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In 2017, when Alexandra Mary “Alex” Hirschi decided to steer her career away from broadcast journalism towards creating social media content that truly resonated with her passion for the world of cars and technology, it led to the launch of Supercar Blondie– an automotive entertainment avenue that offers the latest insights on luxury cars, vehicle design and technology- out of the UAE.
And in a tale of unexpected success for Hirschi, her content went on to garner what is, today, a global online audience of over 110 million followers on the world wide web (across different social media platforms, as well as the official Supercar Blondie website). Having assimilated the brand into SB Media Group, a UK-based media and entertainment company that Hirschi co-founded with her husband Nik Hirschi in 2017, the Australian native -who is very much the face of the Supercar Blondie brand- has now moved on to the next step in scaling her venture: SBX Cars, a US-headquartered global digital car auction platform.
With more than US$100 million in consignments already confirmed pre-launch, the SBX Cars digital auction platform has gone live with a collection of several world-first exclusives and other rare cars. “SBX Cars will provide liquidity, transparency, trust and speed on how luxury cars are being transacted in the UAE,” Hirschi says, in an interview with Entrepreneur Middle East. “On top of that it will open up the UAE luxury car market to the world and to global buyers that may have shown certain hesitation before, because they did not have the contacts to this market. There is a huge appetite for the world’s best cars to be bought and sold in the UAE with the amount of wealth the country has and the caliber of people and entrepreneurs it has attracted. With only 5% buyer’s commission, SBX Cars will help in transacting cars in a much quicker way, which provides liquidity and access to a global pool of buyers and sellers with a click of a button. We have some spectacular cars from the UAE already consigned for our launch, including the first ever Mercedes-AMG One to be publicly auctioned, as well as a Lamborghini Veneno Roadster and La Ferrari just to name a few. Once we launch, we believe this platform will offer local car lovers access to vehicles that haven’t ever been available to them before.”
Source: Supercar Blondie/SBX Cars
Look deeper into Hirschi’s observations of the UAE luxury car market, and one will find that there is indeed an oasis of opportunities that can be tapped into. For starters, a March 2024 report released by India-based market research firm Blueweave Consulting shows that the UAE luxury car market size was valued at a whopping $4.12 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach $7.98 billion by 2030. The report highlights that a number of factors have contributed to these statistics, including increasing levels of disposable income, the UAE’s economic strength, as well as a rising shift in consumer preferences.
But despite the mammoth demand in the country, Hirschi notes that there have been plenty of bottlenecks for UAE-based luxury car collectors and enthusiasts. “If someone wants to sell their premium car, the options are currently limited,” Hirschi explains. “They either sell with an in-house auction company, where they might have to wait months for the next live auction, the fees are three times as high, logistically they will have to ship the car to the physical auction location, which exposes them to risks that the car can be damaged plus they have to take out extra transportation and insurance costs. The other option would be to sell with a regional digital auction platform with limited reach and no focus on premium access. Current digital auction companies do a fantastic job, but they only serve one market, either the US or Europe.”
With SBX Cars, Hirschi thus hopes to eliminate such woes- not just for the UAE and the wider Middle East, but for collectors across the globe. “Our platform is global, meaning a buyer in the Middle East can find the car of their dreams in Japan, Europe or the US and have it shipped to them,” Hirschi says. “There are lots of very special cars that exist around the world, but it’s difficult to find them unless you know exactly where they are and how to contact them. We’ve spent the last seven years hunting down these incredibly unique and highly desired vehicles and have now built a platform where buyers can find them all in one place. Additionally, there is no other auction platform that has the marketing reach that we do, so it offers sellers an additional advantage.”
Alex Hirschi, co-founder of SB Media Group and SBX Cars. Source: Supercar Blondie/SBX Cars
Indeed, in its bid to open doors for more accessible purchases within the luxury car space, SBX Cars has found a way for users of the platform to leverage SB Media Group and Supercar Blondie‘s monthly viewership of two billion. “Our social media expertise and global reach has been key to the success of SBX Cars,” she says. “We could not have built and launched with over $100 million worth of cars without the trust and brand that we have built over the last seven years on social media. A lot of the cars that we will sell will serve as content for video and website articles on supercarblondie.com which in return helps promote the auction. In addition, we have SBX Cars social media pages so each car will have additional reach there too and very unique cars and collections will also get access to complete custom content opportunities and events.”
Another key strategy that SBX Cars has adopted -and one that will noticeably set it apart from high-volume online auction sites- is its dedication to prioritizing quality over quantity while choosing the finest luxury consignments for its platform. “Our focus is on listing only premium and collectable vehicles,” Hirschi explains. “We have four categories: Supercars, Hypercars, Classics and Special Vehicles. There is no minimum dollar amount for a vehicle to be listed on our site. We will list a car if it is premium, collectible or if our auction specialists feel the vehicle is unique or special in some way. Auctions attract rare and unique cars because the price for these vehicles are hard to determine, so an auction is the only way to accurately reflect what that specific vehicle is worth. Generally speaking, rare and unique cars are very well cared for by their owners and caretakers so the vehicles on our site will be of a higher quality than those on a volume-based auction site. Our photographers will also take on average 150-200 photos to capture every detail and possible scratches or flaws to ensure we can show the true state of the car and history, so buyers feel comfortable to buy them online without having seen them in person.”
As Hirschi now looks forward to what she hopes could potentially disrupt the luxury car market, the co-founder reveals that she has three clear-cut end goals in mind for SBX Cars. “Our primary goal is that both seller and buyer are able to transact at a price that fairly reflects the true market value of the car with as little fees and logistical costs as possible,” Hirschi adds. “The second goal is to provide a customer service that makes both seller and buyers feel that they’re being looked after with complete transparency. With so many different cultures and ways of doing business around the world, we provide a standardized way where multi-million dollar transactions can happen more easily and frequently. Lastly, our platform now offers you access to the world’s rarest cars that buyers could not find before, and may have needed to wait years to find the car they’ve been looking for.”
This article is from Entrepreneur.com
