifiers so it can improve
recommendations to consumers and predict the winning bids
of future auctions.
THE RESULTS: INCREASED PERSONALIZATION
DRIVES CUSTOMER ACTIVITY
By connecting to all these data sources, Scribe brought all
of the company’s data on past bidding, customers, auctions
and other transaction activity into HubSpot. The information
can now be used to communicate upcoming auctions and
vehicle information to potential buyers based on their buying
preferences.
“Scribe appeals to us as a data integration tool because it’s
not just a bespoke system,” says Ramirez. “We can expand
and change integrations as we add new analytic tools or need
to connect to other data sources that assist in our marketing
efforts. With Scribe, we have essentially super-charged our
automated marketing process and turned it into an outbound
marketing vehicle—it’s like adding an Astin Martin engine to a
Honda.”
By loading data from multiple sources into HubSpot fast, Scribe
also provides JIMEX with the ability to add personalization and a
vehicle recommendation engine as it reaches out to customers.
“With thousands of customers in over 50 countries,
communicating with all of our customers directly would
normally create a lot of effort because of all the export-import
regulations and the process customers must follow to acquire a
car online,” Ramirez says. “But the Scribe-HubSpot combination
enables us to bring all the necessary information together
quickly and automate the communication process. In addition
to making the online shopping experience more enjoyable
for our customers, we are also gaining the ability to sell our
services into new markets.”
By relying on Scribe, JIMEX imported 250 different data fields
and eight years of customer and auction bidding information
into HubSpot. “Normally, it would have been time-prohibitive
to load that much data into HubSpot, but Scribe enabled us to
complete the task in just two weeks,” Ramirez points out.
In addition to marketing automation, the data brought into
HubSpot from the company website by Scribe also helps JIMEX
conduct marketing-lead scoring analytics. But the real-time
synchronization Scribe offers during auctions is the crucial
factor. Whereas other data integration solutions would take up
to one hour to sync, Scribe executes the data updates every 3-5
minutes.
“The data that is integrated is personalized for each customer
so we can make sure we present vehicles that match the
attributes they are looking for and are most likely to prompt
them to participate in an auction,” Ramirez says.
Looking ahead, Ramirez expects that the analytics brought
into HubSpot by Scribe will help drive more visitors to a new
website section called Favorites. This will allow customers to
more easily identify auctions for their top preferences.
“Scribe enables us to give consumers a very customized
ecommerce experience,” Ramirez emphasizes. “Connecting
all of our unique marketing and analytic systems in real-time
is the key value. We can generate messaging that speaks to
customers one-to-one so they will keep wanting to do business
with us.”