Keeping up with demand a tall task for Vroom, Shift

Keeping up with demand for used vehicles amid a general inventory shortage continues to challenge online retailers. Aggressively pursuing customer vehicles appears to be one remedy.

Vroom and Shift, online used-vehicle retailers that recently went public, last week reported net losses and higher vehicle sales for the third quarter. Vroom saw a dip in revenue while Shift posted an increase. Obtaining more vehicles to sell is a key pursuit for both companies.

"We'll be opportunistic in the where and when and how we buy across the broad spectrum of channels," Vroom CEO Paul Hennessy said.

Vroom's supply isn't constrained, he said. The retailer has successfully pitched consumers on buying their vehicles and has used auctions to fill any inventory holes.

Vroom's online sales grew 59 percent to 8,823 vehicles in the third quarter, compared with the year-earlier quarter. It forecasts online sales of up to 11,500 vehicles in the fourth quarter. Revenue fell 5 percent to $323 million. Its net loss narrowed slightly to $37.9 million.

Vroom added reconditioning capacity in the third quarter, mostly with third-party vendors. Hennessy said reconditioning capacity, with 18 centers around the country, now exceeds the company's sales plan for 2021.

While Shift increased its use of third-party reconditioning in the third quarter, company executives told analysts they believe "in-house reconditioning is a valuable advantage in the used auto-retail market."

Shift pointed to outsourced reconditioning and paying overtime to in-house workers as factors weighing down gross profit per vehicle.

But outsourcing was necessary to keep up with demand, especially as hiring in-house has been a challenge amid the coronavirus pandemic, Shift co-CEO George Arison said last week.

"We're purposely choosing to continue to fulfill all the demand that we're getting, even if it means outsourcing reconditioning," Arison said.

Shift's e-commerce sales rose 35 percent to 2,946 vehicles in the third quarter. Revenue increased 31 percent to $59.9 million, and the company's net loss widened to $23.3 million.

At the end of September, Shift operated in six metro areas on the West Coast. Last week, it expanded to Austin, Texas, where it is first focused on buying customer vehicles and turning them around at wholesale.