There is some debate in the industry about whether many genuinely online used car sales are taking place but some new research we have just completed helps to throw some much-needed light onto the subject.
From a sample of 12,500 motor finance transactions that took place through our iVendi Platform, we have identified that more than one in three (35%) were sold without the need for any dealer contact - requiring no part exchange, being sold at the vehicle’s windscreen price and using the dealer’s online finance.
In fact, around one in 20 (5.6%) purchases in the sample were fundamentally completed entirely online, in the sense that there was no e-mail, phone or physical contact with the dealer until the final step, when the car was collected or delivered.
These customers followed a structured, online buying process – they found their own vehicle, they did not haggle and they didn’t have a part exchange. They were perhaps the easiest-to-handle customers that their supplying dealers ever had.
There are some people in the industry who believe that there are few or even no online used car sales occuring. This analysis suggests that viewpoint simply isn’t true, that where customers are given the technology, a significant proportion will complete as much of the sale online as possible.