- Virtual auctions have unlimited potential amid massive industry changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic
- PowerBand and D2D cloud-based platform is highly efficient and convenient for both dealers and buyers, enabling consumers to buy, sell, lease and trade vehicles through their smartphones
- Current crisis exposes the fragility of the global supply chain, and automakers will have to start considering domestic options instead
- Online vehicle auction sector is expected to continue growing at a fast rate, further spurred by current pandemic-imposed social distancing rules
PowerBand Solutions Inc. (TSX.V: PBX) (OTCQB: PWWBF) (FRA: 1ZVA) has launched a new cloud-based platform that lets people buy and sell cars and trucks with never-seen-before simplicity, speed, and cost-efficiency. This development is proving pivotal during the Covid-19 pandemic, as automakers and dealers take a long, hard look at innovations to allow consumers to buy, sell, trade and lease on-line.
“Online shopping in our industry is going to snowball,” newly appointed Honda Canada CEO Jean Marc Leclerc told the special Windsor Star report analyzing the effects of the current pandemic on the automotive industry (http://ibn.fm/kcQkS).
“Traffic on our website and the utilization of our business tools has increased significantly. Cars and big-ticket items were the last bastion of what people would consider buying online.”
“The confidence level from their experience and word-of-mouth is changing that.”
Online vehicle auction growth is outpacing that of physical auctions at the speed of light, and the future of auto sales seems to be online. Online-only auctions experienced a 33 percent compound annual growth rate between 2013 and 2017, far outpacing the growth of physical auctions, which was just 2 percent. This has created a considerable opportunity for Powerband Solutions to gain a solid foothold in the U.S. automotive transaction marketplace via its cloud-based vehicle auction platform.
PowerBand and D2D Auto Auction LLC have already successfully launched and conducted ‘virtual’ auctions in the United States. D2D is co-owned by PowerBand and Arkansas-based financier Bryan Hunt, director of J.B Hunt Transport. The highly successful virtual auctions, held on April 7th and April 16th, testified to the speed and efficiency of D2D’s unique transaction platform, which provides an alternative to physical auctions and their associated costs (http://ibn.fm/AzoL3).
The new cloud-based platform will be offered across the United States in the coming weeks and will allow digital images and details of vehicles to be uploaded for potential buyers to view. More than 1,300 dealers were registered on the D2D platform when it was launched at the end of 2019. This number is increasing rapidly with social distancing. D2D’s sales team targets additional dealerships and commercial customers, including leasing, rental and fleet companies.
According to PowerBand CEO Kelly Jennings, the virtual auctions held earlier in April generate high demand, as dealerships are looking for ways to adapt to an environment where the purchase ad sale of vehicles at a physical auction is no longer a viable option. “Our cloud-based auction platform is now fully functional and can replace traditional physical auctions across North America, as well as greatly reducing the costs to dealers since we only take a fee when a vehicle is actually sold,” Jennings noted in a news release.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.PowerBandSolutions.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to PWWBF are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/PWWBF
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