New car lead generator Carwow 'accounted for one-in-12' car sales in 2020

7:27 am, January 10, 2021

New car lead generation website Carwow says leads it delivered to dealers accounted for one in 12 sales in the UK during 2020.

Carwow has revealed it believes its share of the December private new car sales was 9.81 per cent and for the full year it says it finished on 8.35 per cent.

The annual figure, taken from internal Carwow numbers, was a near-13 per cent rise on 2019.

Carwow founder and chief executive James Hind told Car Dealer that during the year the business also switched from charging dealers per sale to a cost per enquiry model.

He said: ‘2020 was certainly a memorable year for everyone, and a rollercoaster for anyone in the new car business.

‘Carwow ended up having a great year, though I wouldn’t have expected to say that back in April.

‘It was encouraging to see how quickly retailers adapted to digital with the almost overnight reduced reliance on showroom walk-ins, and how ready so many consumers are to buy without seeing the car.’

8.35
percentage of new car sales Carwow generated in 2020

Hind said moving to the cost-per-enquiry model had ‘transformed’ the way the website works with car dealers.

He added: ‘It has led to a far more sustainable marketplace on Carwow and significantly improved customer experience.’

The Carwow founder said that this year the business will be focussing on ‘deepening relationships’ with partners.

He added: ‘No doubt there’s challenges ahead, with ongoing lockdowns hurting new car sales and retailers running on fairly lean teams causing some challenges with customer response times, but we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

‘The focus this year is on deepening relationships with our partners – with significant tech resources on improving the platform for retailers and more hiring for our UK partner support teams.’

This week, Carwow also announced its Car of the Year awards with the Toyota GR Yaris taking the overall winners’ gong.

Chief content officer Mat Watson said: ‘The Toyota GR Yaris is a fantastic little pocket rocket that put the biggest smile on my face from the first time I drove it.

‘Our audience absolutely loves it too. It took an early lead in our Car of the Year poll and didn’t look back.’

Carwow also revealed that Tesla was the most watched car brand on its popular YouTube channel. The channel has recently clocked up 5m subscribers and plans to replicate the growth in Spain and Germany.