Wednesday, 1st November 2023, London – To help retailers navigate an increasingly nuanced market, Auto Trader has launched a new product, Trended Valuations, which along with enhanced Retail Check functionality, will be made available as part of all advertising packages. Combined, this powerful new layer of intelligence will help Retailers confidently adapt and respond to changes in today’s fast paced market, enabling them to make quicker and more profitable sourcing, advertising, and pricing decisions.
Available as part of all advertising packages from April next year, both Trended Valuations and enhanced Retail Check functionality will be accessible through Auto Trader Portal accounts. For those Retailers already utilising Auto Trader’s powerful suite of API solutions, Auto Trader Connect, the combination of data, insights and metrics can also be seamlessly integrated into their chosen systems. Early access to both Trended Valuations and Retail Check via Portal accounts will begin from January 2024, and via Auto Trader Connect from December this year.
Trended Valuations enables confident decision making
The introduction of these new insights comes in response to a number of forces of change (including changes in supply dynamics and consumer demand for electric vehicles) driving complexity in the used car market, which is in turn creating uncertainty for Retailers, and making pricing strategies harder to manage.
Trended Valuations show what a vehicle has been worth over the last six months, and how its value is forecasted to change up to six months into the future. It’s based on a combination of historic valuations, live market prices, seasonality, and age of the derivative within the lifecycle of its generation. It can also be adjusted to cater for expected mileage usage over the forecasted period. This provides vital insight into the potential profit opportunity, price sensitivity and margin risk, and has proven to be invaluable in a range of everyday retailing jobs and decisions. These include being able to appraise a vehicle prior to purchase (estimating its valuation after preparation, the speed in which it will sell, and the point it becomes overage) as well as managing risk more effectively by identifying potential loss-making vehicles sooner.
Commenting on the impact the new product will have on their business, Michael MacDonald, Business Manager at TrustFord Bristol, said: “Trended Valuations will be hugely powerful for managing part-exchanges, especially where new car lead times can mean the transaction is months away. Having an Auto Trader backed valuation forecast will help us manage consumer expectations. It’ll help us manage risk and margin when sourcing with a clear view forward, so we don’t get stuck. I’ll also have a much better view of risk value on how long I keep cars in stock and know what’s going to happen to protect margin.”
Andrew Muffett, Group Used Car Buyer, Allen Motor Group, added: “I think Trended Valuations is essential, with fluctuating new vehicle lead times we need to be able to give customers an idea of what they can expect for their part exchange when their new car arrives. It also gives valuable insight to your overall stock value as time passes and is a barometer of desirability, stock turn and profitability. As retail and trade markets don’t always move in sync, a point in time trade valuation only tells part of the story when sourcing and puts margin at risk when you hit the retail market. Trended valuations will provide us with a broader view of retail pricing over time, to chart the trajectory of a vehicles past performance and, crucially, where it’s forecast to go.”
Local market insights drive the performance of every vehicle
Having a clear understanding of your market and your forecourt is the key to making confident retailing decisions for every vehicle. That’s why the launch of Trended Valuations has been complemented with access to Auto Trader’s enhanced Retail Check functionality, which enables Retailers to drive performance by harnessing the largest and most accurate view of the live retail market. Businesses which are already utilising Retail Check’s data and metrics (including Auto Trader’s unique Retail Rating), are sourcing more confidently with a deeper understanding of market conditions, as well as using its insights to guide their pricing, and to maximise profit opportunities. In addition to monitoring shifts in supply and demand, it provides real-time market valuations, a competitive analysis of price position against similar stock in the market and estimates how fast a vehicle may sell when priced at its market value.
For the first time, this enhanced Retail Check functionality will be available for commercial vehicles, which means Retailers will have the same level of confidence making retail decisions for vans, as they do for cars.
Haston Masih, Head of Business Intelligence and Pricing at Carshop, said: “The beauty of Retail Check is that it gives us valuable insight into where a specific vehicle sits in the market and how other retailers are pricing similar stock. We utilise it daily to help action our pricing strategy and best optimise margin and stockturn from each vehicle.”
Real-time connectivity delivers improved stock management
Integration of these new insights and metrics marks the next major evolution of Auto Trader Connect. Since the launch of the first module, Retail Essentials, in November 2021, circa 150 technology providers have integrated the capability into their platforms, including the likes of Click Dealer, Dragon2000, SalesMaster, eDynamix Global, Nexus Point, and The Whole Caboodle, enabling circa 9,300 retailers to benefit from some of the services it powers.
Commenting, Auto Trader’s Chief Product Officer, Karolina Edwards-Smajda, said: “Providing this powerful new combination of Trended Valuations and enhanced market insights marks another important step in our commitment to empowering our partners with the scale of our data and the power of our technology. Given the growing complexity in today’s market and the rapid pace in which it’s moving, we feel this is one of the most effective ways we can drive confidence among Retailers and help them to navigate it profitably.
“Our Valuations data alone was engaged with over 20 million times in September, which highlights just how vital a role our insights play in key retail decisions. We believe this added layer of intelligence will prove to be a game changer for many Retailers, giving them what they need to adapt to a nuanced market and to identify the most profitable opportunities for their forecourts.”
