Inventory Importer: How to Automatically Import Inventory into DealerCenter

 

 

 

 

IN THIS ARTICLE:

1. Why Import Inventory into DealerCenter?
2. How to Get Started Importing Inventory
3. Option 1: One-time Migration
4. Option 2: Daily Migration

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Why Import Inventory into DealerCenter?

The inventory importer makes it easy to automatically import your vehicle inventory information into DealerCenter from another system. This includes photos and pricing data – and can often include mileage, cost, color, dealer notes, and more.

Having your inventory in DealerCenter unlocks the full potential of DealerCenter. It means you can do things like:

• Quickly associate a vehicle to a deal when you're doing a deal or even start a deal from a vehicle page.
• Automatically post vehicles out to online marketing sites and platforms like Facebook.
• Match leads and customers to vehicles currently in your inventory.
• Print out custom window stickers and hang tags.
• Use specialized finance tools like IMAXX to scan your inventory and instantly structure Westlake approvals for each vehicle.

These are just a few reasons why it's critical that you host your up-to-date inventory in DealerCenter. And that's why we've built an automatic process to pull inventory from other systems that our customers might be moving from or still using.

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How to Get Started Importing Inventory

To get started, go to Settings, then choose Inventory, then select the Inventory Importer tab. On this page, you'll first choose where you're going to be managing your inventory.

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Option 1: One-time Migration (Managing Inventory in DealerCenter)

The first step is to indicate where you’re going to be managing your inventory on a regular ongoing basis.

1. Under “Where do you plan to manage your inventory?” Choose DealerCenter.
   • To get the most out of DealerCenter, we recommend that you use DealerCenter to manage your inventory. This means DealerCenter will be where you add new inventory as you acquire it, input your pricing and costs info, run reports, and more.
2. Next, choose the system you’ll be importing inventory from.
3. Since you are using DealerCenter to manage inventory, you will typically only need to use this inventory import tool once since going forward you’ll be adding all vehicles directly into DealerCenter. Under “How often would you like to import inventory into DealerCenter?” select One Time.
4. Enter your dealership email address.
5. Next, let’s review the Inventory Update Settings.
6. For “Update information in existing DealerCenter inventory?”: You may already have some vehicles in DealerCenter – these vehicles may also be in the system you are importing from. In this case, we’ll update the vehicle record in DealerCenter – so items like price, cost, pictures will match. Select Yes to do this (Recommended).
   • Notice under Update existing vehicle you have the option to choose what data on the vehicle is updated.
7. For “DealerCenter status of vehicles removed from inventory import feed?”: If you currently have vehicles in DealerCenter that aren’t in the system you are importing from, the status of these vehicles can be left unchanged or the status of these vehicles can be set to Deleted or Sold.
8. The remaining settings allow you to set options for specific scenarios. For example, if a vehicle is associated with a deal in DealerCenter, the status will not be updated to Deleted or Sold during import updates from another system. Or you could have the options to only update existing DealerCenter inventory and not add new inventory when doing an import.
9. Once settings have been completed, select Save to finish.

Your current DMS or inventory management provider will be notified to establish an import feed. They may contact you to confirm this request. Once the feed is set up, you can expect to see your vehicles imported into DealerCenter the next day.

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Option 2: Daily Migration (Managing Inventory in Another System)

Some dealers use another system to manage inventory but rely on DealerCenter for their custom website, digital marketing needs, or its lender submission platform to send applications to banks. In this case, inventory added to their primary DMS system also needs to be regularly synced with DealerCenter.

The first step is to indicate where you’re going to be managing your inventory on a regular ongoing basis.

1. Under “Where do you plan to manage your inventory?” Choose Another System.
2. Next, choose the system you’ll be importing inventory from.
3. Since you are using another system to manage inventory, typically inventory added to your primary DMS system also needs to be synced with DealerCenter. Under “How often would you like to import inventory into DealerCenter?” select Automated Nightly Feed. This essentially means that every day a ‘master list’ of all vehicles in your current primary inventory system is sent to DealerCenter. This ensures that vehicle inventory in DealerCenter matches vehicle inventory in your primary system.
4. Enter your dealership email address.
5. Next, let’s review the Inventory Update Settings.
6. For “Update information in existing DealerCenter inventory?”: Again, to ensure that vehicle inventory in DealerCenter matches vehicle inventory in your primary system, we’ll update existing vehicle records in DealerCenter – so items like price, cost, pictures will match and add any new vehicle that has been added to your primary system. Select Yes to do this (Recommended).
   • Notice under Update existing vehicle you have the option to choose what data on the vehicle is updated.
7. For “DealerCenter status of vehicles removed from inventory import feed?”: When vehicle inventory is sent to DealerCenter, there are 2 scenarios to consider:
   1. 1. The vehicle being imported is already in DealerCenter, perhaps from the previous day’s import. Vehicle information such as price, mileage, or costs will always be updated in DealerCenter to reflect the latest information. However, the vehicle’s status in DealerCenter won’t change. If the vehicle’s status in DealerCenter was ‘In Inventory’ then the status will remain ‘In Inventory’.
      2. The vehicle being imported is already in DealerCenter, perhaps from the previous day’s import, but the vehicle is not included on today’s master inventory import list sent to DealerCenter. This could be because you sold or deleted the vehicle in your other system. In other words, there is now a vehicle in DealerCenter that isn’t in your primary inventory.
         • The “DealerCenter status of vehicles removed from inventory import feed?” setting allows you to decide what will happen by default in this situation. Choose whether this car’s status in DealerCenter should be left unchanged, be set to Sold status, or be set to Deleted.
8. The remaining settings allow you to set options for specific scenarios. For example, if a vehicle is associated with a deal in DealerCenter, the status will not be updated to Deleted or Sold during import updates from another system. Or you could have the options to only update existing DealerCenter inventory and not add new inventory when doing an import.
9. Once settings have been completed, select Save to finish.

Your current DMS or inventory management provider will be notified to establish an import feed. They may contact you to confirm this request. Once the feed is set up, you can expect to see your vehicles imported into DealerCenter the next day.

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Additional Resources and Support

DealerCenter provides extensive support and resources for all your inventory management needs. Reach out for more help or additional information to ensure best practices are followed.

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