Buyacar Poised For Growth In 2016 After Quadrupling Sales Last Year On Double The Stock

“Online-only car retail has reached critical mass – the 'Amazonification' of motor retail is now unstoppable” – Austin Collins, Buyacar MD

PIONEERS of online-only motor retail BUYACAR have revealed they quadrupled sales last year with only double the stock.

Now the business – which pioneered the concept of online distance car-selling in 2002 – is forecasting even faster growth in new and used car sales in 2016, partnering with more dealers to boost consumer choice.

Consumer quotes – the measure of cars reaching a customer's on-site 'shopping basket' – grew to 4,000 per month and the team is now predicting that figure too could quadruple again this year.

BUYACAR co-founder Austin Collins attributes last year's surge in sales to the coming of age of online motor retail. He believes the 'Amazonification' of all retail sectors – in which a frictionless and comfortable customer experience trumps even price discounting to drive growth – is now unstoppable.

The success of BUYACARis good news for dealers and consumers because both sides benefit from a simple, frictionless car sales process.

For dealers who make their stock available on BUYACAR'S buyacar.co.uk web platform the result is additional sales with no additional effort, while crucially preserving 100% of their target margin. The BUYACAR team dubs its service offer to dealers as 'Order Gen' to differentiate the business from the traditional lead gen provision model.

For consumers who are uncomfortable with the conventional sales negotiation process the experience of buying new or used cars through BUYACAR is frictionless and completely safe, evidenced by thousands of overwhelmingly positive reviews on TRUSTPILOT.

Although BUYACAR are the original pioneers of online motor retail in the UK – selling more than 15,000 cars 'unseen' since 2002 – the business has focused more heavily to date on refining its technology, processes and services than building a household brand name. But that is changing, following the acquisition of BUYACAR by the leading independently owned media company Dennis Publishing in 2014.

Under the umbrella of Dennis Publishing's powerful consumer automotive brands, such as Auto Express, car reviews site carbuyer.co.uk, Classic Car, Octane, evo - for performance car lovers - and Land Rover Monthly, BUYACAR has already benefited from a massive and strongly focused consumer audience.

It means BUYACAR is setting its sights on quadrupling customer quote volume this year, to drive a further dramatic increase in the retail sales it achieves on behalf of dealers during 2016.

Austin Collins said: “Last year we doubled our stock, by bringing more dealer partners on-board, but we sold four times as many cars for them as we did in 2014.

“Now we are confident we will quadruple our current quote volumes of 4,000 cars a month and that signals further substantial growth in the retail sales we will achieve for dealers this year.

“What is most satisfying and exciting about this is that we have not driven these increases by simply dragging more people to our website in the way digital businesses often do.

“It's about the quality of our site visitors, supported by the powerful Dennis automotive brand family and their audience of more than four million in-market UK car buyers per month.

“In short, the growth of Buyacar is being built on attracting more people with a real intent to purchase.

“All the evidence is that confidence is genuinely growing in the purchase of new and used cars unseen – and that's a real shift. I think it shows that online-only car retail has reached critical mass – the 'Amazonification' of motor retail is now unstoppable.

“Being part of the Dennis Publishing family has really helped us – and our dealer partners –to capitalise on the growing willingness among consumers to buy cars they won't see until they take delivery. It's helped us to scale our service to dealers as never before.

“BUYACAR is now naturally on the radar of four million Dennis magazine and website fans every month who love cars, are seeking independent authoritative opinions on cars and researching their own next car purchase – and our dealer partners are feeling the benefit.”

BUYACAR will unveil a new website in the spring, while the business will also benefit from a raft of new appointments within Dennis Publishing's digital and automotive-related businesses during 2016, focused on developing deeper automotive market insights.

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