Your Inventory Merchandising Agent Gets Units Online While You Sell
The Inventory Merchandising Agent keeps every unit on your lot merchandised and priced against the market so your used car manager is not building listings between deals. The AgentWorks Inventory Merchandising Agent chases the photos, writes the descriptions, checks market comparables, flags aging units and tells interested shoppers when a price changes, while your sales team stays with the customers on the lot.
What it takes off your plate
Every used car manager knows how a unit comes online. It clears recon, and the listing goes live with a stock photo and a generic description because nobody has had time to shoot it. The real photos come days later, if the porter remembers. The description says "loaded" and misses the tow package, the new tires and the one-owner history that would have sold it.
Market comparables get checked by hand when someone has a minute, which in a busy store means rarely. Meanwhile every day the unit sits, floor plan interest accrues. Aged inventory is the silent profit killer nobody talks about until it goes to auction.
The cost is gross lost on units that should have turned, and a manager spending desk time on listings.
What the Inventory Merchandising Agent does, step by step
The Inventory Merchandising Agent starts with the communication:
- Chases the photos. When a unit is marked front-line ready in CDK Global, it texts the lot porter or photographer through Twilio with the stock number and follows up until real photos are uploaded.
- Asks for the details. It messages recon and the appraiser for what the listing needs: reconditioning done, tires, service records, equipment the build sheet does not show.
- Writes the listing. It drafts a description from the VIN build, the recon notes and the history, in plain language a shopper can scan, for the manager to approve.
- Checks the market. It compares each unit to similar vehicles listed nearby by year, trim and miles, and shows where your price sits.
- Flags aging units. As a unit reaches the age points your store sets, it sends the used car manager a recommendation to reprice, remerchandise or wholesale, with the comps and floor plan cost attached. The manager decides.
- Tells shoppers. When an approved price drop posts, it texts or emails customers in DealerSocket who asked about that unit or one like it, and hands any reply to a salesperson.
Then the data work: listing text, photos and price history are written back to the inventory record, and each shopper touch is logged in the CRM.
Where the work is recorded
An agent that cannot record its results is a chatbot. Every text, email and reply the Inventory Merchandising Agent sends to a shopper lands on that customer's record in the CRM your team already sees, so a salesperson who picks up the lead knows which unit they asked about and what they were told. The photos, description, price changes and approvals live on the unit in your DMS.
The next morning, the used car manager sees one list: units still waiting on photos, listings waiting for approval, units priced above the market, aging units with a recommendation next to each, and shoppers who replied overnight. A price drop that brings a lead back only pays if someone answers it, which is why this pairs with owning the first minute of every web lead and fixing speed-to-lead in the BDC.
What your people do instead
Your used car manager works deals and appraisals instead of writing listings and hunting for comps. Your salespeople walk customers across the lot and handle the test drives, with a shopper's history in front of them when a price drop brings them back. Your porter shoots photos on a clear list instead of guessing which unit is next.
Customers see real photos and honest descriptions, and arrive knowing what they came to buy.
Customer service and customer satisfaction are the human job. The AgentWorks Inventory Merchandising Agent keeps the photos, listings, pricing checks and shopper updates moving so your people can focus on the customer in front of them.
One next step
Not sure whether merchandising is the first workflow to hand over? The free Industry Assessment looks at your sales, BDC and service work and shows which workflow an agent should take first. You can see every dealership agent on the automotive industry page.
See where the Inventory Merchandising Agent would start in your automotive business.
I'm Buck, the Automotive ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
Buck replies from automotive@agentworksstudio.com. One email with the link — no list, no drip, unless you ask for the weekly letter. Or go straight there →