1:15 pm, September 26, 2024
For used car dealers, sourcing the best stock at affordable prices has proved to be something of a constant headache over recent years.
It is a situation leaving several retailers not knowing which way to turn but one new platform, which is ‘built by dealers, for dealers’, could prove to be the answer.
Dealerway is a brand new offering from experienced duo Scott Sibley and Steven Douglas, who have developed the app after decades working in the motor trade.
Douglas, who runs Really Easy Car Credit teamed up with Redgate Lodge boss Sibley after the pair got to talking about difficulties keeping their Newcastle-based forecourts fully stocked.
The duo agreed that the issue has gradually been growing since the pandemic and decided that they could be the men to do something about it.
Their new offering – Dealerway – allows traders and trusted dealers of all shapes and sizes to get in contact to buy and sell cars.
The website – and soon to be launched app – offers over 1,000 cars every day with every vehicle coming with a full Motorcheck to ensure ‘no nasty surprises’.
It also features an easy-to-use interface, an innovative ‘forced review system’ to help buyers know who is selling to them and Auto Trader retail valuations for each car that’s listed.
Fees start from just £30 for every car bought and sold and Douglas and Sibley are hoping that their offering will prove popular with fellow dealers.
The pair have now appeared on Car Dealer Live to explain how the new venture came about.
They told host James Baggott that Sibley initially set up a Facebook group –PartX Gold – which took off, leading to the idea for a more formal arrangement
‘Dealerway is a platform that’s basically derived from the frustrations that most motor dealers have felt, especially in the last few years during the covid period,’ Douglas said.
‘They are struggling to fill a forecourt with stock, struggling to find the right kind of stock, and struggling to trade cars back and forth amongst each other,’ he added.
‘I think what makes Dealerway unique, because we’ve derived from the Facebook group, is the sense of community that we’ve built.
‘Now, obviously, Facebook’s great in delivering that community but it’s not a platform that is made for trading cars amongst other traders – there’s a lot of things that it can’t do.
‘So me and Scott got together and thought, “what do we need to provide for a an end user?”.
‘I think a lot of big platforms forget that the most important person is the person buying the car – the person sat at the desk or using the app on the phone.
‘Obviously myself buying lots of cars on a daily basis, I’m well versed in the frustration that comes with that.’
Dealerway’s website is now live and running, with an app set to follow very soon. Sibley said: ‘Sometimes the motor trade needs a bit of a break, because the advertising costs can be colossal for dealers.
‘There’s parts, and then obviously labour and everything what goes into that. We thought, we can make this affordable based on numbers, so we’ll have two options.
‘We’ve got a monthly subscription, which is £80 a month. If you subscribe to that it’s really it’s like £1,000 a year and you can buy and sell as many cars as you want. No auction fees. You can just live the dream with that one.
‘If somebody didn’t want to subscribe to that, they might just want to do a pay as you go model. That’s £30 per car which gets sold. Also, when, when the app launches, there’s a one month free trial.’
You can find out more information about Dealerway on the company’s website.
You can watch the full chat at the top of this story or on the Car Dealer YouTube channel.
