carwow acquires Wizzle to create the ultimate online car buying and selling experience

Car buying comparison leader, carwow has today announced the acquisition of used car buying platform, Wizzle.

• carwow’s users will now be able to find their perfect new car and sell their old car, all in one place from the comfort of their own home
• Wizzle is an online platform where consumers list their current car, compare offers from dealers who wish to buy it and sell directly to their chosen dealer
• Over 1,500 cars per month on Wizzle being sold via consumers and bought via dealers
• Car dealers will now be able to buy used cars directly from carwow’s 12.5 million users, 79% of which have a used car to sell
• carwow partner dealers to get early access to new service
• Partners to get fee-free access to a buyer’s vehicle if they also sell them a new car on the platform

carwow connects more online car buyers with more dealers and OEMs than any other online marketplace and is the brand of choice for more than 12m users who want to research, configure and find their perfect new car online. Last year alone, £2.5bn of new cars were sold on the carwow platform and almost 80% of buyers then had a car to sell.

The acquisition of Wizzle will help carwow users sell their current car as soon as they’ve configured their new car on carwow.

Wizzle is the brainchild of Sébastien Duval who first set about building an app to help car dealers appraise and value used cars that had been driven onto used car forecourts. He quickly figured out that he could streamline the process for both dealers and customers by moving the entire process online, providing customers with the ability to profile their car so that they could share it with prospective dealers who might want to buy it.

Wizzle customers simply answer a set of questions about their car’s general condition and upload six to eight photos that dealer partners around the UK can access before deciding whether to make an offer to buy it.

Wizzle now has more than 2,000 dealers using their platform who are buying more than 1,500 cars per month. It’s quick and simple for dealers to review the condition of any of the vehicles on the platform and make an offer in real-time.

carwow plans to integrate the Wizzle used car selling service into its new car buying experience this week. While carwow has had a ‘Sell Your Car’ feature live for several years – driving over a million valuations in the last 12 months – it has only been able to provide a single offer from a single provider. By leveraging Wizzle’s technology platform, carwow will be able to provide multiple offers to customers and prioritise offering cars to dealer partners directly.

With more than 130 million views a month across YouTube, carwow.co.uk and the carwow app, carwow can use its massive reach to provide dealer partners with access to a huge volume of high quality used cars that they can buy directly.

James Hind, carwow CEO said: “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. 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’re super excited about the Wizzle team joining the carwow family and look forward to rolling the service out in the UK and then Germany and Spain.”

Sébastien Duval, CEO of Wizzle said: “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.

“I can’t wait to combine our class-leading technology with the immense reach that carwow have in the UK and in Germany and Spain. Our companies are two sides of the same coin, with the shared vision to deliver trust, transparency and high-quality services that give dealers an advantage in the digital world.”

What does it mean for dealers?

In tandem with the launch, carwow has developed an innovative pricing model that means dealers that are buying from and selling to the same customer will only pay for a new car enquiry.

James Hind continued: “We simplified our new car pricing model back in October last year, and our partners now only pay for the first enquiry 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 enquiry 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 enquiry, which is just £38.”

“Our partners now have the best of both worlds; if they’re buying and selling to the same customer, they pay the same enquiry fee they’ve always paid. But, if they want access to more used cars from a much larger pool of customers, they can login and make an offer in real-time.”

Fixed fees for the purchase of a used car on the platform will start from £99. Dealers who are not currently on the platform can register interest and be added to the waiting list for the new service by emailing dealer.support@carwow.co.uk .

For media enquiries, contact Joe Thomas at joe.thomas@carwow.co.uk