Looking across Europe there is a plethora of methods employed by the industry to remarket used vehicles within the trade, without taking into account all the consumer facing methods employed. Some resellers favour the traditional auction houses, many of whom now offer the ability to participate online as well as physically. New online-only auction companies are also springing up and spreading their reach as the internet breaks down the traditional barriers of international borders and distance. Other resellers maintain the direct-to-trade approach either via websites with controlled access, sometimes via phone calls or by emailing or faxing lists of available stock to potential traders. Many tend to employ a mixture of both, balancing the benefits of each against the vehicles being sold.

Interestingly the two biggest physical auction companies in Europe both started within a year of each other (Manheim in 1945 in the US and BCA in 1946 in the UK) and no doubt this time span has had some bearing on the popularity of car auctions in the UK and US. Some of the bigger online-only auction companies – eg Autoscout24, Mobile and Autorola, all of whom started between 1996 and 1998 – have had greater success in mainland Europe so far.

One of the most important things to remember is that every route to market has positives and negatives and benchmarking your remarketing performance, not just across your own different sales channels but also against others is vital to ensuring you are keeping pace with this ever-changing world and maximising your returns.

The future for online sales

Technology is gathering momentum at an incredible rate. Thanks to smart phones, tablets and laptops we now carry around levels of computing power in our pockets and briefcases that not very long ago would have cost thousands and been logistically challenging. This makes it much simpler and cheaper to both provide and access data from any location. Even in our own business of vehicle data, valuations and business intelligence, we have embraced the digital age. We offer a range of apps and online tools to provide our customers with the latest data at their fingertips. This in turn enables our customers to be armed with the information they need wherever they need it.

Internet buying and selling is no longer the anathema it once was, nor is it limited to low-value items. This is also apparent in B2B sales where it is becoming increasingly common for everything from stationery to office furniture purchases, and even ordering that new company car taking place online. As our trust of the sellers and our faith in technology increases, then so we move more of our purchases online.

Time is seen as an ever more precious commodity, whilst the pressure is on to be more productive. Thus anything to improve efficiency but still manage risk is welcome. Add to this the cost of travelling as fuel costs continue to increase dramatically, it becomes ever more costly to transact business in person.

Put these elements together and it is easy to see why online sales continue to increase in popularity. Whilst there will inevitably be online casualties, as we saw earlier this year with the demise of Autoquake.com, online selling is here to stay. Whilst it does not mean the end of physical sales it will become an increasingly more common way to transact over the coming years.

Future market trends?

I think online sales will eventually become the most common way for vehicles to be sold where the provenance, specification and condition is known with almost absolute certainty, eg OEM sales to its network and maybe even retailing direct to the end customer. Whether this will happen in the next five or ten years is hard to say, probably closer to the former than the latter given the push to minimise costs and maximise revenues. Also given the landscape for a remarketer in mainland Europe is very different to the UK and Ireland, so I believe the right hand drive markets will probably steal a march over the left hand drive markets in moving more quickly online.

However, I believe the physical and verbal sales approach will still have a following for some types of sales, maybe the more challenging vehicles, wrong colour, specification etc or those with damage or high mileage, where the advantages of being able to bundle some vehicles will remain important in clearing these less desirable vehicles.

Q&A –Bart Jacobs, Director of Business Development at Autorola International, looks at current remarketing remarketing requirements and future trends for online used vehicle sales.

What do you believe the historical reasons are for the strengths of remarketing channels in some markets, for example auctions?

Auctions can remarket a high number of vehicles in a relatively short time, and they have the benefit of creating a level playing field for all buyers. Given the right setup and with good marketing, they will attract a maximum number of potential buyers and produce good results. Fleet owners save money and time, and avoid risk when they rely on a professional auctioneer.  The speed of acceptance for auctions has been very different from one market to the other, mainly because of local cultures and conditions. In the current open market climate, auctions are increasingly popular.

What are the current/future trends? 

Fleet operators seek cost reductions by outsourcing their remarketing and thus improving the efficiency of it. Also they want to cut risk by relying on partners who deliver best results and transparent quality processes. From a remarketing perspective it is vital to both fully exploit the buying potential in Europe and explore potential new markets outside the EU. Online players need to develop extra services, strengthen trust and confidence from buyers, and increase convenience both for vendors and buyers. In the future private car owners will also increasingly find their way to online remarketing platforms.

Do you think online sales will be increasingly popular across all markets?

Yes, but it’s not the future, because it has already become the standard today. It’s the only possible way of attracting a maximum number of bids for any given vehicle. Many markets are opening up now because of slowly harmonizing legal and tax regulations, so this will speed up the development of online sales even further. Autorola is set to sell 220,000 vehicles online in 2011.

NEWS –UK fleets gain new opportunities to remarket cars abroad 

UK firms defleeting cars now have effective opportunities to sell them to other right hand drive markets across the globe thereby maximising returns, Autorola has claimed.

The online remarketing firm said that demand for used right hand drive cars abroad is growing and there are estimates that markets such as New Zealand could purchase two to three thousand cars per month from the UK.

Prices paid for some of the more sought-after models being bought for export are going for £5-10,000 above the UK guidebooks, helping turn a tidy profit for vendors.

Peter Grøftehauge, CEO of Autorola, said: ‘For years the import/export sales activity has been very active for the left hand drive countries, but the steering wheel being on the right has restricted opportunities for UK vendors.

‘Changing emission legislation is restricting the number of imports being brought into New Zealand from Japan, so the right hand drive market is looking to the UK to help bolster their used car volumes. UK sterling is relatively low against the New Zealand dollar so even after a few thousand pounds in export costs and duty it still makes sense for them to buy ex-fleet cars from the UK.’

Autorola has already been operating such a sales channel: cars sold online are delivered to a UK port where they are put in a container and within six to seven weeks the cars are on the other side of the world. The company believes this trend is likely to continue opening up new opportunities for vendors, particularly for some higher-value executive cars. 

UK returns to Glass’s name

The UK sector of EurotaxGlass’s Group will now be known formally as Glass’s, following a recently announced rebrand.

Carol Wolrich, group director of brand and customer communications, commented: ‘This move comes as part of a company wide strategy to emphasis our local hero brands in each of EurotaxGlass’s core markets, and is the first step towards a new group-wide branding, which will take place in 2012.’

The German business unit of EurotaxGlass’s was also re-branded as Schwacke recently.

Correction: Arval story

In the September/October issue of International Fleet World, we incorrectly reported the sales figures for Arval’s e-commerce platform MotorTrade. The platform has actually made its 100,000th vehicle sale, not 10,000th.