Protection products continue to show strength as electronics fade

San Francisco, CA – August 29, 2012 – According to izmocars (www.izmocars.com) just-released 2012 AOA Auto Accessories Midyear Trend Report, auto Protection products continue to outsell most other accessories in dealerships across the country.  The report, which analyzes accessories sales data from dealerships across the country, also showed a sharp decline in Electronics sales (with the exception of electronic protection products, such as alarms). 

“The results of our midyear report underscore the continued strength of Protection products in the market, indicating that the trend we started to observe last year is moving beyond trend into a reality as the vehicle ownership lifecycle expands,” said izmocars Vice President Sidney Haider. “We also found it interesting that there was a steep decline in the volume of Electronics products sold across the dealerships: as more and more electronic features come standard in vehicles, fewer consumers are purchasing electronics as add-on accessories.”

AOA Auto Accessories Trend Reports are based on sales data from a diverse sampling of 150 dealerships who utilized AddOnAuto¹ and provide a snapshot of the top selling accessories, accessories categories and greatest accessories profit-generators. The dealerships in the study, in aggregate, sold more than $28 million in accessories during the first half of 2012, a number which is on track to exceed total sales of $39 million in 2011². The average dealer analyzed closed over 50% of the customers who were presented with accessories, reaping an average gross profit of 49.3%.

Report Trend Highlights:
• Protection Products Rule:  In the first half of the year, protection products performed extremely well - including paint protection, floor mats, body side moldings and even window tints.

The #1 selling accessories by volume, by revenue, and by profit were protection products:

By Volume: #1 Floor Mats, #2 Factory Exterior, #3 Body Side Moldings

By Revenue: #1 Paint Protection, #2 Upholstery, #3 Alarms, Remote Starts & Recovery

By Profit: #1 Paint Protection, #2 Alarms, Remote Starts & Recovery, #3 Upholstery

To view the Top Ten Accessories Categories for the first half of 2012 click here http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/8/prweb9843667.htm

• Electronics Doing a Slow Fade? There was a precipitous drop by volume for the Electronics category overall, particularly blue tooth, navigation and even video products – dropping them out of the top 10.  This is probably attributable to the fact that the automakers are electronics-happy, loading up vehicles with blue-tooth and other electronic features – meaning fewer consumers need to turn to the aftermarket or dealership accessories departments for these items.

• Regions Enhance Exteriors: By region, OEM Factory Exterior products remained in the top 5 for all regions while consumers demonstrated that enhancing vehicle interiors is a more important priority in the Mid Atlantic, South and Western regions, than in the Midwest or Northeast.

To view the full report, click here: http://www.izmocars.com/aoa-trend-report/2012-Midyear-Trend-Report.pdf

AddOnAuto is currently the accessories sales solution ranked #1 by dealers at DrivingSales.com, and has produced significant results for hundreds of dealers across the country over the past 3 years.

¹ All dealerships in the report sampling utilized AddOnAuto from izmocars: www.izmocars.com/solutions/aoa
² AOA Auto Accessories 2012 Trend Report

About izmocars
izmocars is a leading provider of Automotive Business Solutions including: Website and Online Marketing Solutions, Enterprise-level Automotive CRM, iConsult - Sales Performance Coaching and AddOnAuto - an In-Store Accessories Sales Solution.

izmocars is also the world's leader in Interactive Media Content for the automotive industry. Founded in 2002, izmocars services some of the most successful eDealers in the country.

izmocars is based in San Francisco, with offices in Long Beach, CA,  and Brussels in Europe.

CONTACT: mWEBB Communications for izmocars, Melanie Webber, +1-949-307-1723, melanie@mwebbcom.com, or Angela Jacobson, +1-714-454-8776, angela@mwebbcom.com