GM Plans Used-Car Marketplace

General Motors (GM) plans to launch a used-car marketplace, it announced on Wednesday. CarBravo will offer shoppers “choice, convenience, transparency and helps create peace of mind,” the automaker said.

GM has run a pilot program and said dealers can now enroll in the program. (The Detroit Free Press said GM will enroll its 3,800 US dealers over the next couple of months.) GM said it expects to launch the CarBravo website in the spring.

The Detroit Free Press got a reaction to GM’s announcement from used-car platform CarMax Chief Marketing Officer Jim Lyski.

Online publication the Verge noted that GM also wants to compete with sites like Carvana, which also has a presence on eBay Motors. Interestingly, former eBay CEO Devin Wenig sits on the board of GM and on the board of GM’s Cruise subsidiary, which describes itself as a “self-driving car service designed for the cities we love.” It’s unclear if GM’s CarBravo intends to compete with eBay Motors or, like Carvana, have a presence itself on the site.

GM won’t be limiting its new CarBravo platform to its own models. According to the President of GM North America Steve Carlisle, “CarBravo will give customers more choice and access to shop significantly expanded inventories of both the dealer and a national central stock of GM used vehicles. Importantly, the program features will also be offered on non-GM used vehicles. CarBravo is designed to provide customers the convenience to shop how they want, where they want – online, at the dealership or both.”

Using a catchphrase large retailers use, GM said CarBravo will offer an “omnichannel shopping experience.”

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.