Out with the old

Record online used car sales in 2018 show that consumers increasingly favour the simplicity, fairness and transparency of an ‘Amazon-style’ shopping experience over the traditional way of buying cars.

Online used car sales growth is massively outstripping the second-hand sales trend for traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ dealers.

BuyaCar.co.uk believes the convenience of buying online is not the only reason for the increase in internet car-purchasing. Consumers increasingly demand transparency and fairness as well as a good product and online shopping platforms must work harder to build trust with customers who they never meet face-to-face.

This approach means internet sellers are rapidly becoming the biggest names in all forms of retail. Earlier this month Alibaba, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, achieved a world record one-day sales total of £23.6bn.

Another important factor in the growth of online motor retail is the growing number of ‘digital natives’ – people who have lived with internet access their whole lives – entering the market for cars. The dominant age group who choose to purchase on BuyaCar.co.uk are aged 21 to 30 – who typically outstrip all other age groups added together.

Austin Collins, managing director of BuyaCar.co.uk, said, ‘As the traditional market celebrates a year in which the used market has only fallen by two per cent, continued rapid growth in online buying points to the internet as the future of car motor retail.

‘One of the reasons for that is that online retailers must work harder to win the trust of consumers because the transaction doesn’t happen face-to-face, which makes real transparency and fairness even more important to retailers like us.’

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