New tool helps dealers monitor quality of used cars in stock

 

Dealers can see online consumer interactions with vehicles for sale in real time thanks to a new tool being introduced by iVendi.

Called Real Time Analytics, it gives motor retailers the ability to see how many times a car, van and motorcycle has been viewed, alongside the number of finance quotes, checks and applications generated, as well the days in stock.

These metrics are updated on the screen as they occur, meaning a dynamic picture of what is happening to the vehicle is available, in addition of a suite of reports showing online interactions over time.

James Tew, CEO at the motor retail technology market leader said: “We see this as a means to bring some of the real-world visibility of the showroom into the virtual world.

A salesperson will know which vehicles on a physical forecourt are attracting interest and which are less popular purely because of the footfall generated. Real Time Analytics brings a high degree of that transparency into the online space.

“The information provided can be applied in many kinds of ways. If you can see that a particular vehicle is gathering clicks, you can buy more stock of that type.

If another is sticking on the forecourt, you can take a look at what might be done to move it on – whether that is pricing, better online images, the finance offer attached to it, or more.”

A key advantage, he added, was that while the data presented by the tool included days in stock, the new information enabled dealers to adopt an earlier, more dynamic approach to identifying which vehicles might prove difficult to sell.

“The majority of dealers use days-in-stock as a key measurement of retail success and there are good reasons for doing this around return on investment, the cost of stocking finance and more. However, the issue with that approach is that you don’t really know that a vehicle isn’t selling until it hasn’t sold.

“Being able to track real time interest in the manner offered by the new tool means that you gain a much better understanding more quickly. You won’t have to wait 45 days to see that consumers aren’t attracted to a vehicle because you’ll be able to see it in the first week or two of online activity. It’s an early warning system.”

Tew added that iVendi planned to build rapidly on the new tool with a range of enhancements that would provide a new degree of insight using real time data.

“This is a priority product for us because we don’t believe there is anything like it available elsewhere on the market. Eventually, we hope to reach a point where, when we have data about the buyer, such as through our Digital Deal tool, we’ll be able to link them directly to vehicles in real time and provide this information to the dealer.”