The history of Inventory+ provides a glimpse into why it’s a profit-driven inventory management solution built for dealers.
Inventory+ is a pricing, merchandising, and syndication machine, but at its core, it is powered by the Ideal Inventory Model™, an algorithm that focuses on profit per day. It is also the culmination of multiple tools and products that have led it to become as powerful as it is today. Since its inception, it has been a tool to help dealers manage their inventory from acquisition to disposition with a focus on increasing front-end profit for dealerships.
Inventory+ uses data-driven analytics to deliver quick answers about vehicles in a dealer’s inventory and market to help make informed stocking and pricing decisions. More importantly, its focus on inventory — from acquisition to disposition — is designed to drive profits for dealerships.
It was the foundation of two inventory software platforms — AAX and eCarList — that formed Inventory+.
Simplifying Vehicle Listings
The founder of eCarList, Len Critcher, had a dealership that sold vehicles entirely online. Although online sales were taking off, there was a lack of efficient software tools to create vehicle listings. The task at the time was manual and quite tedious.
Determined to simplify the process, Len, aided by a software developer, crafted a listing tool that housed information vital to online vehicle sales, such as photos, descriptions, and prices. The tool would then load that information onto third-party vehicle-shopping sites.
Len’s online car sales took off, and he quickly recognized that his tool could be adapted for use by other dealerships. The software developer moved into some extra office space at a shipping company in suburban Dallas, and eCarList, an automotive inventory and marketing software company, was born.
While eCarList was getting started, a shipping brokerage handled the shipment needs for over 200 dealers. It was realized that another essential tool for dealers could be included within eCarList – transportation management. Thus, a feature was added that allowed dealers to notify their shipping company when a vehicle was sold and ready for transport.
The majority of the dealerships served by the shipping brokerage were among the first to sign up for eCarList. It enabled their cars to be posted online faster, and they were excited that they could just click a button within the software, and an 18-wheeler would be sent to pick up their car.
As the software technology grew, the shipping business was exited, and eCarList saw the debut of one of its most popular enhancements, the TrueTarget™ mobile app, which allowed users to appraise, price, and manage inventory on the go.
AAX + eCarList
Both eCarList and AAX emerged in the early 2000s, when online retailing was in its infancy. Many features that appealed to dealers then continue to appeal to them now, though these features have been enhanced and refined.
One of AAX’s major strengths was its integration with a dealership management system to analyze past sales transactions and determine which vehicle makes, models, and trim levels sell fastest and for the most profit.
Those vehicles made up a dealership’s Ideal Inventory Model and still do.
Dealertrack Technologies integrated the products after acquiring AAX in 2009 and eCarList in 2011.
Using technology to enhance dealership profits isn’t a new notion for DealerSocket. So, in 2015, Inventory+ became part of DealerSocket’s suite of products.
Taking Inventory Management to the Next Level
Since then, particularly in 2019 and 2020, many new features have been released, and the software has been placed on a new platform. Inventory+ now has a new look and feel. It is nimble, intuitive, and easy to use, whether working with inventory at a single rooftop or across hundreds of dealerships.
Users can set up and save workflows for daily tasks, reducing the time to complete those tasks from hours to minutes, something that couldn’t be done in previous versions of the tool.
One dealer group describes the user experience as “frictionless.”
The enhanced pricing tool allows dealers to work faster and smarter. They can apply pricing rules to their inventory in bulk based on actual incentives from automakers while keeping an eye on other factors such as market conditions and competitors’ advertised prices in relation to MSRP.
In fact, one dealer repriced vehicles by exterior color as part of a Memorial Day promotion, discounting the prices of red, white, and blue vehicles in a matter of minutes.
Using the tool, the dealer searched for and pulled up red vehicles, hit “select all,” and updated their prices simultaneously. The same was done for white and blue vehicles, all within five minutes.
Additional Enhancements
Here are just some of the many Inventory+ enhancements made over the past year:
- The Ideal Inventory Model is more accurate and shows in greater detail how a dealership performs with similar vehicles being appraised, held in inventory, or considered for acquisition at auction. The goal is to show vehicle profit potential.
- Updated algorithms and data-cleansing technology enable better and more accurate snapshots of a dealership’s inventory, sales history with that inventory, and which vehicles are profitable.
- A new market graph, released earlier this year, provides greater visibility about price in the market by answering questions such as how a vehicle’s price in the market compares with its MSRP and how the price of a vehicle at a dealership compares with prices of similar vehicles at competitors. The graph also details how many of a specific vehicle competitors have for sale versus the number of similar vehicles in stock.
- Absolute Sourcing, also released this year, streamlines acquisitions by searching for and serving up ideal inventory matches missed during recent appraisals, available for trade at sister stores (if the dealership is part of a group), and available at auction.
- Inventory+ is now participating in General Motors’ Dealer Vehicle Inventory Management (DVIM) program, allowing GM dealerships using the inventory management tool to syndicate inventory to GM-participating website providers and programs, including the automaker’s Shop-Click-Drive e-commerce tool.
Since the early 2000s, software has been created to drive profitability at dealerships. In the past two years, innovation has accelerated. Now, more than ever, dealers need to evaluate their vendors and ask: Are they helping or competing against them?