eBay Motors Group will provide car dealers with free advertising in December as part of support measures designed to assist businesses during England’s COVID-19 ‘Lockdown 2’ period.

With showrooms in England now closed for at least four weeks Matt Barham, country manager, eBay Classifieds Group UK said that the steps aimed to provide retailers with “meaningful support” as they entered into another “unusual and challenging period of trading”.  

Details of eBay Motors’ efforts to help its customers follow the lead of Auto Trader and CarGurus, which both announced they would be axing their December fees last week.

As part pf eBay Motors measures advertising vehicles on all eBay Motors Group platforms, including Gumtree and Motors.co.uk, will be free throughout December 2020, though other products (such as dealer websites) will continue to be chargeable. 

It will also remove ‘over-posting fees’ in December, ensuring that dealers will not be charged for any reasonable over-posting on their accounts during December.

eBay Motors has also vowed to provide regular Market View updates over the coming weeks to help automotive retailers understand wider market dynamics. 

Barham said: “We hope the reduction in advertising fees and other measures we have put in place will provide all our dealer partners across the UK with meaningful support as they enter into another unusual and challenging period of trading.

“We continue to see positive levels of consumer demand across our platforms and wish retailers well as they adjust once again to selling cars via Click & Collect and Home Delivery and building their pipeline of orders.”