Carvana Disrupts the Wholesale Game: How a Digital Automaker Is Reshaping B2B Vehicle Trading

The Background: From Consumer E-Commerce to Industry Operations

Carvana (NYSE: CVNA), the Phoenix-based e-commerce platform that revolutionized how consumers buy used cars online, is now turning its digital-first playbook toward the wholesale market. Since its 2012 founding, the company has built a reputation for eliminating traditional dealership friction through technology and streamlined operations. With over 17,000 vehicles available on its consumer platform, Carvana has amassed a substantial inventory pipeline—and dealers have taken notice.

CarvanaACCESS: The New B2B Auction Infrastructure

Enter CarvanaACCESS, Carvana’s fresh initiative to tap into wholesale demand from independent and franchised dealers nationwide. Launched through a strategic co-development partnership with Manheim Digital, this platform functions as an online auction hub where wholesale buyers can bid on vehicles sourced from consumer trade-ins and other industry channels.

The mechanics are straightforward: dealers register on CarvanaACCESS.com to gain access to Carvana’s diverse wholesale inventory. Preview windows run Thursday at 8 a.m. ET through Friday at 9 a.m. ET, with bidding commencing Friday at 9 a.m. and closing Monday at 4 p.m. ET. Each vehicle listing comes loaded with comprehensive condition data and 360-degree imagery, ensuring transparency throughout the bidding process—a critical feature in wholesale markets where information asymmetry has traditionally favored aggregators over smaller buyers.

Why This Matters: Data-Driven Wholesale Meets Market Efficiency

What’s particularly striking about this move is the scale and specificity. Carvana’s wholesale vehicles boast a 90 percent first-run sales rate, suggesting these assets are priced competitively and moving fast. By creating a digital-first auction platform, Carvana is essentially disintermediating traditional wholesale channels, allowing dealers direct access to inventory that would otherwise flow through auction houses.

Scott Wood, Carvana’s senior director of wholesale operations, framed this as a natural evolution: “Wholesale has been an important part of our business from the beginning. This direct purchase platform unlocks the full potential of Carvana’s capabilities matched with technology modules from Manheim Digital, creating a whole new way to buy wholesale, directly from Carvana.”

The implication? As trade-ins and wholesale vehicles are processed across Carvana’s national network, they’re automatically routed into a managed auction ecosystem—no intermediaries, no traditional lot logistics required. This vertical integration of the wholesale pipeline could reshape how dealers source inventory.

The Competitive Angle

By leveraging Manheim Digital’s auction technology, Carvana gains credibility in a space traditionally dominated by physical auction lanes and legacy players. Dealers get early access to a national pool of inventory spanning multiple years, makes, and value tiers. For Carvana, each transaction reinforces its data moat and strengthens dealer relationships—a crucial demographic as the company navigates profitability challenges in the consumer segment.

CarvanaACCESS represents more than a new revenue stream; it’s a strategic pivot to monetize Carvana’s supply chain infrastructure while solving a genuine pain point for wholesale buyers: fragmented access and information asymmetry.