Resilient audience for Commercial Vehicles

By Leanne Thomson, Van Lead

It’s fair to say that the van market has seen unprecedented demand over the course of the last few months. Immediately after the first lockdown, we saw audience and response recover quicker than other markets and over the Summer we reached record audience levels. 

In August, visits to the vans platform were 52% up year-on-year, and advert views higher than ever before – in August we delivered 6 million more ad views than August 2019.1 

We’ve continued to see this positive trend even throughout the uncertainty that October has brought. Even with countless government announcements, the Covid alert level being raised, the introduction of the tier system and the Wales firebreak lockdown, buyer behaviour has remained unphased, with visits up 48% and ad views per stock item up 112% versus October 2019.2 

This has, as we’re all too aware, had a significant impact on prices of commercial vehicles. The average price of a used van on Auto Trader in October was £15,482 – 20% higher than the £12,900 it was in October 2019. But despite this increase in prices, the average days to sell reduced by 37% to just 26 days, reinforcing the high buyer demand we’re seeing for commercial vehicles right now.3  

But what has happened since the most recent lockdown announcement on the 31st October, and the implementation of the new restrictions in England? The good news is that the audience is clearly much more resilient, as we didn’t see the immediate dip that we saw back in March.  

Visits to the site dropped by 15% following the announcement 4 and the lead-up to the increased restrictions, but picked back up over the first weekend of lockdown – a clear indicator that buyers are now much more familiar with this remote way of researching and buying. In fact, for November to date, visits to the platform are up 38% versus the same time last year, with enquiries 56% ahead.5  

Earlier in the year we introduced features that would enable buyers to research and take delivery of vehicles without the need to visits a showroom. Last week we further enhanced the visibility of retailers’ click and collect options and are actively promoting the home delivery and click and collect options available on Auto Trader.  

Our latest research has shown that over 50% of buyers are willing to utilise click and collect or home delivery options.6 As we continue to raise awareness that retailers are there to support buyers remotely through their van buying journey and with showrooms in England set to be closed for the next few weeks, it’s never been more important to ensure your stock is online. 

Auto Trader Internal Data: 1 August 1st-31st 2020 vs 2019 , 2 October 1st-31st 2020 vs 2019, 3 October 1st-31st 2020 vs 2019, 4 1st-4th Nov 2020 vs 25th-28th Oct 2020, 5 1st - 9th Nov 2020 vs 1st - 9th Nov 2019, 6 Auto Trader consumer survey, November 4h-10th 2020