Although with time, the economy recovered and again the business get back on the track, but you found some cars in the surplus amount that are selling at a slow pace.
Thinking even once to forget the slow-moving inventory is implausible. The imbalance in the inventory prevents the dealers to re-invest in the business to buy new cars and unnecessarily occupy the floor space.
This is the situation many auto dealers are facing in the USA.
There are many ways to turn the slow-moving inventory into the dealers’ advantage. By staying on the top the inventory you can make the right merchandising decision and can avoid the situation of having too much stock in the inventory. But, still, if it happens, then what to do.
Take a look at how you can protect the benefits from the inventory that’s piled up with the old cars.
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Ensure no bugs in vehicles listing
The listing plays an important role in catching the customers’ attention. That’s the reason they must be complete, compelling and error-free so that customers won’t turn away. Unluckily, the vehicle listing misses either vehicle description, vehicles’ photos or vehicle’s price, which makes the customers suspicious about the services the dealership offer.
Ensure that in new car listing and used car listing, no information should be missed as customers analyze these things carefully. The more attractive the listing would be, the more traffic would drive to the showroom and the faster the selling become.
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Start leasing the old cars
The vehicles that dealers found difficult to sell can be leased. Many times, the luxury cars that customers are not ready to buy due to budget issues, get ready to lease such cars at comparatively less monthly payment.
On an average, with leasing, the dealers can make up nearly 50% of the vehicles cost available in the stock. Additionally, the leasing makes the customers aware of the vehicle’s benefits and may convince them to give a try to the vehicle. When the dealers start targeting the potential leases of new vehicles, the lot of unsold cars begins rolling off.
The dealers can promote the unsold vehicles on the dealership websites and other third party websites to make more customers take interest in those cars. Make certain that the information listed must be accurate as it impacts your online reputation. Also, the dealers can set up the digital marketing campaigns for such cars to make them fly off the shelf swiftly. This is one of the excellent car dealer solutions.
The digital efforts are good to go with, but the sales team at the dealership is the first line of defense. Rewarding the team with gifts or cash for selling the slow-moving inventory cars is a great motivation that lets the old stuff get sold quickly.
When such instant bonus is declared, the difference in the pace at which the slow-moving inventory get out of the door can be easily observed.
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Bundle them with a discount
Ultimately, this is the sole idea that comes to every auto dealer’s mind that’s unload the slow-moving inventory by offering a discount on them. The dealers can run a flash sale site-wide to draw traffic to the store and pour in a sense of urgency in the customers to buy the car.
It’s a win-win situation for both dealers and customers. On the other hand, the discount must be designed strategically so that at the end the dealers should not be at loss after making the floor space free.
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Sell the vehicle with pre-owned certification
If your dealership’ used car inventory is also getting piled up, then selling them out with pre-owned certification is a good way to earn the good sum of dollars. The certification ensures the car’s quality and safety, and remove all the concerns that buyers may have while purchasing the used car. Moreover, the buyers are ready to pay more for buying a CPO vehicle.
The certification comes at a cost to the dealership, but the trivial investment really paid off when the inventory of used cars gets clear up.
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Leverage forecasting tools
Spending money on forecasting tools not just help the dealership to precisely know what they should order to keep the inventory full so that the customers’ demand can be met, while also inform about what’s the right time to move the slow-moving inventory. Selling the cars during the peak of season improve the chances of selling.
The last word
The automotive inventory management is a must have as shifting customers’ preferences leave the car dealers with imbalanced inventory where old vehicles outweigh the new order. But, the slow-moving inventory is not a severe situation, while if it’s smartly managed then making the inventory keep moving is not a big deal. Leverage the intelligent merchandising decisions to make the most out of the inventory.