Auto Trader’s Director of Commercial Products, Karolina Edwards-Smajda
At a time when overage stock is affecting nine out of 10 retailers and costing them an average of £24,285 in lost profits each year, Auto Trader, the UK’s largest automotive marketplace for new and used cars has launched Retail Accelerator, the next iteration of its industry leading data-intelligence stock management tool, i-Control, which it will replace.
Its development represents Auto Trader’s commitment to constantly improve and refine its products and services to ensure retailers have the most accurate picture of the live retail market. As part of this commitment, over the last three years the business has invested in its data science team, growing its data capabilities significantly.
Retail Accelerator is a complete forecourt management solution; the most powerful tool to sell more stock, faster and for more profit. It’s designed to complement a retailer’s own expertise by using the industry’s largest and most robust data set (which only a marketplace boasting 55 million multi-platform visits per month and an average of over 450,000 vehicles listed each day can offer) to inform every aspect of the retail process.
Commenting on the launch of Retail Accelerator, Auto Trader’s Director of Commercial Products, Karolina Edwards-Smajda, said: “The growing sophistication of data and the algorithms required to analyse it is constantly evolving. However, we leverage the capabilities of our growing data science team to ensure our data-driven products are always at the very forefront of these changes.
“We’re incredibly proud of the depth of data that we’re able to arm our customers with, and we work hard to provide the most accurate picture of today’s live retail market. The shift from focusing on a desirability metric to our new AT Retail Rating across our data-driven products is an example of how we continue to evolve our market intelligence.”
Building on the success of its predecessor, i-Control, Retail Accelerator takes a retailers’ business goals and creates a daily action plan aligned to their desired stock turn. It enables them to manage their stock inventory more effectively by constantly tracking changing market conditions and delivering proactive alerts on valuation changes, incorrect pricing and ageing stock, as well as dynamic performance reporting to improve their competitive position. And for dealer groups, this powerful insight is configurable at site, brand or group level and provides unique features to manage stock.
In the last year alone, overage stock has cost the industry in excess of over £290 million in lost profits. With the number of used car stock unsold after 60 days increasing from 32% in 2016 to 35% in 2018, the issue shows no signs of abating as retailers struggle to buy the stock for their area and price it correctly; the biggest contributing factors to slow stock turn.
Retail Accelerator monitors over 1.9 million vehicles each day, including 90,000 vehicle updates and an average of 19,000 vehicles added or removed from Auto Trader. Coupled with data from circa 450,000 trade used car listings every day, as well as additional dealer forecourt and website data, retailers can buy with confidence using the tool’s new AT Retail Rating insight. In addition to monitoring a fast-moving digital landscape, as the UK’s largest automotive marketplace, no other tool comes close to offering the same level of consumer intelligence.
It offers unrivalled insight on the latest buyer demand, market supply and days to sell. Rather than relying on last month’s trade prices, businesses can improve stock profitability by buying and selling using the latest retail prices.
To ensure retailers have the edge in an increasingly challenging and competitive market place, the tool also enables users to review competitor activity in seconds, with detailed filters and dynamic market views. And to make sure the industry’s most powerful market intelligence is always within reach, all of Retail Accelerator’s insight is available on any device 24/7, providing easy access whenever and wherever it’s needed.
