DealerCom posting other dealers prices on our website - anybody else having this problem?

[Sharko]

We have an ongoing issue with DealerDotCom that we've run out of options for, so I'm looking for any tips.

Quick background: on a limited basis, our dealership uses "shared inventory counts" among other same-make dealerships. For this reason, the inventory of all participating dealers, and more to the point, their inventory numbers, are counted alongside our own. For example, our site might say that we have 150 Camry's in stock; but that could mean 50 of our own and the other 100 comes from the other dealers.

Typically, while those vehicles are shown to the shopper, the other dealers' prices don't (READ: SHOULDN'T) reflect on our site, but they do.

It's not an option for us to get out of the shared inventory program (even though that's what the DDC rep. suggested to us today by way of a "solution" - Can't wait to pass that one on.), but to somehow deal with this problem with the vendor.

We've had to do deals recently where it wasn't so good for us because the customer came in with a print-out of the price from our own website, but the pricing is at a level that was good for another dealer for their own reasons, but not for us.

See: BIG PROBLEM.

Any tips for how to get our vendor to pay-attention to this very serious issue? We've talked with the rep. on several occasions but to no avail.

Thanks.

 

[Rick Buffkin]

Is all the inventory coming over in the same data feed? If it is, is there an identifier in the feed for your inventory? If there is an identifier, the inventory team should be able to break up the incoming file. Place your inventory in a seperate inventory folder / Class. Ex: commercial, exotic, wholesale or create an new inventory class for your inventory. I use all of my inventory classes (commercial, wholesale, new, exotic). Example: I can't show discounts on my new scion vehicles while all my new toyotas have discounts. The vehicles are in the same feed, so I have my scions filtered out to go to my commercial inventory folder. I just created a seperate menu link for that folder. There has to be an identifier somewhere in the file that they are receiving. My inventory is pretty complex and those guys ( DDC inventory team) have delivered every time.

 

[Jlewis74]

Are the units that are not on your lot part of your dealer group or just other stores in the area? I have never heard of putting other dealers inventory on your website unless they are part of the same group and easy to get brought to your lot.

 

[Sharko]

Is all the inventory coming over in the same data feed? If it is, is there an identifier in the feed for your inventory? If there is an identifier, the inventory team should be able to break up the incoming file. Place your inventory in a seperate inventory folder / Class. Ex: commercial, exotic, wholesale or create an new inventory class for your inventory. I use all of my inventory classes (commercial, wholesale, new, exotic). Example: I can't show discounts on my new scion vehicles while all my new toyotas have discounts. The vehicles are in the same feed, so I have my scions filtered out to go to my commercial inventory folder. I just created a seperate menu link for that folder. There has to be an identifier somewhere in the file that they are receiving. My inventory is pretty complex and those guys ( DDC inventory team) have delivered every time.

Thanks, Rick. I'll forward your tips to DDC. This is their problem to solve and I hope this helps. Thanks, again.

 

[Sharko]

Are the units that are not on your lot part of your dealer group or just other stores in the area? I have never heard of putting other dealers inventory on your website unless they are part of the same group and easy to get brought to your lot.

Hi - it's part a group, just not a dealer group. The issue isn't that it's happening, b/c that's what is supposed to happen, the issue is that it's broken.

Thanks so much and I hope to find an answer to deliver to DDC b/c the rep. says that their techs. can't figure it out.

 

[joe.pistell]

We have an ongoing issue with DealerDotCom that we've run out of options for, so I'm looking for any tips.

Quick background: on a limited basis, our dealership uses "shared inventory counts" among other same-make dealerships. For this reason, the inventory of all participating dealers, and more to the point, their inventory numbers, are counted alongside our own. For example, our site might say that we have 150 Camry's in stock; but that could mean 50 of our own and the other 100 comes from the other dealers.

Typically, while those vehicles are shown to the shopper, the other dealers' prices don't (READ: SHOULDN'T) reflect on our site, but they do.

It's not an option for us to get out of the shared inventory program (even though that's what the DDC rep. suggested to us today by way of a "solution" - Can't wait to pass that one on.), but to somehow deal with this problem with the vendor.

We've had to do deals recently where it wasn't so good for us because the customer came in with a print-out of the price from our own website, but the pricing is at a level that was good for another dealer for their own reasons, but not for us.

See: BIG PROBLEM.

Any tips for how to get our vendor to pay-attention to this very serious issue? We've talked with the rep. on several occasions but to no avail.

Thanks.

Sam,

Your store is part of a regional dealer group. Your regional dealer group did a significant study and found that when comparing 2 nearly identical dealers, the dealer with more inventory had more repeat visits, more Time On Site, more VDPs viewed, had a higher lead to VDP ratio... basically, all engagement metrics were better. We all do dealer trades and your regional dealer group simply is leveraging this for everyone's benefit. DDC was asked to merge all the inventory for members of the group.

What you'd like is a custom request where: [if inventory on my site = not mine, then replace price with "call us"]. I can look into this. If this is what you'd like, let me know. But, you should talk to your team and discuss how this will cost you sales and ups.

Uncle Joe Rule #156: Everytime you solve a problem in business, it' creates a NEW problem. Success is measured by the NEW problem being SMALLER than the old problem

I totally understand the frustration of a manager being forced into taking a short deal, after its done, he wants to choke someone. IMO, before you react to this stimulus, your team needs to explore and discuss the OPPORTUNITY COST of having prices removed on your shared inventory. You will have less calls, less repeat visits, less leads, less ups, etc... He needs to see a report on how many leads and ups come in from shared inventory. The "call us solution" is going to reduce the lead count that lead source.

Also consider the business environment you're in. Should your store have a business slump, then "turning on" prices from shared inventory would be a great idea.

That being said, he may not care about a business impact study and just wants it done. Either way, let me know how you'd like to proceed.


Joe
p.s. I just thought of this. If this solution is your idea to solve the frustration you observed (i.e. the solution was not proposed by the GSM/GM/Dealer) then you owe it to them to deliver your fully vetted proposal prior to deploying it.

 

[Chris Cachor]

I'm assuming the problem is that the inventory data is shared and not duplicated. Since most of the data stored is usually relational, it's a simple add rooftop 1, 2, and 3 onto site 1. If all the sites are through DDC, that's going to screw the other guys prices up. To get around this, I see two solutions:

1. Duplicate the data from the other stores to your site and remove their prices.
2. If the site has the ability to override a default inventory template, then add logic around price to show/hide based on the rooftop/store.

It's a unique configuration that goes against some pretty fundamental assumptions of how these sites should be put together, so I understand the problem. I also assume it's a shared codebase so this can throw a wrench in the structure/logic of the project as well. I would go with option #1 if at all possible.

 

[john.quinn]

We've had to do deals recently where it wasn't so good for us because the customer came in with a print-out of the price from our own website, but the pricing is at a level that was good for another dealer for their own reasons, but not for us.

If a customer comes into my store and wants to buy a vehicle from me that's sitting on another dealer's lot, isn't that "found" business? As in extra business I would not have had, no matter at what price point? Didn't I basically just grab a deal from another dealer?

I'm not sure I understand the problem.

 

[joe.pistell]

If a customer comes into my store and wants to buy a vehicle from me that's sitting on another dealer's lot, isn't that "found" business? As in extra business I would not have had, no matter at what price point? Didn't I basically just grab a deal from another dealer?

I'm not sure I understand the problem.

Big John,

Some managers score themselves on their ability to control their marketplace (read: high Gross PVR). Maybe our manager had got his butt handed to him last month and needs more Gross.

Like you, I am concerned the added sales from the extra 100 Camry's on his site may go un-noticed (until a shopper walks in with a print out and refuses look at anything else).

I'm not here to tell anyone how to run their store, I'm just making sure that they understand the likelihood that they'll have less leads & sales when they "fix" this problem.

 

[craigh]

This as an interesting situation.
I agree with what Joe said about the leads dropping - we recently removed Call for Price vehicles from all our websites for a similar reason.

That said, if you are bound and determined that this has to happen, I would see if you can find a way to temporarily disable them so they can see what happens when they do, what % of each VLP suddenly has no prices, etc. I had stats to show that VLPs with over 50% of the vehicles not having prices had a bounce rate that was through the roof and 5% of users made it to a VLP past that one.