Autotrader Classics / Motorcycles / RVs
In 2015, Autotrader aimed to broaden its reach in the classic car sector and also venture into the motorcycle and RV markets. At that time, many rivals had already established themselves with websites featuring tens of thousands of listings, attracting millions of visitors, and achieving high search engine rankings. Launching three distinct websites targeting different audiences posed a significant challenge, especially as they would compete with these well-established players. Each site needed to cater to three groups: vehicle buyers, dealers of cars, motorcycles, and RVs, and private sellers, further complicating the project. Additionally, the sites required integration with various external services, including payment processors, fraud prevention solutions, advertising networks, and inventory management systems. Airtight developed the three specialized web applications using PHP for the back end. These platforms now support several hundred thousand registered buyers and sellers. The custom dealer/seller portal enables dealers to manage their listings and monitor lead activity easily, while the tailored CMS facilitates the creation and publication of relevant articles and content. Our DevOps team oversees the AWS servers for these sites, which collectively receive hundreds of millions of pageviews from tens of millions of unique visitors. Protecting the sites from intrusions and fraud remains an ongoing priority for such high-traffic platforms, but we have successfully tackled these challenges.