Dealers will recall that Carwow was launched in 2012 by James Hind as a new car buying platform for consumers. More than a decade later, more buyers come to it looking for used cars than new, and Carwow is committed to helping its dealer clients with data insights and stock sourcing tools, chief executive John Veichmanis tells Automotive Management.
What do you think 2026 will look like for used car dealers?
For many dealers, vehicles between 4-6 years represent a real sweet spot in the market. That’s also the area where supply is currently most constrained, and we see that reflected in strong competition at auction. Franchised dealers are active in that space, but so are independents and the supermarket groups, which means sourcing stock can be particularly challenging. Helping dealers access the right vehicles is therefore a key priority for us. This week alone we’ve had more than 1,500 cars in auction each day, so there is a significant amount of choice available. Even so, competition remains intense, particularly in some of the most popular segments.
You’ve previously said that used cars now dominate buyer intent on your platform, with 76% of visitors considering them. What does ‘doubling down’ on used really mean in strategic terms for the business?
A large proportion of visitors to the Carwow marketplace actually start their journey by engaging with our online content so, for many, buying a brand new car simply isn’t their goal. For years we’ve seen significant unmet demand from consumers who trust our perspective and advice on which car to buy, but when they come to the platform looking for a used car, they haven’t always been able to find one. At the same time, dealers are keen to diversify where they spend their marketing budgets. Rather than allocating everything, or at least the majority, to platforms like Autotrader, they’re increasingly interested in alternatives.
Carwow already has very high traffic volumes. What we historically haven’t had is the used car supply to match that demand. Over the past six months we’ve therefore begun building what is essentially a first-generation used car platform, allowing dealers to upload their inventory and access basic reporting on enquiries and customer details. The real opportunity, though, lies in connecting this with our sourcing business. We already play an important role in helping dealer partners source stock for their forecourts. The next step is linking the two more closely, so that once a dealer has secured a vehicle at auction, they can begin advertising it on the platform almost immediately.
You introduced a subscription pricing model for dealers last year. How is that reshaping your relationships with car dealers?
Our pricing reflects the way dealers use the product. For franchised dealers selling new cars on the platform, a cost-per-enquiry approach works well for new cars because many of those enquiries lead to factory orders. It’s less suitable for used cars. A used vehicle is effectively a single SKU (stock keeping unit), so dealers don’t necessarily want 20 enquiries on the same car. From an economic perspective, that simply doesn’t make sense. For used cars, a subscription or cost-per-listing model is a much better fit. Dealers told us they prefer a fixed monthly price so they know exactly what they’ll pay at the start of the month and that is really what drove the change.
How are you attracting more car buyers to your platform?
Our growth is being driven by three main factors. First, how we’re integrating used cars into the content ecosystem across our brands and we’re now weaving used car messaging into everything we produce so consumers recognise that Carwow is a destination for used cars. For example, in an article on Auto Express, you’ll see links to the used car pages for that model. We’re also producing video content on YouTube that highlights our used car proposition. The second is increased marketing investment. We spend almost half of the revenue we generate on marketing in order to drive traffic to our partners and generate enquiries for them. The third is product improvement. As the platform gets better, more people use it, which creates a positive flywheel effect. The better the experience becomes, the more traffic and enquiries it generates, which attracts more dealers and listings.
Your expansion into advertising for new and used vans last year, alongside daily auctions, suggests a move towards becoming a full-spectrum platform for dealerships?
Absolutely. Vans have become a really popular category on Carwow, particularly with businesses looking to buy or lease new vehicles, which has traditionally been our core market.
How is your platform helping dealers understand how they can operate more efficiently?
From a consumer perspective, you can only use the Carwow platform once you’ve logged in. That allows us to help users find the right make and model and identify the best dealer to buy from but it also means we can understand much more about their journey. We can therefore build a rich picture of their behaviour on the platform. We can see which videos they’ve watched, which reviews they’ve read, and which cars they’ve configured if they’re looking at new models. We can also see which used cars they’ve viewed. In many cases, we also know which car they’re currently driving, because they may have valued it on our platform. Last year alone, we processed around five million valuations through our Sell My Car service.
All of this allows us to provide dealers and partners with strong insights into how close a particular customer is to making a purchase. We can score that intent and help dealers prioritise leads more effectively, using the data to qualify not just the car being bought, but the customer as well. Increasingly, dealers place real value on that level of insight. On the product side, there is still a lot of foundational work to do on our used car offering and we’re making a significant commitment to building a strong second-generation product that allows us to make much better use of the data on the platform. The aim is to give dealer partners clearer insights into how their listings and subscriptions are performing, ensuring they have a transparent view of the value we are generating and how they can maximise their return on investment. We’re not fully there yet, but we expect to make strong progress on that this year.
Another key priority is connecting our Sell My Car business with the used car classifieds side of the platform. For example, if a dealer has sold three Kia Picantos in a week, when they log back into the auction platform we can start surfacing similar vehicles automatically, helping to streamline their sourcing process. It’s about making the connection between the two products as seamless as possible. Within Sell My Car, last year we introduced our ‘Wallet’ product, which allows dealers to pay for vehicles sold on our platform. If a dealer chooses to collect the car themselves, they can place the payment into the ‘wallet’ the night before collection. If we are collecting the vehicle on their behalf (a new transport service called Carwow Collects), the funds are released once the car has been reviewed and confirmed to match the original listing. It’s a very slick process that significantly improves workflow, making it easier and more efficient for dealers to buy cars online rather than relying on physical auctions. We’ve also recently integrated stock funding from NextGear into Wallet, so dealers can now access their accounts directly. We’re also exploring the addition of other funding partners.
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