Gumtree has become the biggest online car yard in Australia with more private vehicle listings than all of its competitors combined.
Since June 2009, car listings across the major online classifieds have doubled – and Gumtree is leading the way.
The Gumtree site as a whole increased by 94.4 per cent since last year while the automotive category grew by a massive 107 per cent.
At any one point there are more private car listings than the combined total from eBay, carsales.com.au, carsguide.com.au and Trading Post put together.
And Gumtree has just recently also accepted car dealers to the site to consolidate the number of car listings even further.
A recent survey report by Gumtree has shown the majority of Aussie motorists can see the benefits of buying a car online.
The main reasons given by respondents was ease of comparing vehicles (62 per cent), easy of browsing from home (61 per cent) and the ability to quickly find information on the car they’re thinking of buying (56 per cent).
Other motivations to take your car shopping online included the ability to find a cheaper deal (46 per cent) and quickly respond to bargains (31 per cent).
Gumtree head of automotive, Gian Minns, says more and more Australians will buy cars online in the coming months.
“With dealers now on board, we’re offering a wider variety of cars at every price point,” he said.
“We want the same success for Gumtree’s automotive category that has been achieved for the site overall – to be the first place people go to buy and sell.”
And Australia’s fast-paced adoption of smartphones has also had a positive impact on Gumtree’s numbers.
“Mobile opens up a wealth of opportunity for consumers to browse and create listings on their mobile devices, but just as importantly, it allows traditional dealerships to connect with the 3.5 million unique visitors that come through the site each month,” Minns said.
“In the automotive category alone, 40% of our traffic is now via mobile. We predict mobile traffic will exceed desktop traffic before the end of the year.”
The top five most listed car brand are: 1. Holden; 2. Toyota; 3. Ford; 4. Mitsubishi; 5. Nissan.
The top 5 most searched auto brands on Gumtree are: 1. Toyota; 2. Holden; 3. Honda; 4. Nissan; 5. Ford.
The Gumtree app is available now for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
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