Auto Trader registered record demand on its online marketplace as dealerships were able to fully open their forecourts to the public.
Used car price growth remained high, increasing 5.7% year-on-year in the week 12-18 April. It marks 49 weeks of consecutive price growth.
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The marketplace saw an average of 2.2m cross platform visits every day in the week, representing a 38.8% increase on the same period in 2019. By the weekend, daily visits had accelerated to 2.4m. Average time on site also increased, with consumers spending an average of 20.3m minutes every day on the marketplace, which is up 35% on 2019.
The average number of leads being sent to retailers also continued to surge, increasing 73% on the same period in 2019. As well as highlighting the very strong levels of consumer demand, it also reflects the change in buyer behaviour of making contact before visiting a forecourt.
The average price of a used diesel car increased 8.1% year-on-year last week, which was a marginal decrease on the 8.3% year-on-year growth recorded the prior week. Used petrol prices grew a more conservative 4.9% year-on-year, which was flat against the prior week.
The average price of a used electric vehicle (EV) increased last week, up 1.1% year-on-year. However, whilst there’s healthy levels of demand for premium EVs in the market, it failed to match the very strong levels of supply; as a result prices continued to contract, down 4.1% year-on-year.
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By GlobalDataRichard Walker, Auto Trader’s director of data and insight, said: “Despite most retailers making a huge success of online retailing during the lockdown, it’s extremely satisfying to see last week’s full reopening of forecourts being met with such strong levels of consumer demand on our marketplace. Along with the anecdotal feedback from our retailer partners of a very busy week it gives us great confidence in the outlook for the rest of 2021.
“With the new car market down just 4% on 2019 so far in April, this bounce-back shouldn’t be limited to just used car sales either. However, retailers mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking we’ve returned to a pre-Covid retail environment. Consumer behaviour and expectations have evolved, and so to really make the most of this potential, businesses must continue to utilise their buy online infrastructure to create a blended online-offline experience.”
