21 January 2013

I’ve got to confess, I’m a sucker for car auctions. There’s something about the speed at which the action takes place and the excitement of the bidding that gets to me every time. Genuinely, I have to sit on my hands to prevent myself from joining in.

Of course, that’s a physical auction we’re talking about. I’m not sure an online auction holds the same attraction unless I have a particular interest in the sale – but then I’m not buying and selling cars for a living.

Fact is, whether we like it or not, car auctions are going online. Last year, just under 25% of all BCA stock was sold through online channels with the live-bidding channel, Live Online, taking by far the biggest slice of the business.

And it is big business. BCA holds more than double the stock of its nearest competitor, sold 600,000 cars in the UK last year and pushes around 120,000 of those through Live Online. Like many businesses (including the most successful high street names) it has had to transform itself into a multi-channel retailer.

As anybody who has been involved in online commerce will know, this is no easy task. Last week I learnt that around 200 developers are beavering away behind the scenes at BCA, ironing out the bugs and refining the systems to create the right user experience – just so you and I can bid online with confidence.

Make no mistake, this is cutting edge stuff. So-called ‘responsive’ technology means the website automatically adapts to screen size, without the need for a separate mobile domain, and the upcoming mobile Live Online will accept bids within a 300 millisecond time frame – even on a 3G connection.

Scale is still a factor and work needs to be done in areas such as online images where the sheer number of cars makes good quality photography difficult. But, as one newly appointed BCA director commented: ‘most businesses would die to have systems as good as this”.

Bear that in mind next time you’re bidding from the comfort of your office.

Rupert Saunders

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Tags: BCA, bidding, car auctions, developers, mobile phones, smartphones, software, used cars