What is IoT-Enabled Dealer Inventory Management?

Dealership inventory management solutions utilize IoT-enabled location and connectivity technologies to remotely track and monitor cars on dealership lots. Also called smart inventory management or lot tracking, these solutions reduce the manpower needed to maintain vehicles on the lot, reduce waiting time for customers looking to buy or test-drive, and prevent the theft and misuse of inventory.

Value Proposition

The average new car dealership sells more than 1500 new and used cars and trucks in a year, that’s a lot of cars to keep track of. Totaling millions of dollars in inventory, these cars have to be continuously monitored and tracked as they move around the lot for maintenance, test-drives, and storage.

How it Works

Dealership inventory management solutions tag cars when they enter a dealership’s inventory and tracks each car’s location in real-time, enabling dealership staff to check in on a car’s location at any time.

These solutions can automatically update a car’s status through geofencing as a car moves off the lot for a test drive or is moved into the maintenance bay – streamlining communications, allowing sales staff to find the car exactly when they need it, and preventing theft or misuse.

In addition to location tracking, dealer inventory management solutions can collect useful data on car usage and popularity, allowing dealerships to analyze real-time trends in which cars are taken for test drives, or at what rate they enter and leave inventory.

IoT-Enabled dealership inventory management solutions provide dealership owners a way to remotely monitor and track inventory, collect metrics on usage, and maintain cars while lowering the labor cost of running diagnostics and managing inventory. This can mean alerting staff when a car needs a new battery or oil change, or sending automated updates when a car leaves the lot or is checked out for a test drive.

Key Benefits of IoT-Enabled Dealership Inventory Management

• Use predictive maintenance to monitor car upkeep and receive alerts when vehicles need maintenance or upkeep.
• Track vehicles in real-time on and off of the lot to prevent theft and to enable sales teams to get cars into customer’s hands faster.
• Collect usage data to see exactly which cars or models are seeing the most test drives, even if they’re not being purchased.