Sussex-based Birchwood Group has onboarded the INDICATA used car pricing platform to support the future growth of its used car business.
INDICATA is already live at Birchwood’s dealers in Eastbourne, Washington, Chichester and Hastings and each general manager has access to the pricing data and insights platform.
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INDICATA was adopted by group used car manager Dave Young to support his team and the individual dealer general managers to help them sell more used cars more profitably.
A key focus is to ensure that the Birchwood team use INDICATA to adopt a consistent pricing policy across each brand. This is as much about making sure used stock isn’t underpriced, particularly the strong-selling models, as well as each site ensuring they treat new models to the market and outgoing models in a coherent manner.
Birchwood runs Ford, Škoda and Kia dealerships across East and West Sussex plus an all makes used car centre which collectively sells around 2,000 used vehicles each year.
With new franchises such as MG and Omoda coming on board the appetite is for the used car area of the business to continue to grow beyond its current 500-group used stock.
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By GlobalDataBirchwood provides motorists with a new, used and after-sales automotive service. A large percentage of the group’s new and used car sales involve taking in a part exchange. This is where INDICATA’s retail pricing data comes into its own. It makes sure Birchwood prices its part exchanges accurately based on the current supply and demand in the market.
“INDICATA gives us the confidence to pay a few hundred pounds more to the customer to get the deal over the line. They are happy with their price and go and tell their friends while we know we have bought an attractive used car that will sell very quickly when it is added to our forecourt,” said Dave Young, Birchwood Group’s used car buyer.
“INDICATA also enables us to keep a close eye on local sale prices across a 50-mile radius. Understanding what prices are being charged on individual used cars by our rivals ensures we can always stay competitive. Thay way our cars are not priced too high or too low, they are priced to sell in the current market,” he explained.
“Local competition for used cars is strong in our area, and having pricing data and insights for each of our site managers to use gives them extra peace of mind they are making the right decisions across all aspects of their used car businesses,” he added.
Stock turn is at the forefront of every dealer’s mind and INDICATA gives Birchwood the power to help control it and in turn dial up profitability. INDICATA’s added value includes monthly sessions with a customer success manager that meets with each general manager in turn to provide another pair of eyes on the way they are running their used car business from stocking and pricing strategy to the types of used car they are buying as part exchanges or in the wholesale market.
“The customer success manager sessions are very rewarding. It is another sense check that we are getting the most out of the data particularly when it comes to our all-makes used car business. We are using INDICATA to price used cars from brands that the team have less personal experience with. Despite this lack of knowledge INDICATA gives us peace of mind we are selling the right cars at the right money and in turn buying the right cars for their forecourt,” said Young.
