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What do you want out of your Inventory Tool?

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#21
Brian Tucker said:
V-auto uses auto writer for the automated "blurbs" and you can choose how detail you want the paragraph. We recently started using a new process for listing vehicles online because v-auto is making the new process sustainable with the time constraints we have implemented. This is a example of one I did with auto writer and posted on Swopetoyota.com
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Good God BT,

Look at that photo booth. You made some mods to it since you showed me?

QUESTION TO THE GROUP: Guess how many miles are on the BMW?
 
#25
JoePistell said:
If ever there was a photo booth that would show a zillion flaws, it's BT's booth.

BT, do you have to wash the tire treads and dry them each and every time you roll one in there???
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Nope, we roll out the red carpet for our cars because they are stars :)
in other words we have a rug that we drive them over and that seems to work pretty well. From time to time we have to mop the floor but that's about it.
 
#27
Re: universal data export standard for inventory tools?

JoePistell said:
This topic is totally overlooked and rich with opportunities.

  • the dealer' s Inventory tool should be the hub of their inventory marketing. The tool exports to:
    • Dealer's home site
    • Dealer's Sattelite sites
    • 3rd party paid classified sites
    • 3rd party free classified sites
  • every vehicle a dealer has for sale is advertisement.
    • More vehicles = more ads = more marketshare.
    • The more units you have, the more leverage you'll get from the inventory tool.
PROBLEM: The options information is bought from 3rd parties and these option descriptions are just awful.
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Hi @ all,

first post of mine at this magnificent website/forum, probably the first post from Europe?

I do have a specific question on the topic quoted "upstairs":



Does anyone over here know if there is an existing standard for data export from inventory pages like eBizautos, lotWizard, VINsolution, etc. into
  • Dealer's home site
  • Dealer's Sattelite sites
  • 3rd party paid classified sites
  • 3rd party free classified sites
like for example .html, .xlsx, .docx , etc.?

What do I mean in the "real world"?

1. I do have some cars listed in my inventory tool
2. I want to export data, e.g. to autotrader.com
3. Which, if any, data standard is used to export such information?
4. Are 3rd party paid classified sites usually programmed the same way, so exporting such data is an easy process?

Really appreciate any input whatsoever,
just in case my post is considered to be in the wrong section I would kindly ask the moderators to move it into the correct one.

Thank you very much

Florian
 
#28
JoePistell said:
I don't want any improvements to the invenotry tools out here. I like identifying & exploiting inefficiencies, all made possible, thanks to players... asleep at the wheel.
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Joe, it has been over two years. Is it any harder to identify inefficiencies? With Internet related expenses going up, dealerships continue to cut back. Asleep at the wheel? Rigor might be setting in.
 
#29
ddavis said:
Joe, it has been over two years. Is it any harder to identify inefficiencies? With Internet related expenses going up, dealerships continue to cut back. Asleep at the wheel? Rigor might be setting in.
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DD, nothing has changed.

VIN explosions are but the beginning, you still need a sharp data person out there looking at each unit, digging thru the options and recording them all. I hope my competitors cut costs and hand it off to the boyz in cleanup.

Management gets out... what they put in.

Half-assed is as half-assed does.
 
#30
Does anyone over here know if there is an existing standard for data export from inventory pages like eBizautos, lotWizard, VINsolution, etc. into
  • Dealer's home site
  • Dealer's Sattelite sites
  • 3rd party paid classified sites
  • 3rd party free classified sites
like for example .html, .xlsx, .docx , etc.?

What do I mean in the "real world"?

1. I do have some cars listed in my inventory tool
2. I want to export data, e.g. to autotrader.com
3. Which, if any, data standard is used to export such information?
4. Are 3rd party paid classified sites usually programmed the same way, so exporting such data is an easy process?
Click to expand...

There is no standard export file/method unfortunately. Homenet has their XML api and also allow text feed exports. It's simply a pipe delimited file with all their active inventory dump. The API allows much more options and customization, as well as incremental updating. From what I understand, Dealer Specialties also has text files but I'm not sure if thats the current delivery method.

It would be great to have a standardized export format, but I highly doubt that will ever happen. Even the ADF/XML standard I've seen deviated from quite a bit :(
 
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