Stay on top of pricing with the Retail Valuation and Price Position now in your Portal stock list
There is still no crash in sight as used car values continue to climb with August 2022 seeing the 29th month of consecutive price growth with a 15.6% growth vs last year and up a staggering 43% on pre-pandemic levels1. What does this mean for retailers? Those who don’t have a strategy to reprice to the live market regularly could be leaving margin on the table and losing consumer trust as pricing differs to the market.
Why is pricing to the live retail market important?
Retailers are currently under-pricing, measured by looking at the current advertised price vs the Auto Trader Retail Valuation, by a staggering £114 million. Now of course not every vehicle should be priced to 100% price position, you need to factor in the desirability of the vehicle in your area, measured by Retail Rating, and other factors. However, this figure still suggests there are margin opportunities available to those who adopt a data-led strategy to regularly reprice to the live retail market.
How is retailer behaviour changing when it comes to pricing?
Historically we’ve seen retailers taking a forecourt approach to pricing, taking the same approach for most vehicles and, for example, discounting by larger amounts every few weeks. This is largely a thing of the past as increasingly we’re seeing retailers adopt a more data-driven approach, using the sorts of insight we share on our webinars to look at a vehicle level and make decisions based on the market conditions and retail pricing of specific vehicles. Whilst this requires more time investment, it allows retailers to maximise the margin potential of every vehicle.
In the last three years, the percentage of price changes that were either an increase or decrease of £50 or less has approximately doubled to 19% showing that retailers are fine tuning more regularly. We’ve also seen double the amount of price changes that were positive (increasing the price) and 18% fewer price reductions as used car pricing continues to rise. This highlights that retailers are increasingly following a retail-led pricing strategy, following fluctuations on the live retail market more closely than ever.
Helping you make quicker pricing decisions from your Portal stock list
To support you make data-driven decisions quickly in today’s fast-moving retail market, we have added two key data points to your improved stock list in Portal.
You will now see against each vehicle on your stock list:
The Auto Trader Retail Valuation
The vehicle’s Price Position relative to the Retail Valuation
This now means that you’ll be able to save time by reviewing your forecourt at a glance to easily identify where you need to adjust pricing to stay on top of the market and maximise margin and speed of sale to your pricing strategy.
The Retail Valuation will be spec adjusted where you have provided optional spec, or used VIN Spec data where available. The Price Position, which displays the vehicles price as a percentage of our Retail Valuation, will now be shown alongside the price indicator that vehicle is receiving. This will allow you to see how your vehicle is priced to the market.
Here’s what your all-new Portal stock list will look like
Price better, quicker and more efficiently with Auto Trader’s Retail Valuation, Price Position and Price Indicator clearly displayed against each vehicle.
This change is live now so why not take a look and see where you might be able to optimise margin on your forecourt today.
Better business decisions, faster, with Auto Trader Valuations
Auto Trader Valuations provide an invaluable view of the live retail market, allowing you to buy and price with confidence and build consumer trust through your adverts.
Buy & price to the live market
Buy and price with confidence by integrating a real-time view of retail valuations. Having the visibility to move with the market daily is key to protecting and maximising margin on every sale.
Retail with confidence
Have confidence that you're pricing the vehicle correctly based on spec and to the live market. Our valuations are underpinned by accurate and granular vehicle data, including OEM-derived VIN Spec which tells you exactly which optional extras the vehicle left the factory with.
Build consumer trust
Consumers look to Auto Trader as an independent authority to help them gain trust in the price of a vehicle. Our valuations and Price Indicator are powered by our view of the live retail market, looking at the pricing of 1.9 million vehicles, 116,000 vehicle updates and 20,500 price changes daily. This means we can truly reflect how retailers across the UK are pricing to enable easy comparisons of your pricing vs the retail market.