CarExpert.com.au to roll out Experience Centers Across Australia
According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, a total of 916,968 vehicles were sold in Australia last year. This shows a decline of 13.7% in sales when being compared to vehicle sales in 2019, where 1,062,867 vehicles were sold. This drop in sales is not surprising, seeing that the pandemic had a negative financial impact on many Australians.
But as the economy recovers, car sales are on the rise. A new venture by CarExpert.com.au may prove to be the perfect assistant for potential car buyers.
One of Australia’s leading independent automotive websites, CarExpert.com.au, has launched a retail platform named the ‘CarExpert Experience Centre’ at Westfield Warringah Mall on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
This new endeavour by the independent automotive online publisher and startup is experimental and aims to assist potential car buyers in discovering, driving and comparing new cars without the pressure of salespeople.
The CarExpert Experience Centre
CarExpert.com.au has become one of Australia’s fastest growing automotive publications, while boasting the ownership of Australia’s most watched automotive YouTube car review channel. Additionally, CarExpert.com.au has launched a retail platform named the ‘CarExpert Experience Centre’.
This centre, which completed a successful three month trial early this year, took up 960m2 of retail floor space, plus a section of the centre’s valet car park, is the first of its kind and was launched in 2021.
The centre completed a 12-week pilot at Westfield Warringah Mall in Sydney’s Northern Beaches in late June. Within those three months, the centre welcomed over 30,000 visitors and had 20 cars from a range of brands on display. Uniquely, the CarExpert Experience Centre does not have any salespeople and does offer the sale of any cars on display.
Instead of salespeople, the centre had car experts who served to assist the public in exploring and evaluating the cars on display. For the visitors interested in purchasing a car on display, the CarExpert Experience Centre connects them with local dealers in the style of a concierge service.
The CarExpert Experience Centre at Westfield Warringah Mall
The CarExpert Experience Centre also had a bespoke AI product in store. This AI product consists of over 40 cameras spread across the store. These cameras sent footage to CarExpert’s AI cloud which assisted in determining the sex and aproximate age of the visitors, all while recording how long the visitor spent with each car and which cars they interacted with.
This data was then sold to car companies to be used to gain a better understanding of their competitive sets. Within the following months, CarExpert.com.au will be releasing new information regarding a new and evolved format of their Experience Centres in Sydney and Melbourne.
What is CarExpert.com.au?
CarExpert.com.au was founded in 2020. The Australian startup is an independent automotive online publisher based in Australia. The company aims to bring back trust and transparency regarding car content. They also offer informative and impartial car reviews, news and comparisons to assist car buyers to make more informed decisions.
The founders of CarExpert.com.au are Paul Maric, Alborz Fallah and Anthony Crawford. Anthony Crawford is an Australian native and completed a Bachelor of Marketing from the University of Memphis.
Alborz Fallah was born in Iran and moved to Australia 1993. Also being entrepreneurial, Alborz founded CarAdvice.com in 2006, which was sold to Nine Entertainment Company in 2016 for a final valuation of over $60 million.
CarExpert.com.au founders Anthony Crawford, Alborz Fallah and Paul Maric (left to right)
Paul Maric was born in Serbia, and arrived in Australia in the early 1990’s after his family fled their home country due to war. Paul has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Swinburne University of Technology.
Paul always had an entrepreneurial spirit, having started an automotive news and reviews blog at the age of 17 called ‘TheGarage’. Additionally, Paul had started a range of businesses between 2006 and 2013, from a travel website, a hotel booking portal, a car rental booking portal and a diet tea drop shipping business.
Interestingly, in 2006, Paul met Alborz over email, which led to Paul selling his website, ‘TheGarage’ to CarAdvice in 2007 in return for equity in the business.
The takeaway
The new, revolutionary platform created by CarExpert.com.au, the ‘CarExpert Experience Centre’, is set to change the way Australian car buyers choose their new car. By offering a range of free services and tools, such as allowing buyers to explore and evaluate the cars on display, with free test drives and expert advice, potential car buyers will be well informed before making a purchase.
For those interested in visiting the next CarExpert Experience Centre, they should subscribe to CarExpert.com.au to be the first to find out when and where the next Experience Centre location will be launched.
