Car Dealer Inventory Software

What to check before you buy

The choice between tools rests on the data behind them and on how they act. Check which market data sources feed each tool and how often prices refresh.

Does the tool write the new price to the website, the listing sites and the DMS, or does a person retype it? How are repricing rules set by age and type?

Ask what the manager sees on Monday morning: units over a set age, units priced out of market, units without photos. Then run a trial on a slice of inventory, with a control group.

Compare days to sale and gross per unit. Do not accept the vendor's count of recommendations taken.

Think about who acts on the recommendations. Name the person who reviews price changes each morning, the person who approves a wholesale decision and the person who checks photos and descriptions, and put those tasks on a schedule. A tool that generates good recommendations still produces nothing if nobody has time to approve them, and many stores find that the process matters more than the software.

Ask how the tool treats vehicles that do not fit a normal pattern, such as a low-mileage specialty vehicle, a unit with expensive aftermarket equipment or a car priced for a niche buyer. Pricing engines built on averages can misjudge these. Check that a manager can set the price strategy by vehicle and record a reason, and that the tool shows its comparable listings so the manager can judge whether they are truly comparable.

Also look at stocking, not only pricing. A good tool shows which models and trims sell fastest in your market, how many days of supply the market holds and which segments your lot over-represents, so buyers at auction can use it. Ask for a view that compares the lot to market demand, and run it against your last quarter's slowest sellers.

Questions to put to every car dealer inventory software vendor

• What is native versus an add-on?
• Which systems are the source of truth?
• Can the dealer export all records in a usable format?

Other categories dealers compare alongside Inventory management: Inventory merchandising, Reconditioning workflow, and Wholesale & auctions.