In July we saw a slight drop from June to July across all KPI's with lead volume decreasing 4.6% from June, Test Drives decreasing by 4% and sales decreasing by 4.5%.  August was trending similarly to June until the return of Level 3 in Auckland/Level 2 in the rest of NZ on August 12th.  With the added hurdles in trading, combined with a general slowdown in economic activity August has seen significant drops across the board.  You can read more about the downturn in AutoPlay tracked KPI's HERE.

As of 28th August the top sources of leads remain unchanged from previous months with 'Web - Classified' and 'Web - Dealer' taking out the top two spots, and leads from 'Brand' being the third most common source of leads for Kiwi dealers (AutoPlays customer base is heavily skewed towards franchise dealers).

Web - Classified - Down 24.7% (vs 0.2% decrease in July)
Web - Dealer - Down 28.4% (vs 2.2% decrease in July)
Brand - Down 34.2% (vs 6.7% decrease in July)
August figures as at 3.25pm 28/08/20

As a face to face activity Test Drives were always bound to suffer with Auckland unable to trade.  Test Drives are down across the board, but interestingly the top 3 sources of test drives, whilst unchanged have been noticeably more impacted in August that the less common sources of Test Drives.  

Web - Classified - Down 28.1% (vs 2.9% increase in July)
Web - Dealer - Down 39.5% (vs 3.3% increase in July)
Direct - Down 40.6% (vs 0.1% increase in July)
August figures as at 3.25pm 28/08/20

After strong months in June & July sales have decreased again in August.  Whether this would have occurred as forecasted by many people WITHOUT the return of Covid impose shutdowns we will never know.

Web - Classified - Down 17.3 (vs 6.9% decrease in July)
Web - Dealer - Down 33.5% (vs 4.1% decrease in July)
Repeat - Down 21.0% (vs 6.2% decrease in July)
August figures as at 3.25pm 28/08/20

When NZ last returned from Level 3 lockdown we saw the market bounce back fairly quickly with strong June and July results for most dealers.   With Auckland returning to Level 2 on Monday 31st August it will be interesting to see how quickly the market bounces back this time.  AutoPlay will bring you all the details in future editions of The PlayBook.   

With Auckland in Covid Level 3 from 12th August until 31st August we've seen a definite slowdown across the main KPI's that AutoPlay track across our customer base.  Obviously Auckland has borne the brunt of it but we are also see slowdown through the rest of NZ as well.  

If you are interested in the top sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales in July 2020 check out our post here.  This month we thought it would be more valuable to share some recent information about how the market is performing.

The first week of the return to Level 3 in Auckland/Level 2 in the rest of NZ saw the biggest dip with the week of the 12th seeing leads decreasing considerably.  The week beginning the 17th rebounded slightly but AutoPlay customers are still generating 18% fewer leads MTD than in July, and 26% fewer leads MTD than in August (as at 23rd August 2020).  Cumulatively performance is still much better than May, but well below June and July levels.

With limited to no face to face sales contact permitted in Level 3, and a heightened sensitivity in Level 2 Test Drives were always going to suffer with the resurgence of Covid-19.  So far up to 23rd August we've seen a decrease of 21% MTD from July, and 26% MTD from June.

Like Test Drives, Appraisals were always bound to suffer with less f-2-f trading as an activity that is mostly done face to face.  Of all the KPI's AutoPlay track Appraisals have proven to be the most impacted at Level 3 with 21% fewer than the same time in July MTD, and 31% down MTD from June.  

During the shutdown in Auckland we have been heartened to see dealers are still logging into AutoPlayAuto.com to manage their leads.  We have seen a decrease of 8% MTD from July, and 9% MTD from June, but as you can see from the graphs above, logins have mostly remained constant over the last few months.  This highlights the importance that dealers place in managing leads and we view it as a great positive sign that dealers are adapting well to working digitally.

When we next post we hope to be able to bring you some positive numbers as Auckland returns to Level 2 from 31st August.