Key Partners
- Car sellers, auctions, fleet operators and manufacturers supply inventory (FACT).
- Retail marketplace partners list cars that Carvana sells to customers (FACT).
- Financing partners and securitization investors buy the loans Carvana originates (FACT).
- DriveTime (related party) — leases, vehicle service contract administration, loan servicing (FACT).
- Root, Inc. — auto insurance sold on Carvana's site for commissions and Root Warrants (FACT).
Key Activities
- Buy cars from customers with an online instant offer, and from auctions and suppliers (FACT).
- Inspect and recondition at IRCs, including 16 former ADESA auction sites built out by Dec 31, 2025 (FACT).
- List cars with 360-degree photos on a site averaging 18.5M monthly unique visitors in 2025 (FACT).
- Originate customer loans, then sell or securitize them (FACT).
- Deliver with its own hub-and-spoke fleet and sell leftover cars wholesale (FACT).
Key Resources
- Over 75,000 cars listed on the site at Dec 31, 2025 in one nationally pooled inventory (FACT).
- Reconditioning, hub and vending machine sites — 5.3M owned and 5.9M leased interior square feet (FACT).
- 51 U.S. patents covering vending machines, photo, search and AI technology (FACT).
- Over 23,100 full-time and part-time employees at Dec 31, 2025 (FACT).
- $2.33B cash at Dec 31, 2025 and about $3.9B senior secured notes (FACT).
Value Propositions
- Wide selection — over 75,000 cars on the site (FACT).
- Transparent pricing and a no-pressure online transaction (FACT, company's own description).
- Instant offer and pick-up when selling a car (FACT).
- Seven-day return policy (FACT).
- Customers rated Carvana 4.7 of 5.0 across over 245,000 surveys (FACT, company-reported).
Customer Relationships
- Self-service shopping, financing and trade-in online (FACT).
- Customer advocates handle post-sale coordination, exchanges and returns (FACT).
- Retail units are the main driver of referrals and repeat sales (FACT).
- Delivery or pick-up is the moment the online purchase becomes a car in hand (INFERENCE).
- Unique-visitor traffic grew to 21.6M a month in H1 2026 from 17.8M (FACT).
Channels
- Carvana.com and the mobile app (FACT).
- National and local television, search, social media, referral, direct mail and out-of-home advertising (FACT).
- Home delivery and pick-up (FACT).
- Car vending machines (automated delivery towers) and hubs (FACT).
- Advertising expense $363M in FY2025 vs $229M in FY2024 (FACT).
Customer Segments
- Retail used-car buyers; about 37M used retail transactions in the U.S. in 2024 per Cox Automotive (SECONDARY).
- People selling or trading in a car (FACT).
- Dealers and other sellers on the wholesale marketplace: 1,006,551 units transacted in 2025 (FACT).
- Customers financing the purchase through Carvana (FACT).
- Customers buying service contracts, GAP waiver coverage or insurance (FACT).
Cost Structure
- Cost of sales about $16.13B in FY2025, or 79% of revenue (INFERENCE from revenue minus reported gross profit).
- SG&A $2.31B — compensation $830M, advertising $363M, logistics $162M, occupancy $68M, other $885M (FACT).
- Interest expense, net $505M in FY2025, down from $651M (FACT).
- Tax Receivable Agreement expense of $2.2B in FY2025, non-cash and below operating income (FACT).
- SG&A of about $3,868 per retail unit (INFERENCE — $2,308M divided by 596,641 units).
Revenue Streams
- Retail vehicle sales $14.54B, +50%, on 596,641 units at $24,365 each (FACT).
- Wholesale sales and revenues $4.05B, +43%, including marketplace fees (FACT).
- Other sales and revenues $1.73B, +51% — loan-sale gains about $1.2B plus commissions (FACT).
- Gross profit per retail unit $7,026 — retail $3,315, wholesale $806, other $2,905 (FACT).
- H1 2026 revenue $13.81B vs $9.07B (+52%) with 384,718 retail units (FACT).