With the used-vehicle inventory shortage persisting, dealers must continue to look beyond traditional channels to source vehicles. But to give themselves the best chance at retailing those cars profitably, they’ll need to be highly strategic in which vehicles they purchase—and how much they pay. That’s why vAuto is launching Global Search this month, an enhancement to its flagship inventory-management solution, ProfitTime GPS.

The tool is designed to make it easier for dealers to find and acquire the right vehicles across numerous channels, ensuring that the inventory they bring in fits their strategy and enables them to generate the best return on investment.

“At vAuto, we are committed to helping dealers maximize returns on every vehicle—and one of the most effective ways to do that is to help them acquire the right vehicles at the right prices,” said Derek Hansen, vice president of Operations, Inventory Management Solutions, at Cox Automotive. “Global Search helps them do that and more by bringing together their dealership’s strategy with the largest pool of vehicles from multiple sources and actionable insights that only vAuto can provide.”

Fueled by the power of ProfitTime GPS’ investment-minded methodology, Variable Management, Cox says Global Search helps dealers set and execute a more profitable multichannel acquisition strategy with just a few clicks. It gives dealers access to nearly a million listings, ultimately enabling them to prioritize and purchase vehicles more strategically, establish the right exit strategy, and manage their performance across multiple channels from a single dashboard.

Highlights of Global Search include:

• Strategic omni-channel sourcing: Global Search surfaces highly targeted vehicles from a pool of nearly a million listings across seven  real-time sources, including auctions, a dealer’s service drive, Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer, lease returns, private party listings, missed appraisals and inventory from a group’s sister stores. Dealers can filter to see vehicles across all sources or in a specific channel.

• Deep customization: Dealers can leverage additional unique filters like Market Days Supply, strategy actions necessary to fill holes in their inventory, ProfitTime Score and more to generate relevant results that include only the vehicles most likely to be a profitable fit for their individual store’s strategy. They can also further narrow and refine their searches and then save those searches for the utmost efficiency.

• Process consistency and efficiency: Global Search helps dealers standardize their acquisition process, establishing pricing parameters and an approach for every channel being mined to ensure that everyone stays on strategy and invests their valuable time only on the vehicles with the highest potential. 

• Maximized performance: ProfitTime GPS clients are supported with an extensive network of highly trained performance managers who work closely with them on an ongoing basis to optimize their performance and results.

Current ProfitTime GPS dealers will gain access to Global Search at no additional cost. And with the addition of Stockwave, vAuto’s auction acquisition software, Global Search users will see additional insights that follow the vehicle to the point of purchase, including live simulcast auctions.

Dealers interested in learning more about ProfitTime GPS and Global Search are invited to visit the vAuto booth 1527W at the 2024 NADA Show in Las Vegas Feb. 2 to 4, reach out to their vAuto representative or visit vauto.com.