Continued support from Auto Trader

By Nathan Coe, Auto Trader CEO

I hope this note finds you, your family and your employees safe and well.

We had all hoped by now, with news of vaccines, that there would be a clear end in sight and that we could put this incredibly challenging period we’ve all experienced behind us. But once again, we face new challenges and further lockdown restrictions, which is certainly not the start to 2021 we were all hoping for.

I have heard from many of you that despite lockdowns and travel restrictions you are still in a relatively strong position, because of your hard work and efforts to ensure that you could continue to trade by offering Home Delivery and Click & Collect services (where local rules allowed). Therefore, I take some comfort from this, as it feels like we are all more prepared going into this lockdown than we were last Spring.

Despite these efforts, the latest announcements across all nations will inevitably have an impact on plans for the coming quarter, which is why we are once again offering support to our retailers.

How we’re supporting your business

Throughout this crisis, we’ve supported our industry in every way we can. From product developments to enable digital retailing, to regular sharing of data and insight to support your business decisions, through to the financial support we provided with discounted packages, free periods and deferred payment terms. Advertising packages have been free for 3 of the last 9 months and charged at a 25% discount in June, all at a considerable cost to our business.

I wanted to reassure you that we remain committed to doing the right thing to support you and the wider automotive industry, which is why today we are announcing that:

We will defer payment for your January advertising invoice by 30 days to support with cash flow and we will remove all charges for stock and packages in February 2021*.

Once again all we ask is that you don’t have a cancellation or downgrade in place during January and if you take the opportunity to upgrade your stock or package to maximise the benefit from this free period, you will need to retain this increased level throughout March 2021.**

Consumer demand remains strong

Encouragingly, consumer demand is strong and up significantly year-on-year. Following the announcements on Monday, audience levels on Auto Trader have remained in line with recent high levels, this is very different from the picture we saw in the lockdown last Spring. As a result, it has never been more important to ensure your stock is visible on Auto Trader. Given the car buying cycle typically takes 2 -3 months1, it is critical that your cars are online on Auto Trader throughout this time, even if forecourts are closed.

The last year has certainly been a rollercoaster, but together we have successfully navigated the lows of lockdowns and regional restrictions, and the highs of record consumer demand which drove an increase in leads and sales, and strong pricing growth with year-on-year prices up over 8% in December2. This shows that together we have demonstrated the ability and resilience of our industry to overcome the challenges and come back stronger each time. I’m confident we will do so again this time.

As always, I welcome your feedback. Our teams will continue to be available to support you with advice on making the most of your digital forecourt. Please look out for our regular webinars and latest updates on trade.autotrader.co.uk where we will continue to share insights on consumer behaviour, pricing data and market trends.

Thank you for your continued partnership.

Important Information

*February free stock and packages refers to all elements of your advertising package, including contracted stock upgrades (subject to ** below), but excluding AT PPC & PPC Boost, Top Spot, Dealer Auction and pay per usage products.

Any Additional Stock outside of your contract booked after 5th January 2021 will be charged at your usual rate. Market Extension will be charged at 50%.

The extension of payment terms refers to the invoice that you will receive on 1st February for your January activity.

**Any downgrade or cancellation which would take effect during January or February 2021 will result in the free offer being removed. In addition, in respect of any upgrade of your stock or package which takes effect during February, any subsequent downgrade or cancellation of such upgrade which takes effect during March 2021 will result in the free offer being removed.

Data Sources

1.        2-3 months from initial consideration (most common answer from our Car Buyers Tracker August 2020, n=1007)

2.        Auto Trader Retail Price Index 2020 vs 2019 (like for like pricing)