ATLANTA – Manheim is officially recognizing the ten-year anniversary of its popular Simulcast product line. Simulcast revolutionized the remarketing industry when it became the first product of its kind to give dealers the freedom to virtually attend live auctions across the United States. Since Simulcast’s release, Manheim has continued to evolve the product, adding new features and capabilities in response to market demands and customer needs.
“First, we’d like to thank all of our customers who use Manheim Simulcast and who have made it an industry-leading product for so many years,” said Joe George, senior vice president of product development, Manheim. “Our customers’ needs inspire our technological innovations and drive us to continually develop solutions like Simulcast that make it easier and easier for them to do business.”
Since its inception in 2002, Simulcast has steadily reshaped the automotive remarketing industry. In 2003, one year after its launch, Simulcast accounted for less than 1 percent of Manheim’s sales. Today, it accounts for roughly 16 percent. On average, about 13,000 dealerships attend Simulcast sales every week. Within the past twelve months, around 36 percent of all Manheim buyers – or 48 percent of buyers who purchased 10 or more vehicles – have used Simulcast. Over the same period of time, Simulcast was used by 40 percent of all dealer sellers and 76 percent of dealer sellers who sold 10 or more cars. Additionally, nearly all commercial sellers use Simulcast. To date, some 4 million cars have been sold through Simulcast, with a total sales price of nearly $60 billion.
Manheim’s Simulcast represents a classic American business success story where savvy business leaders identified a gap in the marketplace and filled it. Before Simulcast, dealers seeking inventory had to physically travel to auction locations, often in different parts of the country. These travels incurred expenses and at the same time pulled dealers away from day-to-day operations at their dealerships. Simulcast used state-of-the-art technology to solve both problems.
Simulcast also transformed the marketplace by expanding it from a local to a national level by leveraging the supply and demand of vehicles nationally. In addition, Simulcast brought more buyers to the lanes. Soon dealers began to see the many benefits of attending live auctions virtually, and Simulcast has forever changed the way they conduct business, making the product a win for Manheim and the remarketing industry.
Continuing the tradition of innovation, Manheim has recently launched Simulcast Everywhere, the latest addition to the Simulcast product line. Introduced to the industry in February of this year, Simulcast Everywhere enables dealers to sell vehicles directly from their lots, eliminating the need to physically transport vehicles to an auction location for sale. This means that the sellers, buyers and vehicles can be anywhere, and the sale is entirely virtual. Simulcast Everywhere is just another example of Manheim’s long history of developing products that help customers buy, sell and manage their inventory anytime, anywhere and in any way they choose.
To commemorate Simulcast’s tenth anniversary and to celebrate Manheim’s commitment to serving dealers in the U.S. and around the world, Manheim is giving away a classic American muscle car from General Motors. One lucky dealer who purchases a car through Simulcast during the month of July will win a 2001 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the same model as the first vehicle ever sold on Simulcast. Additionally, one random Simulcast user will win an iPad each week in July.
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