There are many online tools that search for the cheapest prices for any item: insurance, electricity rates, mobile companies… There are also tools for cars. However, the problems begin when one asks the final seller for the price of a vehicle and discovers that there are some extras that make the product more expensive. Carwow, the operator of British origin installed in Germany and that has been operating in Spain for about a year, brings something unprecedented: the price of the cars that they offer to customers goes to mass.
And that is so because they operate under the same principle as Booking.com in the accommodation reservation market. Carwow previously closes with the car dealers the price at which they are willing to sell each of the models they want to promote through this search engine and the dealers, as in the case of hotels with Booking.com, respect the price offered. And they can modify it if they understand that their prices are poorly positioned compared to the competition.
Dealerships, like hotels, are willing to pay Carwow a set price for every customer they refer who ends up buying a car from the dealership. Signing up is free, so the cost for the car seller is linked exclusively to the fact that an operation is carried out.
“Signing up is free, so the cost for the car seller is linked exclusively to the fact that an operation is carried out”
Although Carwow arrived in Spain in August of last year, they have dedicated themselves to launching the company and, above all, to convincing dealers with the benefits of being signed up for the tool. Borja Badiola, the head of the company in Spain, declares that they have already achieved 500 points of sale of 11 brands (Opel, 75 dealers, Citroën 65, Peugeot 60, Renault 50, Ford 50, Toyota 50, Kia 50, Seat 40, Hyundai 40, Nissan 20 and BMW 10).
20 brands and 1,000 dealers
But the goal is to close the year with double, a thousand dealers, and a total of 20 brands. According to Badiola it will not be difficult. The way to expand it is to go brand by brand, prioritizing dealers in the most populated areas. They have started with those first eleven brands, but they have already initiated contacts with the points of sale of Volkswagen, Dacia (although they are sold at Renault dealers, the agreement did not include Dacia models), Skoda, Audi and Mercedes.
And in the remainder of the year other brands will be entering. In addition, in those that are already present, more dealers will be added, as in the case of BMW, which is the last one that they have marketed in Carwow. “Some dealers of the brands where we are already calling us to sign up because they don’t want to be left at a disadvantage,” explains Badiola.
Digital marketing
But once the dealers are convinced, the tool has to fulfill its part of the bargain and start generating customers. To do this, Carwow uses digital marketing techniques, positioning itself with SEO and SEM techniques at the top of search engines such as Google, the company when someone enters the web in search of the best prices for this or that model with keywords such as price. , offer, dealers, models or types of finishes.
But in addition, they also do digital marketing on the networks with advertising on Facebook and Instagram, although the search is mainly focused on Google. At the moment, in order to make itself known, Carwow is investing in buying traffic and thus getting customers who may end up buying a car at one of the 500 affiliated dealers.
In short, Carwow becomes de facto the digital marketing department of these dealerships, many of which do not have the capacity to deal with these customer search systems.
How does it work
Once a potential car buyer has been redirected to the Carwow page, the search is very intuitive. First you choose the car you want -the page starts with the average savings that can be achieved in different models- and once chosen, the system gives fuel alternatives, type of change (manual or automatic), color, motorization and power, possible promotional discounts and, finally, request the postal code and an email to which five offers of the chosen model will be sent.
The request for the code has a sense of proximity, since in the selection parameters when sending offers, not only the price is valued, but also the quality of the dealer’s service and the distance from the postal code.
If the customer finally decides, the purchase is made directly at the dealership, to which the customer must go. And, just like Booking.com does, Carwow generates a document that the customer prints and presents to the dealer, who must respect the agreed price. And once at the dealership, it is possible that the salesperson can even offer you another model that may be available in stock or on sale. But that’s another story.
10,000 cars in a year
At the moment, the general director in Spain does not give sales figures, but points out that for this year, the first full year in Spain, they aspire to mediate in the sale of cars worth 200 million euros. That, at an average of 20,000 euros, would mean 10,000 cars. Last year, Carwow was involved in the purchase of 75,000 cars in the United Kingdom, representing 5.5% of registrations in that country.
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