Digital solutions can help drive success in one of a dealership’s most challenging areas
For some dealers, inventory can either be a blessing or a curse. Have the right vehicles in stock and you can often move metal off your lot quickly and efficiently, providing quick turnaround and often a tidy profit. End up with inventory that sits for a long time and is difficult to sell and it hurts the bottom line.
The question is; how do you find the right balance? While there’s no crystal ball to predict what kinds of vehicles customers will buy, and in what frequency, a number of different virtual strategies and solutions available in the market today can help dealers maximize results from their inventory.
But with so much competition in the market, both in terms of new and used vehicles, how can dealers effectively manage their time and inventory as well as providing quality personal service in the online world?
Tools for the job
Companies such as Strathcom Media, ADP and DealerTrack have all been instrumental in providing dealers across Canada with the tools needed to effectively manage inventory.
Strathcom’s approach has been to offer an Easy Loader Vehicle Management System. This setup is designed to allow a dealership to monitor and control its entire inventory through a true single point entry system with links to multiple sites and portals for maximum exposure. In addition, automated speech software allows dealers to record a specific human voice to introduce an individual vehicle and highlight its features through online classifieds, which is seen by many as creating a stronger connection between dealer and consumer, increasing the likelihood of a transaction, thus reducing the time said vehicle is held in inventory.
Another aspect that’s helping dealers stay ahead of the curve is the ability to locate the exact vehicle a customer is looking for at short notice. While it’s common practice today to provide tools that allow consumers to build and price a vehicle according to their requirements online, the ability to actually locate a specific vehicle within a matter of minutes and have it delivered to the customer or assigned to inventory can pay huge dividends.
A case study in the US by Zebra Enterprise Solutions, in which WhereNet’s WhereSoft vehicle inventory management system was employed by Ford Motor Company highlighted the effectiveness of such programs. Not only were dealers able to locate specific cars or trucks to fulfill individual customer needs, within seconds instead of hours, direct from the assembly plant; they could also quickly discover which vehicles were available for release and which were still on hold for quality control issues, expediting the process. From a dealer perspective, the potential in cost savings and also customer satisfaction from such programs is huge.
Complete package
But while such features are well and good, perhaps an even more important aspect is finding a complete package that provides a simple, integrated approach to vehicle inventory management that’s cost effective and easy to set up.
That’s something that DealerTrack has been working on. Last summer DealerTrack acquired Trade Tracker, a Mississauga, Ontario based company that provides a systematic web-based appraisal system for dealers; one that was conceived as both easy to use and accurate, allowing them to keep comprehensive records of every vehicle appraisal, stock inventory and trade-in, as well as effective follow up tools for managers and sales reps at the dealership.
This MVDA 2010-compliant software tool was acquired in the interests of strengthening DealerTrack’s complete inventory management solution programs, which incorporate real time data information access to help keep the inventory process running as smoothly as possible. It’s this kind of approach that will likely prove beneficial for the online vehicle management solutions providers and their dealer clients, as well as the end user; the retail customer.
