Audience update for our leisure and commercial vehicle channels

By Rob Morphet, Director of Bike, Leisure & Commercial

16/04/2020

We are navigating uncharted waters, there’s no history to tell us how consumers will behave during or after lockdown, and while we see the economy pausing (NOT stalling) in some areas, we are seeing continued demand in others. One of the many benefits of being part of such a large group is the ability to leverage, meaning we can offer continuing support to retailers across all our vehicle channels to do the right thing and get through this challenging time together. Our main priority at this time, as with Auto Trader as a whole, is supporting you as much as possible over the coming weeks.

We’ve been able to offer extended terms for March, free stock and packages during April overlaid with the double stock without compromising the service or support you pay for. And as announced on the 17th April, removed fees in May as long as the ‘lockdown’ continues. Many of the dealers I’ve spoken to have (or are in the process of) successfully applying for funding to help cash flow, and I hope that the steps we have taken so far, and our continued support following further government announcements, will help this too.

The webinars have been incredibly successful, and often talk about vehicles rather than ‘cars’ as, more often than not, the consumer behaviour has been replicated right across the different marketplaces. There have however been instances where the trend has been bucked, be it in audience for bikes, intent to buy for vans, or the increased machinery demand in plant and farm equipment. And what we need to remember is the majority of the content - the legal and trading advice, links and support given is for ALL our businesses, not just cars.

Below is a brief summary, some small marketplace indicators, which offer a snippet of insight into consumer behaviour across our leisure and commercial vehicle channels.

Vans & Trucks

Whilst sessions are down year on year in line with Auto Trader as a whole, they’ve remained relatively flat since the Lockdown announcement and we’re still seeing strong levels of engagement. Visitors to the truck site are spending longer on there than at any other point this year and last week we delivered over 3000 leads and 1500 calls across truck and van. Furthermore, a survey that ran on the van site last week shows that 57% of people on our site are still in the market to buy – however it’s a given that this might just take a bit longer to complete than they had originally planned.

Plant & Farm

For both Plant and Farm, the uncertainty at the start of March seemed to cause more of an impact on audience. Since then we’ve seen a steady rise in traffic, reflecting that these industries are continuing to operate despite government restrictions in other areas. Leads to farm retailers over the first week of April were higher than in the first week of January, February or March!

Bikes

The audience on bikes has only marginally dropped (-1% versus the same week last year), underpinned by the amazing weather, meaning more time out in the garden and listening to those singing exhaust notes, which has no doubt created a real desire for 2 wheels. With advert views up by 11% year on year, last week alone we saw over 3400 leads and over 1000 calls to bike retailers, showing that whilst consumers can’t necessarily buy their next bike right now, a strong digital presence remains as important as ever, with consumers still researching, contacting retailers and lining up their purchase for when government restrictions are lifted or relaxed.

Motorhomes & Caravans

Unsurprisingly, with the closure of holiday parks that came as part of the lockdown, our Motorhome and Caravan channels have seen a big impact over the last few weeks, with over all weekly sessions finishing -36% down versus this time last year. It has however started to stabilise over the course of the lockdown and there have been reassuring green shoots of growth. Last week leads grew by 41% versus the previous week and traffic over the Easter weekend has grown to pre-lockdown figures, something that’s an indication of purchase intent post-restrictions and a real prompt to get your digital retailing space in order.

Over the coming weeks we will continue to update you, so please let us know how you’re using this time and preparing for the future or if there are topics you’d like to hear more about. And as always, the team is on hand to help you with specific queries. In the meantime, please continue to follow government guidelines, stay home and take care.