9:48 am, January 19, 2022
Visits to Auto Trader’s platform were up by 15 per cent in 2021, the company has said.
The marketplace attracted an average of 64m cross-platform visits during the year, leading the firm to declare that it influenced eight per cent more sales for its customers in 2021, and that two in three used car sales made by its customers came from Auto Trader.
The company has also said the level of consumer engagement on its platform has increased as well, accounting for more than 75 per cent of all time spent on UK automotive sites.
As a result, says Auto Trader, the volume of leads delivered to dealers in 2021 increased by 20 per cent on 2020, and 62 per cent on pre-pandemic 2019.
Last year, Auto Trader also embarked on its largest marketing activity and ended the year by launching a new campaign that highlights ‘the ease and simplicity of buying a car online from retailers’ on its platform, it said.
The campaign helped fuel even greater consumer demand on Auto Trader, the company said.
Between Christmas and the new year, there were 1.3m daily unique users on its marketplace, while last week that increased to 1.4m on average.
It comes as Auto Trader announced it was now working with more dealers than ever, and finished 2021 with 670 extra dealer partners than in 2020.
CEO Nathan Coe said: ‘2021 was a remarkable year for the industry, and I’m pleased that the very strong levels of consumer demand resulted in many retailers achieving record performance.
‘The high demand, which we saw reflected on Auto Trader, also helped to fuel unprecedented double-digit price growth, and with it, very strong margins.
‘Last year also marked important changes in consumer buying behaviours and a further positive shift in sentiment towards digital retailing, all of which will have a long-lasting influence on automotive retailing.’
He added: ‘As we look forward to the year ahead, and beyond, we’re proud that the strength of our marketplace puts us in the best possible position to help our retailer partners, not only to capitalise on the growth in consumer demand, but as we continue to provide more tools, more data, and more insight, to also successfully embrace the huge opportunities that these changes present.’
