Auto Trader was founded in 1977, the magazine was published weekly in a number of regional editions. Circulation peaked at 368,000 in January 2000, dropping to an average of 87,000 copies a week in 2012, and down to 27,000 in March 2013. In June 2013, after 36 years, the final editions of the printed magazine were published, with the company concentrating on its online business.
Today, Auto Trader is the number one online marketplace for car buyers in the UK, with over 11 million unique users per month. These are extremely engaged users conducting an average of 68 searches per second on autotrader.co.uk. In fact, more than 80% of all time spent on classifieds websites is spent on Auto Trader. Auto Trader also has extensive relationships with car manufacturers and dealerships nationwide – listing more than 400,000 cars each day.
Filmed on location at Auto Trader’s London offices, Rakesh Patel, digital commercial director, tells us about the transformation from a print to digital business, how data is driving digital strategy and what the future holds for Auto Trader’s digital display business.