Category: Featured

Keep more of the profits yourself

Posted on by Kate Shakesheff

Just moving from physical to an online auction platform could more than double trade sales profits

Looking at over 71,000 car sales, our research confirms that physical auction fees are usually bigger than the profits that selling retailers make. That ratio simply isn’t good for business for today’s retailer.

Retailers using physical auctions are usually happy as the results are better than they were used to getting when dealing with local traders, and the transaction is transparent and secure.

What they don’t realise is the stark difference in transaction costs between the physical and online auction route, and this will always reflect in the profits made. Given their business model, the physical auction houses need a high transaction cost to pay for their overheads. With lower buyers fees, sellers tend to see bigger profits as buyers have ‘more in the pot’ to bid with.

FullAuction has sold over 69,000 franchised retailers’ trade cars since it was launched – savvy retailers already use the platform as part of their core disposal strategy.

Avoid overspending on unneccesary costs at auction

Posted on by Kate Shakesheff

We launched FullAuction, our online trade remarketing platform, in 2011 and since then Cooper Solutions has grown successfully across many areas of our business. We’ve seen:

• Total annual revenue rise by 133%
• Employees nearly double to 32
• Annually subscribing franchised dealers up from 1247 to over 2000
• Dealer demo and loan cars insured on a daily basis up to over 9000 per day

An excellent record of success achieved through great people working together to develop, market and support software solutions that help retailers’ processes, performance and profitability.

Interesting then to note that during that time FullAuction hasn’t enjoyed the remarkable success we’ve come to expect.

Almost 75000 cars have been sold at an average profit of £159 per car; more than 2000 buyers have registered with us, of which more than 1700 purchased a vehicle in the last 12 months.

However, these numbers are slight compared to those seen by physical auction houses which remain the remarketing channel of choice, despite typically making more than the selling dealer from the transaction because of the high buyers’ fees they charge.

Given the declining profitability of sales departments and dealers in general, isn’t it time to ring the changes with a shift to online auction – it adds as much value, but with a far lower overhead.

Across all our solutions nothing can make a retailer more incremental revenue than FullAuction.

Cooper Solutions Nominates Guy’s Gift As Its Charity Of 2018

Posted on by Kate Shakesheff

A year of fundraising for Warwickshire charity supporting bereaved children and families

Software and digital solutions provider for the automotive industry, Cooper Solutions has nominated local charity, Guy’s Gift as its charity of 2018, underlining the Warwickshire business’s commitment to giving back to the community.

Barry Cooper Managing Director for Cooper Solutions comments, “We are delighted to be working with Guy’s Gift to develop fundraising events for the year ahead. The whole Cooper Solutions team is keen to get involved in helping raise funds and awareness for the vital work Guy’s Gift does for bereaved young people and their families.

“Everyone at Cooper Solutions understands the benefits of supporting a charity like Guy’s Gift. Over the next year, our charity activities will reflect our commitment to being part of the community in Warwickshire, bringing local people and businesses together for a fantastic cause.”

Lisbeth Bakewell, Service Manager for Guy’s Gift adds, “Support from businesses like Cooper Solutions really makes all the difference by helping us continue to work with the children and young people who need our support. It enables us to provide workshops and one to one support for children and young people, to process their feelings around loss and bereavement. We already have a shortlist of great fundraising ideas from the team at Cooper Solutions and we are looking forward to creating a calendar of fun events and activities to host together.”

Cooper Solutions provides a portfolio of online solutions designed to help motor retailers improve their processes, performance and profits. By understanding the challenges dealers face, Cooper Solutions delivers fleet management with daily rate insurance cover, performance forecasting and financial management, as well as online trade vehicle auction solutions. Staff at Cooper Solutions will be working with Guy’s Gift as a key part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

Guy’s Gift is a small, local charity that relies heavily on the support of local businesses and the community to provide much needed care for children, young people and their families who have experienced a significant bereavement.

Operating throughout Warwickshire, Guy’s Gift is a community-based organisation supporting families from across the whole of the country. The team guides and supports bereaved children and young people to help them manage their grief and offers training to schools and other professionals.

How do our buyers benefit from using FullAuction?

Posted on by Kate Shakesheff

In a comparative analysis of transaction costs between traditional and online auctions, the fundamental difference is that physical auction charge buyers a considerable fee, around two-thirds of the total transaction cost.

Selling dealers pay the remaining third, but will often be offered a volume rebate to bring this down below £100 per unit. It’s the buyer’s costs that stand out and which will directly influence the price paid.

A regular buyer will pay over £200 for a car worth £3000 and £250 for cars over £5000. Volume brands achieve average selling prices around £3000 per unit for trade cars, prestige cars up to double that. All dealer stock is therefore expensive to buy at auction and there is every probability the buyer will pay more in fees than the selling dealer will achieve in profit.

Matthew Hall of MSH Ltd, one of our 5294 registered buyers, says “I am more likely to buy from FullAuction than from its competitors because it allows me to cap my budget when bidding so I can avoid eroding my margins. Unlike other users who may be retailers with a large forecourt holding lots of stock, I have a quick turnaround and therefore my margin is much tighter”.

The online model works, buyers like it, they can bid on the move and do so with confidence.