Expanding the business

Just consider this simple question for a moment. If you want to get the best result in an exam – what will determine that? Obviously the more marks you get on the paper compared to your classmates will determine your success.

The same applies to carsales.com – the more cars it sells the better its results. That is why the business is always looking to increase its number of listings through a range of related expansion strategies. Let us briefly examine four key strategies.

1. carsales.com operates a portfolio of automotive and related website based businesses, some of which have been the result of acquisitions. For example in October 2005 carsales.com acquired Trader Online Assets which included the CarPoint.com.au, BoatPoint.com.au andBikePoint.com.au websites. This gave carsales.com control of another leading specialist automotive website publisher, CarPoint.com.au, extending its market leading position in the online automotive classifieds industry.
2. In 2009 the business was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The most obvious benefit of this development is the access to capital markets to support future growth of the company.
3. A broad range of partnerships have been established, including with portals such as Ninemsn and Yahoo!7 By promoting carsales.com on these sites, these partnerships increase brand recognition and generate more traffic to the site. In addition carsales.com power a number of search engines on manufacturer websites, including HSV, VW, Mitsubushi, Mazda, FPV, Saab, Holden, Chrysler and Dodge.
4. carsales.com continues to develop new products which are attractive to car buyers, sellers and advertisers. These include developing further niche websites to take advantage of industry trends, providing car buyers with access to greater inventory by combining inventory across carsales’ various sites, improving searching and matching technologies, enhanced car listings and dealer specials, and developing enhanced advertising delivery capability (e.g. mobile, video).