Tim Meadows, chief commercial officer, epyx
Stock shortages have become a problem for dealers that always seems to be a few months away from improving dramatically – but never quite does.
To be fair, things are generally a little better than at the start of this year but the changes seen across the used car and van sectors have been very much incremental, and there are no major shifts on the horizon.
However, we are not shy when talking about how we have helped our community of over 3000 dealers with supply difficulties. Through 1link Trade Buyer, we enjoyed our best-ever year in terms of volumes sold in 2021, up 8% on 2020, becoming an ever more important source of used cars and vans.
So, what is 1link Trade Buyer? Essentially, it’s our answer to the question of what dealers want when they look for a stock supply solution that will meet their needs throughout this decade and beyond. It has been created with a very sharp focus on one core objective – to enable users to identify and acquire the high quality, ex-fleet and rental vehicles they need as quickly and as easily as possible, whatever device they are using.
1link Trade Buyer delivers a buying experience that exactly meets the needs of stock buyers with innovative features such as advanced vehicle filtering with multi-pick selections and dynamic counts, updated vehicle summary and vehicle record cards with more detailed service history and clearer data presentation, full-screen imagery, key information indicators, downloadable stock lists, improved address tools and much more. All of these have shown themselves to be highly valuable to users in real-world situations.
Even though the overall economic picture looks increasingly difficult and tough to predict, demand for stock continues to remain remarkably resilient. We believe that 1link Trade Buyer provides a level of efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility that is a proven factor in the success of our many dealers.
