Car dealers offered insight into local used car demand and pricing

Auto Trader and EurotaxGlass’s have teamed up to launch Stock Profile Intelligence (SPi), a unique service that enables car retailers to discover how competitively their used car stock is priced within their local area. The service also reports on expressions of interest from prospective used car buyers searching for vehicles advertised online.

The SPi service, which costs from £20 per week, provides dealers with decision-critical information needed to stock the right used cars at the right price, and therefore sell more used cars, more profitably.

EurotaxGlass’s, Europe’s leading provider of automotive intelligence, evaluates data relating to around 250,000 used cars offered for sale each day via Auto Trader, as well as its own internet stock broadcast solutions, to create the SPi database covering the whole of Britain. The company then produces individual weekly reports tailored to the location and stock mix of each dealer.

The up-to-date suite of customised reports is emailed to the user each week and includes the following:

Price Position – A summary of the price competitiveness of the dealer’s stock in relation to similar vehicles offered by rival dealers within a specified (user adjustable) distance.

Each of the user’s vehicles will have its own Price Position, rated on a scale from 'Priced higher than average', to 'Priced neutral' and 'Priced lower than average'. The Price Position is automatically adjusted to take account of the different mileages of the similar cars being offered for sale locally.

The type of dealer advertising each matched car is also indicated. Dealers are categorised as ‘franchised dealer’, ‘car supermarket’ or ‘independent dealer’, enabling the user to judge whether price realignment is appropriate.

Where SPi identifies a match with a competing car on the basis of specification and plate, a price comparison is complemented with a description of characteristics such as options and colour to allow the user to make a more qualified judgement about possible pricing.

Retail Prospect Rating (RPR) – The RPR is the relationship between the current level of supply for a given type of used car and the current retail demand for that vehicle. For SPi, retail demand is defined as the number of internet used car searches carried out on the Auto Trader website, and in particular, the number of 'click-throughs' to view an individual stock item.

The RPR is a measure of general levels of supply and demand for a given make and model of vehicle, on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), within the designated area. For example, a high RPR would indicate very high level of interest and very limited supply, indicating that a quicker sale is in prospect provided the vehicle is priced appropriately.

Having considered the Price Position and RPR for each stock item, it should be possible to make an informed judgement on whether a price adjustment – up or down – is necessary.

Valuations – This report identifies the Glass's Guide monthly trade valuation for each vehicle held in stock, adjusted to reflect above- or below-average mileage. Also shown is the change in the Glass’s trade value for that vehicle over the previous month, indicating the likely depreciation should the car remain unsold.

Craig Stevens, Director of New Media at Auto Trader, comments: “We are delighted to have teamed up with EurotaxGlass’s to offer dealers this service. It is our goal at Auto Trader to offer solutions beyond our core classified offering, helping dealers sell more cars profitably. We conducted extensive research amongst dealers to identify the type of data that would be beneficial to them when sourcing and pricing stock.

“SPi has been specifically tailored to provide great value to dealers – large and small – through local market data in terms of supply and demand. SPi provides dealers with data that hasn’t been available before, from two of the largest specialists in the motoring data market.”

Alan Henson, Business Development Manager at EurotaxGlass’s comments: “This is the most comprehensive stock profiling service of its kind ever to be launched in the UK. Used car retailers will be able to make more informed choices about which vehicles to stock, and then maximise profitability by advertising them at the most competitive price. Dealers will be able to optimise stock turnover while responding to changing patterns of demand within their local market.

“Over the past few months a large number of dealers have been acting as pilot sites for SPi, and they are already amending their pricing and stock mix based on the reports. We are enormously proud of what our close co-operation with Auto Trader has achieved, and we’re confident that SPi will make a significant difference to the working practices and profitability of many used car retailers across the UK.”

For more details of the new SPi service, contact Auto Trader on 08444 703 962 or EurotaxGlass’s on 01932 823 823.