The Rise of the Recommerce Marketplace
During the pandemic, recommerce shopping experienced rapid growth as supply chain limitations made it harder to find new products, and shoppers were looking for simple ways to save money, In 2021, the recommerce growth rate doubled and it’s now projected to grow 80% by 2027 — five times faster than the overall retail market.
Why is this growth such a big deal for automotive dealers? Because many recommerce marketplaces like OfferUp have an automobile category. In fact, Cars&Trucks is one of OfferUp’s most viewed categories with millions of monthly viewers.
In 2022, the average user spent an average of 27 minutes a day shopping for recommerce goods and items which is just shy of the 30 minutes a day spent on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.. The frequent visitor rates alone present a huge opportunity for dealerships to significantly increase their reach via recommerce marketplaces and their users — if they’re willing to adjust their marketing strategies to include them.
Understanding Recommerce Shoppers
The next generation of car buyers are recommerce shoppers. During the pandemic, they made extra income by selling used items from their homes that they no longer had a use for, and they also saved money by buying used products over new ones. Over time, they developed an emotional connection with recommerce marketplaces and now they actually prioritize buying used over new.
Why? Here are a few things recommerce shoppers want today:
One-stop shopping. They want to get everything in one place.
Convenience. Recommerce is frictionless. At OfferUp, for example, we’ve made it just as easy to sell products as it is to buy.
Safety. Hands-free payments, no-contact merchant interactions, and touchless services are all appealing to post-pandemic shoppers concerned about maintaining personal health.
Community. Recommerce marketplaces make it easy to find and support local businesses. Users like the sense of community and the feeling they’re supporting their neighbors.
Social responsibility. Today’s shopper is more eco-centric. They want to reduce their carbon footprint and recommerce helps them live more sustainably.
On OfferUp, the majority of recommerce shoppers range from 31 to 55 years old. They’re urban-centric and they have very different expectations from car buyers in years past. They prefer to conduct most of the buying process online and expect quick responses from sellers whenever they engage in chats.
Most interesting is how quickly they’re willing to make a purchase: more than half of OfferUp’s car shoppers are looking to buy within 90 days.
How Popular is Car Shopping on OfferUp?
Did you know that one out of ten vehicles sold nationwide is sold on OfferUp? Vehicles & Trucks are one of our busiest categories. In October 2022, we had over 11 million unique viewers and 7.2 million conversations between buyers and sellers that month. The average length of time between posting a car and a sale was two to seven days with 29% of sales happening within the first two days and 54% of listings selling within a week.
In a recent survey, our users told us that they used OfferUp and similar recommerce sites for both shopping and researching vehicles. Many of them even started their car-buying journey on our app indicating that they liked the familiarity of using a marketplace they already knew with a consistent shopping experience they’d already been through when purchasing other products. Dealers who use OfferUp to promote their inventory get to take advantage of this familiarity and easily increase their reach with minimal effort.
3 Steps You Can Take to Drive Sales Now
Ready to start leveraging the recommerce marketplace to drive sales? Here are three things you can do now to start driving sales for your dealership:
Recognize there is no going back. Embrace the new normal of online vehicle retail and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.
Get to know recommerce marketplaces. Familiarize yourself with the user experience on platforms like OfferUp and learn what communication integrations are available.
Leverage the reach, both in terms of volume and targeting. These users visit marketplaces like OfferUp dozens of times a month, which means we can collect data and give you better-targeting abilities than you can get from tracking visitors to your website.
Be sure to also check out our Verified Dealer Program to take full advantage of the many opportunities and tools OfferUp can provide! Be sure to ask for our special promotions.