Providing used car buyers with online images and descriptions as early as possible prior to sale is the key to successfully negotiating the current tough used vehicle market.

Buyers are bidding on fewer vehicles at auction and when it comes time to spending money they are doing more research than ever to prove a vehicle’s provenance before parting with their funds.

“Online images and descriptions are a key part of the modern auction environment, but buyers are now relying on these more to do their pre-auction research, to ensure they are as clued up on the market as possible,” explained Shoreham’s managing director, Alex Wright.

“We’ve noticed a big difference - as soon as we upload new vehicles onto our website for forthcoming sales, the phone starts to ring with traders asking more detailed questions about a vehicle, which we welcome. We are seeing a steady growth now, with the number of buyers increasing every day.”

Shoreham has been a relative latecomer to uploading images and descriptions of sale stock prior to sale, only adopting this procedure when it re-launched its website six months ago. It now chooses to upload all vehicles for sale onto its website free of charge and is extending each vehicle description to be accompanied by a minimum of four images.

“Even if a car or van comes in for an auction that is two weeks away, we still get it on the website as soon as possible,” said Wright.

“The long term benefit has to be more buyers buying more vehicles from Shoreham more often. It’s got to be the same for any vendor in this very tough used market, if they want to sell their stock fast and efficiently.”

Forget to load an image or enter a vehicle too late and the price to pay is high, according to Wright. The earlier an image is uploaded, the earlier the buyers can do their research and the more likely you are to see your vehicles shifting. Images are vitally important, as they are making the trade work harder.

He said: “We have seen entries arrive on sale day, just a few hours before the start of the sale, which can result in a car being uploaded without the image or full description. In the current market it is not surprising that buyers are prepared to ignore this stock. Rightfully they are managing their risk and only buying the stock they have pre-qualified or that they have found a buyer for. Everyone has to work their cashflow hard in the current economic climate.”
 

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