10:25 am, October 15, 2015
CARSPRING, a new online retail platform, has launched in the UK promising to radically alter the way customers buy and sell pre-owned cars.
By delivering a fully inspected vehicle straight to the buyer’s door within a week of purchase, and with a 14-day refund guarantee if they aren’t satisfied, Carspring removes the need for customers to view or drive the car.
For those selling a car the firm provides an online quote followed up by a free inspection, valuation and listing on the Carspring website. What’s more, if the car doesn’t sell on its website within 30 days, Carspring will buy it themselves.
In recent years, online shopping has increased massively, however used-car consumers still prefer to travel to dealerships before making a purchasing decision. According to a report by Carspring’s team – pictured above – 7.2 million cars were sold in Britain last year. Of these, 85 per cent of buyers opt to visit the dealership in the final decision-making stages.
Carspring’s founder, Max Vollenbroich, said: ‘Today, e-commerce is king, but the secondhand car market has struggled to evolve with the digital age, in the way we’ve seen happen in most other sectors.’
The report attributed this to a lack of trust in existing online used car platforms and that cars are such a high cost purchase.
Vollenbroich continued: ‘People would visit a dealership five times before making up their mind, but now they’re window shopped online and only go out to ‘test drive’ their chosen car to settle their decision on such a pricey item. But with Carspring, there’s no need to do even that, as our experts vet the cars themselves before they appear on our website and we offer a full refund if the customer isn’t happy.’
Carspring wants consumers to think of the platform as a ‘car concierge’ service, guiding buyers through model choices, explaining jargon and highlighting normally hidden costs.
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