Cars.com Introduces Only Automatic Solution to Auto-Populate Options and Features Data for All Dealer Listings

CHICAGO – Car dealerships nationwide spend more than 30 hours per 100 vehicles manually filling out options and features details for the inventory on their lot.¹ Dealers unable to dedicate that painstaking time are left with lost sales and profit due to incomplete and inaccurate listings that showcase undervalued vehicles to consumers. As a result, shoppers eliminate these vehicles from their consideration set or miss them completely because they are not coming up in would-be relevant searches. Now, dealers can instantly, accurately, and completely populate these listings by opting into a free solution from the leading automotive digital solutions provider, Cars.com™ (NYSE: CARS).

Cars.com’s AutoCorrected™ is a free solution powered by CarStory’s VINspect™ and will be unveiled at the 2019 National Automobile Dealer Association Show (NADA). The new solution leverages AI technology to VIN decode and normalize a dealership’s data and detects merchandising errors on dealer listings, including trim, transmission and options. The result is an auto-population of inventory feeds with vehicle trim, spec, and feature data to maximize the value of each listing to ensure they can appear in feature-specific searches.

According to a recent case study with a dealership in Syracuse, NY, out of the more than 730 used units scanned on its lot, 37 percent had incorrect or missing options and features data listed. The errors cost the dealership approximately $66,750.² In looking at a group of 142 dealerships with approximately 17,500 total vehicles in their combined inventory, about 21 percent of the vehicles scanned from these dealerships had errors or omissions and total lost profits of more than $1.8 million. It was also found that correctly merchandised vehicles are forecasted to sell 14.3 days faster.³

“Dealers are losing sales every day due to cars being mislabeled as poor deals on other third-party sites when in reality it’s often just bad data,” said Alex Vetter, chief executive officer of Cars.com. “Consumers do not understand the true value of vehicles because the listings are missing critical information needed to make informed decisions. Car shoppers often look for specific features but when vehicles are not properly merchandised they are omitted all together from search results and dealers are missing out on potential profits. We are here to help dealers tell the full story with the right data and remove price as a point of friction in online sales.” 

AutoCorrected™ is free for all Cars.com customers to help reduce labor costs and maximize inventory value and visibility. Dealers interested in listing these complete inventory feeds to other platforms beyond Cars.com — such as their own website, technology, and digital advertising — will be able to export and sync AutoCorrected℠ inventory from the new Dealer Inspire® inventory management system, METAL™.

To learn more about Cars.com’s integrated solutions, visit GrowWithCars.com or visit the Cars.com/Dealer Inspire/DealerRater booth #2311S in the South Hall of the Moscone Center at the 2019 NADA Show in San Francisco from January 25-27.

¹CarStory case study with 142 dealers and 17,485 total vehicles, January 11, 2019

²CarStory case study with dealership in Syracuse, NY, January 13, 2019

³ CarStory case study with 142 dealers and 17,485 total vehicles, January 11, 2019