
Online sales values of ex-fleet stock beat physical auctions be an average of 1%, or £220, per vehicle in 2016, technology provider epyx has claimed.
It said it compiled statistics from tens of thousands of vehicles sold through the company’s 1link Disposal Network e-commerce platform – which manages both online and offline sales.
David Goodyear, commercial director at epyx, said: “Because we see very similar stock sold through both our online channels and also through traditional auctions, we are in a very good position to make direct comparisons about how they are performing.
“Our overall figures last year were 97.5% of the trade guides for online and 96.5% for offline. This may sound like quite a small difference but it adds up to around £220 per car, which is a significant amount when taken across a whole fleet.”
Goodyear speculated that the reason online sales were able to attract higher prices was because it is a more effective way of targeting and reaching buyers interested in specific cars and vans being sold.
He added: “Over the last year, we have even become much more proficient at learning about the condition expectations of each dealer and, with the rise in popularity of ready-to-retail stock, have introduced new procedures for reconditioning to the required standard.
“The same degree of control is simply not possible through physical auction channels, although we see them very much as an essential part of the overall disposal mix.”