Auto shopping grows and generates US$ 2.2 bi
DCI 09/13/10
Heated with the good performance of the car sector, auto-shopping should grow so much throughout the national territory, that the country should close the year with 41 new undertakings, and reach 100 units in 2010. The sector currently generates R$ 3.8 billion (US$ 2.2 billion) a year, according to the Automotive Vehicle Association of Shopping Centers of the State of São Paulo (Anauto-SP).In the State of São Paulo, the expectation is to close the year with 45 auto-shopping stores. Today, the State has 33 establishments, 11 of which are still under construction. The expectation is that another 12 begin being build until December. Among the 22 units in operation, according to the Anauto-SP, the circulation of customers turns around 400 thousand people a month. "There is a great opportunity in the segment and the entrepreneurs started realizing that and begin investing. Only now, in the first half of the year, we carried out more than 180 thousand business with cars, that is, more than 12 thousand deals a month", said Homero Fischer, consultant of the Anauto-SP and car sales specialist.
São Paulo currently corresponds to 23% of all operations in the segment in Brazil, something near R$ 874 million (US$ 499.4 million) a year. "São Paulo is still the major power in auto-shopping stores, with 23% of the national market and nearly 700 stores in the establishments, besides the great circulation of cars", said Fischer.
The circulation of cars in the auto stores, for the retail consultant of AGC Internacional, Nelson Barrizzelli shows competition and growth in the segment. "Many people think there is competition only between auto-shopping stores and street stores, but that's not how it works: an auto shopping today is already able to compete with a dealership. Comfort, the options of brands and the financing options are the great triumph of an auto shopping today". The President of the Anauto-SP, Karla Aranda, also sees the competition with the dealerships as a reality, due to payment alternatives. "We give customers more financing options than many dealerships, besides the variety of models and brands at the same place", she said.
According to the President, half of all the earnings from the sale of cars results from financed purchases. To strengthen competitiveness, a market trend, according to the Anauto, is the change in some management concepts in the auto shopping establishments. "When they were born, in 1995, the auto shopping establishments were somehow similar to shopping malls and to car sales. Today, it is necessary to develop a unique personality for the segment", she said.
Such a new personality was named Auto Shopping 2.0, and it aims, besides achieving more customers used to street stores, at increasing the share of the sales of used car that is currently led by the dealerships. "The businessman of the auto shopping mall needs to feel better and with more sales power, even for he/she has more options of cars and brands than the dealerships. We currently have only 11% of the market of secondhand cars of the dealerships. Such a figure should reach 20% in two years", said José Carlos Fonseca Ferreira, Managing Partner of RMV Consultores Associados.