Stepping into the Shoes of a Van Retailer in a Challenging Market
A budget of £10,000 and a 45-day time period to buy, advertise and sell a van…easy! As part of the Graduate Sell a Van project, our team was tasked to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and retail a van in order to make a profit. With access to Auto Trader’s suite of products, £10,000, 45 days and a partnership with Vans 365. This is our journey…
Finding ‘The Chosen Van’
Armed with knowledge of Vans 365 stocking policy, we set out using Dealer Auction to identify some commercial vehicles which matched our criteria. We knew we wanted a vehicle, less than 5 years old and below 70,000 miles – in order to comply with the Vans 365 finance providers. Given the challenge of sourcing in the current market conditions, this was no easy task, however we remained optimistic!
With our portfolio of potential vehicles, we used the AT Market Insight tool to identify vehicles, low in supply and high in demand.
After identifying a Ford Transit Connect as the chosen vehicle, we arrived at our maximum bid price by using AT Van Valuations to give us an idea of the retail price the van could achieve. We worked retail back, by deducting the estimated prep, transportation costs and desired profit margin, from the AT retail valuation.
Following the purchase of the van, we used the AT Moves platform to transport the vehicle from the Retailer to the forecourt. AT Moves uses a reverse auction style, so we could be sure we were spending no more than necessary on moving our van.
Making sure the Price Is Right
Speed of sale can be influenced by many variables, one of which is the vehicle’s advertised price so we kept to Auto Trader’s retail valuation for the best chance to keep the speed of sale under 30 days.
We also used AT Performance Analytics to optimise our advert to ensure that our van had a consistent Excellent Performance Rating – as on averages, vehicles with an Excellent Performance Rating will turn in under 30 days.
Making the Van the Star
To optimise our advert, we wanted to make our van stand out in search, we added a video, comprehensive images and a relevant attention grabber. We wanted our advert to answer any potential customer questions to ensure that any leads were of a high quality. Our vehicle description was specific to commercial vehicles and covered specific areas, such as Service History, Vehicle Prep, Specification and Performance and Driving Experience.
Turning Metal into Money
Our Ford Transit Connect was sold 16 days after being listed on Auto Trader, with a net profit of £2,595.87. This comprised of the metal profit from the sale of the van, and a £700 kickback as the vehicle was sold on finance with an additional £598.80 made from the sale of a warranty.
Buying and selling a van, using Auto Trader packages and products has proved a huge learning experience for us and as a group we have a greater appreciation of the challenges faced by van retailers, and how these can be overcome with the use of data to educate decision making.
We attribute the speed of sale, and strength of profit margin to sourcing an in-demand vehicle, pricing the van at 100% AT Van Valuation from day 1 and ensuring that the vehicle was advertised well with an Excellent Performance Rating being achieved throughout.
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