RECORD online used car sales in 2018 show that consumers increasingly favour the simplicity, fairness and transparency of an Amazon-style shopping experience.
Online used car sales growth is massively outstripping the second-hand sales trend for traditional bricks and mortar dealers.
For the first time, a rise in the number of men preferring not to haggle with a traditional dealer is matching that of women, according to the online motor retail specialist BuyaCar.co.uk.
The website said consumers increasingly demand transparency and fairness as well as a good product and online shopping platforms have to work harder to build trust with customers who they never meet face-to-face.
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 – outstripping 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 2%, continued rapid growth in online buying points to the internet as the future of car motor retail.
“People are busier than ever, which makes the old way of visiting lots of dealerships to look at cars and haggle with dealers less attractive than the ability to browse from the comfort of your sofa and know that the price you pay is the best on offer.
“But one of the most striking things we are seeing now is that growth is as fast among men as it is for women. We seem to have reached a point where men value the simplicity of an online transaction as much as women when it comes to buying cars.”
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