An enquiry about a car that went on Tuesday
A buyer rings about the blue hatchback on a marketplace listing. It sold on Tuesday. The listing is still live because that marketplace gets a feed from a different provider, and the sold flag did not go through. The buyer is disappointed and slightly suspicious.
Meanwhile the used car manager dropped the price of an estate on Monday. Your website shows the new price. Another marketplace still shows the old one. A buyer quotes the higher price at the desk and asks why it is different.
Listings travel through several feeds
Most dealers send stock from the DMS or a stock management tool to the advertising sites through feed providers. Each site takes the feed on its own schedule, and some sites are updated by hand.
- Different sites get data from different feeds.
- Some listings were created by hand and are not on any feed.
- Feeds fail quietly, and nobody is told.
- Reservations may not be passed on at all.
Nobody checks all the sites against the DMS, because that means opening each one and searching.
Social catalogues and smaller marketplaces are the usual gaps. They were set up once, by someone who may have left, and have been running unchecked since.
What out-of-date listings cost
Buyers enquiring about sold cars waste their time and yours, and some feel misled. Listings with different prices on different sites cause awkward conversations and damage trust.
Advertising sites may also charge per listing or by stock volume, so sold cars left live can cost money, depending on your contracts.
Accurate listings matter beyond good manners. Advertising a car that is not available, or at a price you will not honour, is something your advisers would tell you to avoid.
How we build the listing check
- Each night and during the day, your DMS stock, status and prices are read.
- Your listings are read from each site you advertise on, through their dealer APIs or feeds where available, or from your own website's data.
- Every listing is matched to a stock record by registration or stock number.
- Mismatches are listed: sold or reserved but still live, price different, missing photos, or live with no stock record.
- Where the site's API allows, fixes are pushed automatically; otherwise the list goes to whoever manages advertising with links to each listing.
- A failed feed is spotted when many listings go stale at once, and the person responsible is alerted.
| Mismatch | Risk | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Sold but still live | Wasted enquiries | Remove through feed or by hand |
| Price differs | Buyer disputes | Update price |
| Reserved but not marked | Disappointed viewers | Mark reserved where the site allows |
| Live with no stock record | Hand-made listing forgotten | Check and remove |
What you advertise and at what price is your decision. The check makes sure every site shows what you decided.
Listings you can trust
Every morning the used car manager sees a short list of anything out of step, or an all clear. A sold car still live on any site is caught at the next check, not found by a buyer. A price change that did not reach a site shows up on the list. When a feed breaks, you hear about it that day, not from a buyer.
Is your advertising out of step?
- Buyers enquire about cars you have sold.
- Prices differ between sites.
- Some listings were created by hand and forgotten.
- Feed failures are discovered by customers.
- Nobody checks all sites against the DMS.