Be they online-only sales or simulcast, how big is digital in the wholesale marketplace?

Kevin Brown, president of ServNet and the general manager and co-owner of Missouri Auto Auction, says he’s not aware of many that haven’t welcomed the technology.

Sure, many were hesitant initially to embrace the digital wholesale space, Brown said, counting himself among that crowd. But failure to adapt to the new landscape may mean you’re “left behind,” he said.

“If you’re not doing it, you’re behind the times and missing out on opportunities,” Brown said. “Because you’re either going to miss the opportunity to grab consignment from consignors who believe in it, or you’re going to miss the opportunity of selling no-sales or you’re not going to have an online buying presence.”

Of course, there’s a degree of balance involved with a digital sales channel and an auction’s brick-and-mortar business. Ideally, one would not cannibalize the other.

“If the consignor is telling us we need to put them (online) before they cross the block, we will,” Brown said. “But I’m going to tell you, that’s not happening very often. Most of the time, they’re still allowing us to run them through the sale first and have that live brick-and-mortar auction, and also utilizing the simulcast system at the same time.

“Now, if it does not sell, we have some success (with) putting some stuff online, even for (our)-size auction, which is not huge — we run about 500 cars a week here,” Brown said. “We’re selling four or five cars a week (of) no-sales that are left over.”

So while online does give the auction additional opportunities to sell cars that didn’t sell in the lanes, priority No. 1 is to try to get the vehicle to sell in the physical sale, Brown said.

But having digital options certainly has been a major priority — if not a must — for auctions, whether they’re independents or corporately owned entities. 

Stat breakdown: ADESA in digital

At ADESA, for instance, the company’s online-only volume was up 29 percent in the second quarter, according to quarterly results slides from parent company KAR Auction Services.

That compares to 17 percent online-only growth in Q2 2015.

Online volume was 41 percent of total volume, compared to 40 percent in the same period of 2015.

ADESA posted online-only volume of 198,000 units in Q2, versus 154,000 a year earlier.

Year-to-date, online-only growth is at 31 percent, compared to 13 percent in the first half of 2015.

Through six months, online volume has accounted for 41 percent of total volume, versus 40 percent last year.

Online-only volume is at 386,000 for the first half, up from 294,000 a year ago.

Stat breakdown: Manheim’s digital channels

According to an infographic provided by the company in June, Manheim’s digital channels generated more than 67 million total visits in 2015, with 130,000 visitors per month.

Breaking that down by channel, 75,000 visitors a month used the company’s mobile site and apps in 2015. This was a 10-percent hike.

Manheim had 19 million visits to its mobile site and iPhone/Android apps last year, which was a 10-percent gain from 2014.

Meanwhile, 32,000 dealers attended a Simulcast sale each month and there were 900,000 cars sold via Simulcast in 2015, a 20-percent rise.

There were more than 200,000 cars listed on OVE.com each month, with vehicles sold up 7 percent at 330,000 for the year.