Eddie Hawthorn reveals Arnold Clark digital performance

16 May 2022

Arnold Clark sold one car for every 164 visitors to its website in 2021, according to CEO Eddie Hawthorn.

Mr Hawthorn, speaking at the NFDA Driving Digital conference, said the group had 50 million visitors to its website in 2021, the majority of which were via mobile. Arnold Clark sold 305,000 vehicles last year.

The figures are significantly better than Cazoo, which last week revealed it took 563 website visitors to sell a car.

Spelling about Arnold Clark’s digital strategy, Mr Hawthorn said the group had an annual budget for its digital operation of £8m and employed a team of 120 to develop the website and apps, both for customers and internally for employees.

Revealing an impressive list of digital achievements, he added that he classed a digital sale as one where a customer went online at any point during the buying journey, and that 90% of sales were digital. He also revealed that at the start of the pandemic the group did not have the capability to sell a car online.

In the last nine months of 2021 [the capability started in April 2021], the group saw 147,000 customers build a deal for their next car, including their trade-in. And a further 38,000 have done so in 2022.

Arnold Clark has had 440,000 downloads of its app and 43% of users sign in every month.

* Read the full report from the NFDA Digital Dealer conference in next month’s Auto Retail Bulletin – subscribe now.

Tags: Arnold Clark, Cazoo, Eddie Hawthorn, NFDA

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