Answering your Deal Builder questions

Deal Builder is now central to the Autotrader buying journey – adding flexibility for buyers, whilst keeping your existing touchpoints with customers unchanged. This blog provides an overview of the most common retailer questions and clarifies the role of Deal Builder and what’s changing.

We have also answered these questions in our recent live webinars, which you can watch on demand. 

What’s changing?

Deal Builder is now available to all retailers as we evolve the buying journey on our platform. It’s designed to help you capture high-intent buyers by delivering deals with stronger purchase intent, providing valuable insights about buyers and enabling faster, more efficient conversion opportunities.  

This adds flexibility and choice for buyers. Some may choose to start a finance application or get a part-ex valuation online before visiting you, while others will continue to call or visit you first.  

The goal is to give buyers the freedom to move at their own pace throughout the journey, whilst keeping you informed and central to the process.  

What’s not changing?

The existing touchpoints you have with your customers remain unchanged. Buyers can still see your contact details and message you directly from your adverts, and most will continue to engage in the same way – through enquiring and visiting your forecourt. Deal Builder does not force buyers to complete steps like finance applications or reservations before reaching out to you – it simply gives them the option to do so if it helps them through the journey.  

Retailers remain fully in control over the sales journey and the customer relationship. 

• Customer communication & experience

  Q. Are “call” and “reserve” the only option for consumers to do on my product page now?

  A. Absolutely not. Buyers can still interact with retailers in whichever way they feel most comfortable. The product page that will go live next week is optimised for driving even more engagement with the retailer overall and our aim is to give buyers the flexibility to contact you however they want. 

  Q. Why have you made consumers sign in to Autotrader to be able to submit a message? 

  A. This change is designed to improve the buying experience by making it more secure, seamless, and consistent with what users now expect across digital platforms. The majority of buyers are already signed in prior to submitting a lead, so this isn’t an extra step for them. 

  A signed-in experience allows buyers to pick up where they left off, track their interactions, and feel more confident engaging with retailers. There are also huge benefits to retailers – when the buyer is signed in, it means we can validate email addresses to make sure you can contact them and nudge buyers to enquire to drive more response.  

  Q. When a customer submits a deal, what personal details do they have to include?

  A. To build a deal, the user must be signed in to Autotrader, which the majority of our users are already. This means we can pre-fill their contact details, including email address (which is validated upon submission) and phone number. The user can choose not to include their phone number (an option that we include from an accessibility perspective), but less than 10% of buyers don’t include one, making deals even more powerful than emails ever were, when phone number was rarely included.   

  Q. Removing customer details from lead emails prevents the staff without Portal access from contacting the customer. Why were customer details removed?

  A. Lead notification emails are designed to notify retailers of a new email or deal landing. The information we’ve historically included in these is PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Sending this kind of data over email carries a higher risk of being accessed, misused, or exposed in a data breach.  
  
  By removing PII from lead notification emails, we’re taking proactive steps to safeguard consumer data and reduce risk across the board. Find out more about why we made this change
  
  Retailers can still access the customer details by logging into Portal or Autotrader Connect. Learn more about how to add a new user to Portal

  Q. How do you mitigate poor reviews as a result of Deal Builder?

  We don't typically see negative reviews directly linked to Deal Builder. However, we recognise retailers may have initial concerns. To address this, we recommend focusing on best practices: 

  • Stock management – ensuring unsold vehicles aren’t left live. 

  • Accurate updates – keeping listings current and prioritising lead management. 

  • Clear communication – staying in touch with buyers throughout the process. 

  If a negative review does occur, retailers can challenge it via the Feefo page in the portal. Feefo provides an impartial review process, and where evidence shows a review is unjustified, it can be removed. Sellers have up to three attempts to challenge before escalation to their Account Manager. 

  Q. Is there any research or data that shows that consumers prefer a Deal Builder journey over traditional enquiries?

  Our research with in-market car buyers shows that 7 in 10 want to be able to complete more of the buying journey online*. And 2 in 3 buyers want to, or are open to, reserving the car online before visiting the retailer**.

  Of these buyers, 7 in 10 would prefer to reserve their car on Autotrader. That’s because they trust Autotrader, it feels more secure and it’s more convenient**.

  We also observe that 50% of deals are submitted out of normal business hours***, when retailers are away from their desks. Retailers have told us that they often arrive in the morning to high-intent, committed enquiries from buyers.

  *Autotrader Consumer Buying Journey Research – September 2023 **Autotrader on site survey Aug-24 ***Autotrader internal data. Analysis on all deal volumes from October '24 – March '25. Based on 9am-5pm 'typical' opening hours.

• The reservation journey

  Q. Am I required to offer reservations? 

  A. We understand that introducing reservations, for some, can require more significant process changes and we know they may not be right for every business today. To support retailers, we are developing an alternative option: a Reservation Request.

  This will allow the buyer to simply 'request' a reservation, without paying a £99 fee.

  If you’d like more details about Reservation Requests, reach out to your Partnership Manager or call us on 0345 111 0002.

  Q. When a customer reserves a vehicle, is it taken off sale on Autotrader? 

  A. No it remains advertised on Autotrader – it will just have a “reservation in progress” flag displayed on the product page. We don’t allow two buyers to reserve the same car, so this option is removed when it’s been reserved, but buyers can still see the vehicle and enquire on it – just as they can today.  

  We have made a recent change to the product page to change the flag from “reserved” to “reservation in progress” and made the flag less prominent, which has resulted in improved performance of reserved stock, so you should not see any drop in performance.  

  Q. What if a consumer reserves multiple cars? 

  To date, we've only seen a small number of buyers reserve multiple vehicles at the same time, it’s around 2%. So there’s no suggestion that buyers are using this as a hold whilst they decide between multiple vehicles.  

  As with all deals, we’d encourage retailers to reach out to the buyer as soon as possible to conclude the deal – either cancelling the deal to remove the reservation or completing the deal to take the vehicle off sale. 

  Q. What if another retailer reserves my car to remove competition?

  A. We have a dedicated team of Customer Security specialists monitoring this to identify if this happens, and we would of course take action if we received evidence of this. However over the last 4 years of evolving Deal Builder we have not observed this behaviour.  

  Q. How does the reservation work if the reservation journey on Autotrader is different to that on my own website? Is this just creating complexity?

  A. The reservation journey on Autotrader doesn’t replace a retailer’s own process - it simply acts as the first step that captures strong buyer intent. Retailers stay fully in control of how the sale progresses. 
  

  Many retailers still take an additional deposit against the vehicle to secure it. Most retailers have cited that buyers are happy to do this when it's explained helpfully and clearly up front. 
  

  We encourage retailers to contact the buyer as soon as a reservation comes in. This early conversation helps confirm the buyer’s plans, agree when they’ll view the vehicle, and gives the retailer confidence in how that deal is likely to progress.  

  If, for whatever reason the sale is not moving forward at any stage, you have full control to cancel a deal which will return the £99 back to the buyer and remove the reservation flag from your car or van. 
  

  Q. If a customer pays to reserve a car, does this become a distance sale?

  A: No it doesn’t. Deal builder doesn’t create orders or a contract - any official contract of sale would be handled directly between the retailer and the consumer as part of the sale. The reservation fee taken is a contract between Autotrader and the consumer (“invitation to treat”).  

  There is no contract between the buyer and the retailer at this point, which means the retailer is under no obligation under the Sale of Good Act. We make it clear to the buyer before they place the £99 reservation fee that we cannot guarantee the availability of the vehicle.   

• The £99 reservation fee

  Q. Why is Autotrader taking the £99 reservation fee?

  A. As part of reserving the vehicle, the consumer makes a payment of £99. This payment is taken by our payment partner, Stripe, who then ringfence the money in the consumer's account until it gets released back to them. 

  This fee always goes back to the consumer, regardless of the outcome of the deal (the retailer telling us it is cancelled or completed or the consumer cancelling the deal).  

  If neither party tells us within the first 7 days, we refund the money to the consumer but keep the deal open so you can conclude on this. If you don’t do anything within 30 days, we’ll automatically remove the reservation flag – this is there as a failsafe to make sure we don’t keep your stock reserved unnecessarily. Only a very small volume of deals ever reach this state, the majority conclude within the first few days.  

  There have also been some questions on whether Autotrader earns interest on reservation money, and we can reassure retailers this is definitely not the case

  Q. I sell cars worth £90k, why is the reservation fee £99 for everyone? This won’t signal intent for my cars

  A. It’s important to remember that the reservation fee is not meant to be a deposit. We would encourage retailers to follow up these reservations in the same way they normally would, and qualify the reservation before proceeding. It would be up to the retailer if they wanted to ask for a higher holding deposit at this stage.  

  We still see the same level of intent from users who reserve higher value cars. Some retailers are concerned that behaviour and intent are different on higher priced vehicles, but we’re not seeing it in our data. 

  It’s also worth noting that with the introduction of Reservation requests, it is up to you as a retailer to decide if you would like to offer a £99 reservation or the option for customers to request to reserve the vehicle instead.

• Finance & part exchange

  Q. Why can’t I include my own part exchange valuation, so the consumer has the same value as my website?

  A. The part exchange valuation we offer is an Autotrader part exchange guide price. We state that this valuation may change upon speaking to the retailer and confirmation of the vehicle’s condition. 

  We feel confident that this straightforward part exchange guide journey works. Buyers expect to have a further conversation with the retailer about their current vehicle and we're not hearing many examples where it genuinely causes friction. 

  That said, we understand that many retailers would like to be able to include their own part-exchange amount so it's something that's in consideration for our future roadmaps. 

  Q. Will there be a means of distinguishing between a full end to end 'deal' and a finance enquiry 'deal'

  A. With Deal Builder, buyers have choice over how much of the buying journey they want to complete online. This means that some deals may come with multiple attachment types including finance, part exchange and a reservation, whereas others may only include one attachment type (such as delivery). 

  Each deal will be tagged accordingly in Sales Hub. Here you will be able to see the different types of deals at a high level. You can then find out more about the attachments by clicking into the deal for more information (about their finance preferences, for example). 

  Q. How can I show my finance in Deal Builder?

  A. We’ve created a flexible approach to finance within Deal Builder which means retailers can show different types of finance depending on their set-up and FCA status. 

  For FCA approved retailers who work with one or more of the lenders integrated with Deal Builder, buyers can get a quote and apply for finance online with one of your lenders, directly through Autotrader. 

  Those who don’t work with an integrated lender can still show finance options through Deal Builder, including the monthly price for that vehicle, but the buyer can’t apply for the finance online. The buyer will be able to attach an estimate to their deal and pick up with the retailer. 

  For non-FCA approved retailers, there is a finance journey which directs the buyer to explore finance options with our finance broker partner. If you need any guidance, please reach out to your Partnership Manager or call us on 0345 111 0002. 

  Q. If a customer uses the finance tool via Deal Builder have we lost the ability to sell our own finance?

  A: Absolutely not. All of the finance options presented to consumers are retailers’ own finance lenders that are integrated directly with Autotrader’s finance platform. This means they only ever see finance offers you can provide and doesn’t have any impact on any commissions or agreements you have in place with those lenders. 

  There are a few different variations of finance available through Deal Builder depending on the integration level we have in place with your chosen finance lender. 
  
  If we don’t have a full integration in place, we will show estimates to the consumer which is what the consumer would currently see if they used the finance calculator on your product page. 

  If we have a full integration in place, the consumer will be able to get quotes and progress to full applications as part of submitting their deal. 

• Managing a deal

  Q. If we don’t cancel the reservation on Portal, how long will the car be reserved for?

  A. If neither a retailer nor the buyer tells us the outcome of the reservation, then the vehicle will stay reserved for 30 days.  We rarely see this happen, as most reservations are processed within 3 to 4 days and we encourage all retailers to proactively manage their deals in Sales Hub or via their own system through AT Connect. Whilst consumers can still enquire on the vehicle even when it’s reserved, retailers are fully in control from the minute you receive a deal to cancel this and remove the reservation if you don’t believe the sale will go through.

  Q. If I have a reservation come through on my own website, how can I update Autotrader so someone can’t reserve it there as well?

  A. It all depends on how you update your stock today. If you're a Portal customer it's very straightforward, as soon as the car is reserved, you simply mark it as ‘reserved’ when you are ready to in Portal - everything is in sync. 
  If you're a customer with real-time stock updates via AT Connect to a third-party tech partner, the integration means the status is updated straight away.
  There are some nuances to work through for data feed customers as the status update is not real time but we're having conversations and working through these scenarios with all customers this applies to. We have our whole team ready to help work through such scenarios so if it does apply to you.  

  Reach out to your Account Manager or call us on 0345 111 0002 if you need any guidance.   

  Q. Will there be a means of distinguishing between a full end to end 'deal' and a finance enquiry 'deal'

  A. With Deal Builder, buyers have choice over how much of the buying journey they want to complete online. This means that some deals may come with multiple attachment types including finance, part exchange and a reservation, whereas others may only include one attachment type (such as delivery). 

  Each deal will be tagged accordingly in Sales Hub. Here you will be able to see the different types of deals at a high level. You can then find out more about the attachments by clicking into the deal for more information (about their finance preferences, for example). 

  Q. I get all my leads into my showroom/lead management system today. Will deals carry on happening in this way?

  A. The way deals are received by retailers depends on the current set up you have. 

  For Portal retailers everything is in Sales Hub. It's your one stop to accessing all the rich deal information, including Buying Signals. 

  If you're a customer that uses AT Connect into your own or a third-party system, you will have access to all this rich data via the Deals API. We’re continuing to work with these retailers directly or their third-party integrators to help get them live as soon as possible. 

  If you don’t know which of the two applies to you, please reach out to your Partnership Manager or call us on 0345 111 0002. 

• Enabling Deal Builder for all

  Q. What if I don’t want Deal Builder enabled on my adverts, can I opt out?

  A. Deal Builder is now central to the buying journey on Autotrader, it will no longer be possible for car or van customers to opt out because of the benefits this brings to retailers.  

  We’ve been trialling this journey with thousands of retailers over the past few years, and we’ve found that buyers who submit a deal are more committed to vehicle and have a higher intent to purchase.  

  Now, it’s about us creating a consistent experience on Autotrader, with the same journey on every vehicle advert. This is key to making users feel confident when going through their car buying journey so they are further down the funnel when they reach retailer.  By enabling users to do more online we can understand more about them and pass this valuable insight to retailers. 

  By enabling Deal Builder for all, we’re increasing our media investment to talk to consumers about the new buying journey with a second wave of our multi-million pound campaign beginning in January. We’re also enhancing alerts across push-notifications, on-platform messaging and email to nudge consumers at the right point in their journey to deliver even more deals to retailers. 

  Q. Why do other dealers not have this on their adverts, especially some big customers?

  A. The new Autotrader buying journey will be enabled for all retailers regardless of size. The reality is that with 14,000 customers, we have had to do this in phases of a few hundred customers at a time. This has enabled us to reach out to these customers when they get their first deal to make sure they’re comfortable with managing the deal and can make the most of it. For those retailers not using Portal to manage their leads, we are working in partnership with their 3rd party tech providers to make sure they have the same functionality in their own systems. This can mean some added complexity for larger customers, so we are working closely with them to enable them to start benefitting over the coming weeks. 

  Q. Will there be a charge for this?

  A. Deals with or without a reservation will not be subject to an additional charge for retailers. We’re aware of conversations where a legacy 0.25% transaction fee was trialled, however we removed this charge in May, following the decision to make Deal Builder central to the buying journey on Autotrader. It will be part of our annual package update in April, along with Buying Signals.

  Q. Why are retailers not consulted on products like Deal Builder before you enable them for all?  

  A.We always work with retailers to develop our products; we wouldn’t be able to evolve our platform without both retailer and buyer input, as both sides are important for Autotrader. 

  We’ve been trialling Deal Builder with thousands of retailers over the last 4 years, evolving the journey based on their feedback. Between 2021 and 2023 Deal Builder was in a beta trial. Last year we opened Deal Builder up to all retailers, constantly evolving the journey as we go. 

  If you want to get involved with developing our products in the future, you can sign up to be a part of our Retailer Discover grouphere.