Member Article

Digital car dealer drives revenue with customer-led platform

Digital-first used car business Motor Connect is capitalising on the shift to online buying with a new digital platform that caters for the full car buying customer journey, from finance to home delivery.

Having already driven a 50% increase in revenue since May last year, the Cheshire-based retailer expects to double sales in the coming year through its innovative technology, scalability and increased consumer demand to buy used cars online.

MotorConnect.co.uk enables consumers to buy, finance and part-exchange vehicles online. It offers a route to market for UK dealers to advertise stock (free of charge) to a UK-wide in-market audience. Motor Connect takes ownership of any vehicles sold and collects the ‘retail-ready’ car from the dealership to hand deliver the vehicle to customers. As the platform also offers finance and part exchange the streamlined service is catering for increased consumer demand for consumer-led platforms that take the hassle out of car buying.

Owner Stephen Corwood said: “There is a significant shift to online sales in our industry, and we’re at the forefront of this with a digital platform baked in consumer insight and digital know-how.

“We’ve partnered with some of the best digital professionals in the industry to develop our new site, which ensures the whole customer journey is a smooth one – from finding a vehicle and arranging finance to getting vehicles delivered to the door.

“Our business model means we can scale at pace – and this is what we’re doing now. Rapidly expanding our dealer partner network to increase vehicle volumes on the site. We’re also operating in a much more efficient and data-led way that’s of huge benefit. We can add new digital features with ease and invest in getting our platform and cars seen.

“While COVID-19 accelerated the shift to consumers buying cars online, we were on the front foot of this swing ahead of the pandemic having already begun our digital-first approach to used car retail.

“We’re also disrupting the ‘competitive nature’ of car sales opting for collaboration instead where we facilitate sales and apply our first-class customer service. We’ve shifted away from holding a large stock of vehicles at a single site, to bring choice and ease of purchase to the consumer.”

Motor Connect is partnering with marketing agency Click Centric, led by former CarFinance 247 Head of Acquisition Matt Wharton. Matt commented: “More and more industries are using digital to offer consumers a more personal, concierge style service – and this is what we’re focusing on with Motor Connect; meeting customer expectation to be able to use one platform to manage their purchases that are delivered to the door.

“We look at the whole customer journey and real-time user experience – and this is where our skill lies, in using data and insight to continually adapt and meet today’s expectations for fast and easy purchasing.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kirsty Hunt .