An update from Nathan Coe, Auto Trader CEO

Despite the restrictions in place, it’s been really encouraging to see how retailers have responded. Many of you have been operating successfully by maintaining an online presence and where possible, offering click and collect and home delivery services. The impact on sales and performance overall has been more manageable in comparison to the lockdown earlier in the year. It is clear that retailers have spent the last few months evolving the way they operate to meet the changing needs of car buyers.  

We continue to monitor metrics on our site and, as you would expect, we have seen the interactions that would usually indicate a walk in, such as map views and website clicks, reduce in those areas where forecourts are closed. However, over the last seven days, all other indicators continue to show year on year growth.

Views of adverts on Auto Trader are up 14%(1) year on year, which suggests that consumer demand remains robust. This is converting into leads, which are up 18.5%(2) on last year. Prices are also strong, with stock items being re-priced by a smaller amount than we would normally see at this time of year. In fact, like for like used car prices are currently up 8.3%(3) on last year. All signs that the market is proving very resilient.

We are thankful that the Wales firebreak came to an end, that most retailers in Scotland have been able to remain open, and that in England retailers will soon be able to open their doors again. That said, Northern Ireland have just entered a two-week lockdown period, we wish our retailers there well and hope that we see similar trends to those experienced in the other countries during lockdown.

Retailers embrace new ways of selling

The speed at which retailers embraced the new functionality we launched earlier this month was quite incredible. Only a few months ago a relatively small number of retailers were promoting their home delivery options. Today we have over 8000 retailers covering 350,000 vehicles where car buyers can search and find a car with a number of options for delivery or collection. We have also extended the beta phase of our Guaranteed Part-Exchange product as it became clear from retailer feedback that managing part exchanges during lockdown was particularly challenging. This will enable more retailers to benefit from the product at a time when it really matters.

You can find out more about Guaranteed Part-Exchange and register to be part of the beta at https://trade.autotrader.co.uk/products/gpx-early-adopter

The interest generated in these new options across our platforms has been staggering with over 2 million car buyers seeing the delivery options on Auto Trader. We’ll be sharing full details of our consumer marketing activity soon, but I can confirm that we’re launching a new campaign from Boxing day to build on the audience engagement we have seen. It’s as important as ever that you benefit from the expected increase in demand that we see at this time of year by ensuring your stock is visible.

A positive outlook for 2021

January is always an important month for retailers and we have every reason to believe the strong demand will continue. In addition to audience data, our consumer research suggests that positive sentiment towards car ownership remains and that affordability is not currently a concern for consumers. Our data from previous years suggests that over 50% of January sales are generated by car buyers who are active during December(4). The December free period on Auto Trader is the perfect opportunity for you to make stock visible and to ensure your start to the new year is the best it can possibly be.

As news of vaccines emerges, we can all begin to feel more positive about what 2021 may bring and hopefully start to get back to some kind of normality. We have, as always, many exciting product developments to share with you ahead of the annual package review in April. I will share more details of this in the New Year but I hope that our actions through this most challenging period gives you assurance that our customers are always at the heart of our thinking.

As always, I welcome your feedback and trust that we can navigate whatever the next year brings together.

Best wishes,

Nathan

Data Sources

1: Auto Trader internal analysis of Google Analytics data, average number of unique advert views daily, 22nd – 28th November 2020 vs 22nd – 28th November 2019 (inclusive).

2: Auto Trader internal tracking, increase in share of email, text and chat leads sent to retailers, 22nd – 28th November 2020 vs 22nd – 28th November 2019 (inclusive).

3: Auto Trader Retail Price Index November 2020 vs 2019 (like for like pricing)

4: Analysis of 31,857 sold vehicles through Auto Trader based on sales match data provided by customers. January sales analysing buyer research behaviour December 2019 – January 2020 (53%)