Auto Trader’s role in driving change in automotive and what this means for our industry partners
Many of you will know that we were founded in 1977 as Thames Valley Trader by John Madejski, with a rich history spanning 47 years. You might not know that we’ve been a digital company for 28 of those years, 2 years longer than Google, 8 years longer than Meta. We have been a mobile company for 15 years, and for 10 years we’ve proudly called ourselves a technology company.
Why is that important and why am I talking about it now? Well, we believe it defines who we are and enables our company purpose; driving change together, responsibly. Our decades-long investment in market-leading technology and data means we can drive change at scale. Enabling us to continue to provide the best platform to sell and buy vehicles for all retailers, consumers and industry partners.
Our role is to make the complex simple.
The consumer experience in Automotive has improved but it is still not easy; 68% of recent buyers experienced issues when searching for their next car and 82% don’t know if the information they find is accurate.
Buyers find some jobs much harder than others – especially the ones they do mostly online. Finding the right car, understanding costs and part-exchange are the hardest jobs for consumers today.
Delivering change at scale for buyers and sellers
Auto Trader is one of the most recognised and trusted brands in the UK, we receive over 77 million visits to our website each month and our mobile app has been downloaded over 21 million times – that’s around half the number of driving licence holders in the UK. Consumers look to us to help them find their next car and we know they want to complete more of the buying journey online, but that the role of the retailer is still crucial.
It's a time of significant change in our industry with the introduction of new vehicle types, new technologies, and ever-changing consumer behaviour. We want to solve those problems for ALL sellers and ALL buyers. Choice is our biggest strength, and therefore whatever we do, we need to do it at scale to preserve that choice. With scale comes complexity – different types of sellers, different types of buyers, different partners, complex systems and platforms to consider.
Our decades-long investment in technology and data, combined with our market-leading position means we’re able to deliver this change, at scale for all our partners to provide the best consumer experience and help sellers succeed. This is not something that any individual retailer can deliver on their own. It’s expensive, and consumers want consistency. So, our investment is on behalf of the whole industry, so that no retailer is left behind.
How our platform enables a smarter, more connected automotive industry
Our platform is powerful because of three fundamental elements; our core marketplace, our data and our technology, with each one making the other two even stronger.
Our Marketplace & Audience
Our marketplace is how we connect buyers, through our website and mobile apps, to sellers’ stock. We’ve held our position as the number one destination for UK buyers by constantly evolving our offering to make the complex process of finding your next vehicle, simple. In fact, since 2016 our site visits have nearly doubled, 21 million consumers have downloaded our mobile app and consumers spend 19x more time on Auto Trader’s website than the average time spent on major dealers and manufacturer websites combined. Consumers trust us and expect us to make finding their next car as simple as possible.
Enabling omnichannel retailing for all retailers at scale on Auto Trader
Deal Builder builds on our core marketplace to cater for changing buyer needs, enabling more of the buying process to be done online. Consumers demand improved digital journeys with the ability to connect with a seller when they want, creating seamless online to offline journeys. Deal Builder offers buyers the option of arranging their part-exchange, finance and reserving the vehicle from your adverts on Auto Trader. Being able to offer an omnichannel solution at scale to ALL retailers wouldn’t be possible without our technology platform at the core.
Our marketplace in numbers
Our Data & Insight
We started investing in building automotive data and established our data science team over 10 years ago. This enables us to use big data tools, machine learning and AI, which we embraced long before Chat GPT made it famous. The strength and scale of our marketplace in turn means that our automotive data is unparalleled in the UK; the largest view of stock combined with the most comprehensive understanding of consumer behaviour. This enables us to create our powerful data solutions, ranging from Valuations to market metrics like Retail Rating. Our vehicle data enables retailers to create accurate adverts based on both standard, and optional extras as we integrate enhanced VIN Specification data from more manufacturers.
Our data is trusted by the industry, powering the majority of retailer systems, c. 30 manufacturers and many lenders and insurance brands, including all 5 of the top insurance brands in the UK. Our data is also now being used to power the ONS (Office for National Statistics) official measures of inflation, including the Consumer Prices Index. Our data & insight not only enables retailers to continually identify, investigate and improve the performance, it also provides vehicle, site and market level intelligence to maximise growth opportunities.
Our Data in Numbers
Our Platform & Technology
All of this is underpinned by our technology infrastructure. We have built one of the best and most admired software platforms in the UK, ensuring we use the latest technology at scale. Technology sits at the heart of the online consumer journeys which make our website and apps simple to use. Our machine learning and AI powered products are transforming our consumer experience, from powering our valuations driven price indicators, to relevancy search, to tailoring recommendations to help find the right car.
Our technology enables retailers to access Auto Trader in two main ways. Through our Auto Trader Portal where retailer’s login to a website to manage their stock and consumer enquiries on Auto Trader. In the last 3 years we’re built and scaled Auto Trader Connect to replace out-dated data feeds. This is a powerful API Platform connecting the industry to Auto Trader’s marketplace and data in real-time, helping customers manage their business in the systems of their choice, whilst ensuring those systems stay in sync. For example, pricing tools automating pricing changes on Auto Trader and a retailers DMS in real-time. Or automatically letting your DMS and website know straightaway when a vehicle is reserved on Auto Trader so you can follow up and close the deal.
Our Technology in Numbers
Our promise to you is that we will keep investing, keep innovating and keep driving the industry forward to bringing buyers to your adverts, deliver deals and encouraging / driving them to your forecourts. The more we work together to create a simple and seamless buying journey, the better for the industry.
Regards
Karolina.