British automotive marketplace CarWow has acquired used car buying platform Wizzle for an undisclosed sum to put together a fully online car buying and selling service that allows car retailers to bid on privately-sold used vehicle stock.
Wizzle was founded by Sébastien Duval (LinkedIn profile) in 2012 and has developed from a car comparison site that works with leasing providers and allowed dealers to appraise and value a used car when it arrived on their forecourts. It now has over 2,000 dealers using its platform. Car sellers list their car on the site, compare offers from dealers and sell directly to a dealer.
CarWow will integrate Wizzle to create a used car selling and buying service for consumers which means dealers can also buy used cars directly from consumers. Fixed fees for buying a used car on the platform are priced from £99.
Although CarWow had a ‘Sell your Car’ feature before, it only generated a single offer from one dealer. The new service will substantially build on that by integrating Wizzle’s technology platform to supply multiple offers to customers and prioritize how cars are offered to dealer partners.
CarWow partner dealers will get early access to the new service which is being rolled out in the U.K. followed by Germany and Spain. A new pricing model will be launched that means dealers who buy from and sell to the same customer only pay for a new car inquiry
“Our partners have told us that they want better direct access to high-quality used car inventory and this acquisition will allow us to do just that quickly,” said CarWow chief executive James Hind.
“Wizzle is already powering over 1,500 vehicle sales per month, which we’re aiming to grow exponentially by integrating the service into the main CarWow platform.
“We simplified our new car pricing model back in October last year, and our partners now only pay for the first inquiry they receive from a CarWow user.
“As well as driving new car sales, our partners have also benefited from taking in part-exchanges at the same time and we don’t want to remove this benefit.
“So if a dealer receives a new car inquiry that leads to a confirmed sale and they also bid on the same customer’s current car that they decide to purchase, they’ll only pay for the new car inquiry, which is just £38.’
CarWow was founded in 2016 and last year sold £2.5 billion of cars through its platform. Its data states that 79% of those buyers also had a car to sell. CarWow is particularly strong on social media. Its YouTube channel has 5.7 million subscribers and attracts 130 million views a month on YouTube, carwow.co.uk and the CarWow app. In April CarWow reported its best ever month for U.K. sales
“With CarWow’s reach, scale and the expertise of its 245-person team, we’re in pole position to build the biggest used car aggregator in the market, providing dealers with easier access to more in-brand, local and quality cars,” said Wizzle CEO Duval.
