Nedbank Avo has announced an addition to its platform‘s offerings in the form of an end-to-end digital vehicle purchasing solution.

The financial institution is billing this as a first in South Africa, with its super app adding more options from an ecommerce perspective.

“While there are already quite a few websites and aggregators where people can browse vehicles, the existing options are still very limited,” explains Julie Vetter, Avo executive at Nedbank regarding the announcement.

“While these online portals are offered to a client to shop for a car, the Avo platform is a rich environment that allows for real-time engagement between buyers and sellers, as well as facilitating completely secure payments,” she adds.

Nedbank says it piloted the new auto portal on Avo in July of this year and is now ready to make it widely available to its customers.

The auto portal features a few innovations, according to Nedbak Avo, including virtual sales forum where users can ask and get answers to questions about vehicles using the chat function. Added to this is the ability to send documents and make video calls within the platform.

There is also the ability to apply and be approved for financing, using the Nedbank MFC car finance interface to make the entire buying journey digital.

“The auto platform will have ground-breaking features that will allow users to conduct affordability and credit checks upfront and will exponentially increase the chances of an approved deal flowing back to the dealer. This is important as it prevents a dealer from being inundated with potentially fruitless leads,” notes Vetter.

“Having the entire process on a single platform is truly game changing. Now, you can explore as many vehicles as you want, submit your application, and start driving your new car in a matter of days,” she concludes.

To check out the auto portal for yourself, head here.