Similarweb Auto Retailer Update: December 2022

Cargurus leads in share of traffic, but Cars.com, CarMax showing strong traffic growth

Similarweb’s latest look at the auto industry shows Cargurus.com led in share of traffic among car-selling peers for the month of December 2022 (based on a look at eight leading peers). In terms of web traffic growth, Cars.com saw the most growth on a year-over-year basis (16%), with Carmax showing the most monthly growth (20%). Carvana (-31% year over year) and Vroom (-60% year over year) performed the weakest among the peers in this report for the month. 

Other metrics that stand out include: 

• Cargurus leads in share of traffic for the month of December with 24% of this peer group, followed by cars.com with 19% and Auto Trader with 16%
• December was a good month across all the car retailers we looked at with growth in web traffic for each versus the month of November.
• However, only half the car retailers we looked at saw year-over-year growth in December. Those were Cars.com (+16%), Truecar (+6%), Carmax (+5%) and Auto Trader (+5%).
• Given their large drop in web traffic, unsurprisingly, Carvana and Vroom both lost share of traffic among the peers in this group, while cars.com gained the most share versus peers.  

Year over year web traffic growth shows Cars.com performed best, Carvana and Vroom worst 

We watch traffic to these auto retailers as a proxy for overall demand, as many of them sell cars directly online, and in many cases, consumers visit the websites before making in-person visits as well. The chart below shows the change in web traffic on a year-over-year basis. You can see clearly that Cars.com saw major growth while Carvana and Vroom performed the worst.

 Month-over-month growth shows that December was good seasonally

Looking at the month of December versus the prior month, you can see that each car retailer saw seasonal growth, with Carmax seeing the most growth, followed by Truecar and Cars.com, with Carvana and Vroom again performing the worst.

 Share of traffic finds Cargurus leading, Vroom lagging

Of course, while momentum is important, size still matters. The below chart shows the relative market share of each company in the peer group relative to each other (share of traffic). You can see CarGurus leads with 24%, followed by Cars.com at 19%, Auto Trader at 16% and KBB at 13%. Vroom barely registers in this peer group with only 1% share.

Market share shifts show Carvana, Vroom performing the worst

Finally, we took a look at shifts in share of traffic year over year, and you can see that Carvana (-4.4%) and Vroom (-1.5%) performed terribly, while Cars.com (+3%)and Auto Trader (+1%) did the best.

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Report By: Jim Corridore, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

Disclaimer: All data, reports and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb are based on data obtained from third parties, including estimations and extrapolations based on such data. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of the materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on the materials.

by Jim Corridore

Senior Analyst

Jim provides insights across multiple sectors. With 30 years on Wall Street and numerous awards for stock-picking, he is a SUNY Albany graduate.