Carwow’s online car buying and selling marketplace has seen an increase of almost 150% in the number of used cars bought by dealers, in March.

The service, which sources stock via the consumer facing Sell My Car brand, currently sees 4,000 cars listed each week.

The volume of used stock available to dealers on the Carwow platform has risen by over 230% since November 2022, when the company shifted to an auction model and introduced tighter controls on listings to maximise quality.

Carwow reports that the number of offers made by dealers for used stock via its platform increased by 45% last year.

“A primary driver for launching the consumer-facing Sell My Car service last year was to better address dealer demand for getting quality, used car inventory in a cost-effective way,” said Gordon lnglis, head of sales at Carwow.

“Dealers now have thousands of fresh units to bid on each week; they aren’t seeing the cars they saw yesterday, let alone last week. It’s also quick and simple for dealers to review the condition of vehicles on the platform, make an offer in real-time and buy directly from the seller.”

Consumers used Carwow to value more than 2.9 million cars last year and the company says this momentum has been maintained into 2023.

Carwow initially launched the used car buying portal following the completion of its acquisition of car buying comparison site Wizzle in 2021. It has continued to shape the service in response to trade input.

It initially enabled private sellers to list their car for sale and allowed dealers to make offers directly for those vehicles. The model has since changed from classified listings to a digital auction, which was guided by feedback from retailers.