Cazoo Ltd
Part Exchange: Negative Equity
The Problem
Negative equity happens when a customer’s car is worth less than the finance they owe. During the part exchange journey, users were confused by unclear information, leading to a poor experience and underperformance.
The challenge:​
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The experience wasn’t meeting targets: attachment rate stuck at 28% (target: 40%), purchase rate dipping below 67%.
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Usability tests showed low comprehension - only 2 out of 10 users understood what they were seeing.
The insight was clear: we needed to fix the way we communicated negative equity to improve understanding and boost conversion.
User & Business Needs
The user:
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Wants to know how much their car is worth to understand the total cost of their new car
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Needs to understand that negative equity means paying more today
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Needs to see what their options are
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Wants the business to feel trustworthy
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Wants to feel confident in the experience
Cazoo:
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Negative equity cars are often newer and can be resold at a higher value
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Commercial targets need to be met
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Wants to build and maintain customer trust
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Reviewing the Experience
Before state:
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Displayed a negative valuation without clear context
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Explanation was hidden in a tooltip, easy to miss
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Unclear that the user would need to pay more to complete the part exchange
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Included unnecessary information that added confusion
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User comprehension was low, many believed the negative amount would be deducted from the price of the new car
Content Design Led Approach
Because the existing context was causing confusion, we agreed to lead with content and information architecture, focusing first on what users needed to know and what action they should take.
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We brought together the right group to map user issues and define the outcomes we wanted to achieve:
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Sketched and explored early ideas
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Iterated and gathered feedback along the way
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Worked with Product and stakeholders to shape success criteria
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Checked feasibility with Engineering and Finance
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Designed the experience around the content
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Built a prototype ready for testing
Summary
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Reframed the experience around clear, user-first content
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Brought key information out of tooltips and into the main flow
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Simplified language to improve understanding
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Highlighted the action users needed to take
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Removed unnecessary details to reduce confusion
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Designed the layout to support comprehension and decision making
Results:
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Usability testing showed a significant improvement: 10 out of 10 users understood the information, up from 2 out of 10 in earlier testing
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Weekly acceptance of negative equity figures increased by 35%, delivering a cost saving of £20k per week for Cazoo.
