According to integration experts RTC Automotive Solutions, dealers up and down the country are under-pricing the cars on their forecourt – the stats say that up to 60% of vehicles could be on sale at cut-price rates. And this at a time when the national car stock is nowhere near enough to satisfy demand and prices have spiralled up.
RTC’s Director of Insights John Law has been working closely with Auto Trader on in-depth market analysis of vehicle stock pricing and, importantly, the potential impact of getting your pricing strategy wrong at this key time.
They have some interesting and vital insights, based on the fact that the number of cars available has fallen over 10% year-on-year (YoY). Combined with the huge levels of consumer demand in the market, this is driving average prices up over 25% YoY – more than three times the level recorded in October 2020.
RTC say that this current stock bubble offers retailers a great opportunity to generate some strong profit margins while it lasts.
John Law is quoted as saying: “From the research we have carried our using our REALinsights reporting platform, we can see that the average retailer misprices approximately 60% of their vehicle stock when compared to the national average. We were amazed at this number being so high, but with the market fluctuating almost hour by hour keeping up with this pace is very difficult for retailers.”
When John and Auto Trader added more layers of analysis to this data the potential results of lost margin for retailers were clear to see and presented a real opportunity for retailers to benefit from the current market conditions.
John commented: “When we did some further analysis into the 60% of mispriced stock in September, we found that the average vehicle was under-priced by between £300 and £350 per vehicle. For one retailer we reviewed, this meant that 120 vehicles were incorrectly priced, equal to £39,500 of potential additional revenue.”
This makes essential reading and we strongly recommend you seek out the full report ( Vehicle stock pricing – the industry challenge. – Real Time Communications (rtcauto.co.uk) ) and have a good look around your stock.