Earlier this year, CarMax CEO Bill Nash told investors the used-vehicle retail giant will dive even further into using digital tools to source cars and trucks directly from consumers and dealers.

It's a crucial strategy, Nash said, as tapping into the method of buying direct appears to lower the company's acquisition costs, supplies it with profitable wholesale volume and gives it a more robust vehicle selection.

Nash, 53, has led CarMax through a year in which it continues to ramp up that direct buying. The company purchased about 362,000 vehicles from consumers and dealers in the three months ended May 31, its first quarter. It purchased 343,000 in its second quarter ended Aug. 31.

In that first quarter, 17,000 of those purchases were conducted through MaxOffer, the company's digital appraisal product for dealers. That number grew again in the second quarter, when the company purchased about 20,000 vehicles through MaxOffer. That is up 130 percent from the prior year's quarter.

The MaxOffer buys are absolutely more profitable than buying off-site, Nash said earlier this year.

MaxOffer is live in more than 40 markets , and Nash expects the company to launch it in more markets through fiscal year 2023.

The company leverages its independent Edmunds sales team — the automotive research and vehicle-listings company it acquired in 2021 — to open new markets and sign up new dealers for MaxOffer.

"We have plenty of opportunity to continue to expand it," Nash said. "Edmunds has thousands of dealers that they work with. Our auctions, we have thousands of dealers. So we think there's a lot of potential here."

Nash became CarMax's CEO in 2016 after working his way up from an auction manager role in 1997. The retailer is No. 1 on Automotive News' list of the top 100 retailers ranked by used-vehicle sales.