Game Changers: Anthony Gaffney of Autodirect.ie

In a new regular feature on JOE.ie, we profile some of Ireland's up-and-coming male entrepreneurs, who are driving their business forward despite the country's economic woes. First up, we spoke to Anthony Gaffney of revolutionary car sales company Autodirect.ie.

By Emmet Purcell

Entrepreneur Anthony Gaffney is no stranger to JOE.ie, having provided an eye-opening diary of his start-up business, Autodirect.ie, in painstaking detail this time last year. After enjoying a glut of acclaim and welcome incessant phone calls during the company’s first year in business, we got in touch with the MD of Ireland’s first online car retailer to celebrate the first year of his venture.

The first of its kind in the country, Autodirect promises to cut out the middlemen in used car transactions by allowing customers to reserve their vehicle online after viewing over 40 photos per listing.

There are no pushy salespeople or exorbitant prices; instead the site offers savings of up to 20% and the peace of mind that comes from viewing a selection of motors at your leisure, rather than at the behest of somebody trying to hit their sales targets.

According to Anthony, customers have responded hugely to the feeling of ownership that stems from the site’s business model, as it “enables customers to not just view cars online but to commit to purchases too.”

“The whole idea is to give the customers full control of the purchase process and deviate away from the traditional used-car sales mentality,” he told JOE.

“That’s down to the detail of the photography of the cars. They’ve enough information to go through the purchase journey to be competent enough to click that ‘Reserve’ button, which enables them to view and test-drive the vehicle. So it reduces the cost base for both the business and for the customer and it offers a more affordable used car transaction."

Unsurprisingly, customers tend to feel a lot safer browsing online than the possibility of being dragged from pillar to post at a dealership. As Autodirect’s MD explains, the used-car industry has “poor expectations from customers”.

“When we set up the e-commerce platform, we set about increasing the credibility of purchasing a used car and combatting the old-fashioned image of being dragging across the forecourts and to give the power back to the customer.

“It definitely does give the consumer the comfort to be able to reserve the car and have full control.”

Managing expectations

Of course, one of the biggest challenges for any e-commerce site is to effectively manage consumers' expectations from initial visit to sale. With most businesses, this wouldn’t be an issue but since car buyers like to get behind the wheel before making a purchase, there’s an impetus on ensuring that the same level of user experience is maintained once customers log off the site.

“We pride ourselves on a strong, customer-focused business model and it’s very important that expectations are met once customers come offline,” says Anthony.

“The browsing experience is quite strong on the website so when consumers do come to visit the company, it’s very important that their expectations are met in terms of their experience on the site."

“It’s their purchase journey, rather than us trying to sell a car. We believe that the website first sells the cars, coupled with the pricing, industry partners and ancillary benefits that we offer.”

Despite being a relatively common phenomenon in the UK, the idea of an e-commerce used-car business is something that Anthony had felt would be perfect for the Irish market. Despite never having worked in the industry before, he recognised that there was a gap in the market and that Irish ever-increasing confidence in online transactions would ensure that Autodirect would appeal.

“In a previous life I used to work in a property development company and we all know where that industry ended up,” laughs Anthony. “I have a phrase I use - Adapt or die - which for me, meant to reinvent myself, so I looked in the marketplace. This was an industry in which I had no previous experience but I did feel it was a product that is recession-proof. People need cars. We don’t have a reliance on public transport, so if you can offer a strong value proposition with a lower cost-base online, I felt there was every chance the company could succeed.

“Ireland has a very high connection ratio in terms of internet usage and the likes of Ryanair have meant people are no longer worried about online transactions. Purchasing products online is an everyday occurrence so to reserve a car is no longer that foreign a concept as it might have been in the past.

“People have been doing it in the UK for a few years and that’s where the idea came from - there was definitely a gap in the market from an Irish context to bring the concept over. We felt that people would take to the idea quite fast and thankfully, that’s proven to be quite correct.”

Future plans

So what does the future hold for Anthony Gaffney and Autodirect.ie?

“We’re looking at an app at the moment,” says Anthony. "We very much embrace social media. As we’re an online business we have to look at very different methods of attracting our customers. The days of a full page spread in a local newspaper at a cost of €600 are over. We’re very strong on Facebook and Twitter as well. About one-third of our traffic comes from social media sources.”

Anthony’s knowledge of the daily analytics of the site and courting the various avenues which may help grow his business are no fluke – this is a businessman who rigorously monitors every aspect of his site.

“We very much look at the daily metrics of our business, how we can drive traffic to the site,” he says.

“We have it down to a very simple equation – if we get 149 unique users to our site, it results in a reservation. And we’ve got a 90% conversion rate from reservation to purchase. So we’ve a very simple business model and it’s how we drive customers to our site.

“The average time on our site is eight and a half minutes, nearly double the industry average. So it’s good to know that people want to spend a lot of time on the site.”

You can check out what's on offer over at www.autodirect.ie or take a look at Anthony's original start-up diary with JOE last year.