A few reasons to be optimistic through the latest restrictions
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to increase across the UK, we got our team together to take you through just what we are doing to support the automotive industry along with some top tips and insights to help retailers keep selling across the UK.
How Auto Trader are supporting the industry
Kicking things off our COO, Catherine Faiers highlighted that our aim through the pandemic has been to be there for our customers when it matters most which is why we went free through the lockdown period.
As England enters a new period of lockdown and Wales and Scotland continue to have restrictions, we have announced that our packages will once again be free through December for all retailers on a package with Auto Trader – helping to support retailers and the wider automotive industry.
This support will be automatic and will help retailers to drive sales in January – starting 2021 strong.
Catherine went on to announce that, as well as supporting our retailer partners, we have also launched a buy online destination for buyers to find stock available to buy remotely. This will be supported by a dedicated marketing campaign to drive awareness among buyers and help to educate and drive them to retailers offering Click & Collect and Home Delivery.
The Buying Online hub is now live at https://www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/buying-online
Is there still demand and is it time to panic?
Our Data & Insight Director, Richard Walker, was up next and went straight into the audience data for last week. Whilst the figures are still strong, with visits to Auto Trader up over 9% for the week up to Wednesday 4th November vs same period last year, the strength of this growth is slowing as we are approaching the lockdown period in England.
Richard did reveal some initial changes in buyer behaviour as a result of the lockdown being announced in England with website referrals for the same week down 9% vs last year and map and direction usage is down 14%. These are the metrics we saw hit first and the hardest back in March as people know they cannot just turn up at the dealership to buy a car.
When it comes to pricing, our data showed no signs of panic Richard was quick to point out that this is a hugely positive sign for the industry and, if anything, retailers are actually starting to slow in terms of re-pricing with the average volume of retailers making price adjustments at the start of November being 2,191 which is actually 237 fewer than the end of October.
While demand continues to show strength relative to last year we know supply is still lower than where we would expect for this time of year there are no signals to suggest large price adjustments are what are required at this time. We will know more next week in terms of the impact that closures will have on both demand in the market and retailer reactions to it.
Car buying attitudes to Lockdown 2.0 and how to respond
Next up was our Brand Director Chris Penny who was quick to indicate that there are plenty of reasons for retailers to be cautiously optimistic with our latest consumer analysis revealing that 58% of in market buyers are still looking to make a purchase in the next two weeks.
Our research also showed that the latest lockdown has not affected 55% of buyer’s decisions to purchase their next vehicle with 7% indicating that it has in fact resulted in them looking to buy even quicker than they planned to, clearly there are still opportunities for sales in this next lockdown.
But whilst there are still opportunities, Chris stated that retailers need to be quick to adapt in order to serve immediate demand whilst also preparing for latent demand.
One crucial way retailers need to adapt is by implementing Click & Collect and/or Home Delivery functionality, which are both allowed across the UK right now. In our latest survey, 72% of buyers were either willing or open to using these services, meaning that a majority of buyers will still be able to make purchases through any current or future lockdowns. But, whilst many buyers are confident in contactless transactions, some do still need convincing further and it is for us as an industry to help guide buyers through the process to build trust and transparency in the remote sales process.
Chris summarised with three key things all retailers need to be doing to keep selling:
1. Be Visible – your doors may be closed but keep your digital forecourt open
2. Stay Safe – keep your COVID safety measures in place and visible to buyers
3. Keep Selling – Enable Home Delivery and/or Click & Collect to keep selling
For further support and to get the full details of the three key steps to keep selling visit https://trade.autotrader.co.uk/always-open/home
You can also catchup on the full webinar at https://bit.ly/32fhlw1