Long gone are the days when dealers had to choose between a rock and a hard place when it came to dealership software. There are numerous great options on the market today, which means dealers have a new challenge: Choosing the right tools for them.
Pricing and appraisal tools are some of the most important in a dealership’s arsenal. Without accurate market and inventory data, you could be losing profit, customers, or both.
Two of the most popular services are Inventory+ and VINCUE, and both tools do so much more than just appraisals. In this article, we will compare Inventory+ and VINCUE to help you decide which one is right for you.
See how VINCUE stacks up to other tools like vAuto, Vin Viper, CDK Global, and Autoniq
What is Inventory+?
Inventory+ is an appraisal, pricing, and merchandising tool from DealerSocket. It was acquired from DealerTrack in 2015 and has since been integrated with DealerSocket’s popular CRM and DMS.
Inventory+ lives inside DealerSocket’s suite of tools that includes:
- CRM
- DMS
- Sales and Marketing
- Website management
Both franchises and independent/bhph dealerships use Inventory+ for tasks like inventory management and marketing.
What is VINCUE?
VINCUE is a marketing intelligence and inventory management platform from DealerCue. Founded in 2015, DealerCue is one of the newer players in the auto industry. However, VINCUE has quickly earned the trust of franchises and independents alike, as well as OEMs.
VINCUE is closely integrated with the DealerCue suite:
- RevCue: Website and inventory management
- BidCue: Sourcing and auctions
- AdCue: Automated advertising and merchandising
VINCUE is known for its highly-accurate market data and affordable price point. DealerCue continues to evolve and has big changes planned for 2019.
Comparing Inventory+ and VINCUE
Thanks to their powerful integrations, Inventory+ and VINCUE are both highly capable tools that help dealers sell more vehicles and maximize their profits.
Let’s look at how Inventory+ and VINCUE compare on individual features:
Market data
VINCUE is a market intelligence tool first and foremost. By analyzing over 40,000 data sources daily, VINCUE provides real-time industry data for any dealer in any market.
VINCUE also provides in-depth competitive analysis. Want to know your competitor’s best-selling vehicles? VINCUE allows dealers to view the sales and inventory data of any dealership in the country.
Inventory+ also has a market data tool– TrueTarget– that combines data from AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, and ebay Motors. TrueTarget factors in industry metrics from NADA, Black Book, Kelley Blue Book, Galves, and CARFAX, as well as auction transactions from around the country.
Both tools allow dealers to follow sales trends on the local, regional, and national level. However, VINCUE takes the cake for their competitive analysis chops.
Vehicle Appraisals
VINCUE provides highly-accurate and customizable vehicle appraisals using real-time data and local market intelligence. Dealers can adjust appraisal values based on mileage, condition, desired margin, and estimated reconditioning costs. VINCUE provides both wholesale appraised values and market retail values.
VINCUE also provides historical sales data for each vehicle. All of this data can be accessed on a desktop or through VINCUE’s mobile app.
The Inventory+ appraisal tool is called TrueScore. TrueScore uses transactional data and historical data to develop appraisal values. Like VINCUE, Inventory+ provides historical sales data to help dealers make better decisions.
Inventory+ also comes with Appraisal Central, a centralized inventory and appraisal feature for dealer groups. This is a great tool if you want to aggregate information across multiple dealerships.
Inventory management
Inventory data is often overlooked by dealers, but it’s an incredibly powerful tool for improving your business.
VINCUE connects with your preferred DMS to track sales, acquisitions, and inventory levels. Dealers can slice up their inventory data in any way they like: by inventory age, best selling vehicles, vehicle segment, and much more. Beautiful graphics make the data actionable and easy to analyze.
Despite the name, Inventory+ does not actually manage inventory. That job is performed by the DealerSocket DMS, which integrates with Inventory+. The DealerSocket DMS tracks sales, inventory, payments, and more.
Inventory+ integrates with other DMS’s as well, but their integrations are rather lightweight compared to the integrations between VINCUE and DMSs.
Advertising and merchandising
Advertising is a big challenge for small and mid-sized dealers, who can’t compete with the large marketing budgets of dealer groups. That’s why DealerCue created AdCue.
AdCue creates customized ads and targets the perfect audience in just two clicks. Ads are shared across the Google Display Network, which means your ads aren’t competing with others on 3rd party sites.
AdCue will soon integrate directly with VINCUE and will be upgraded with several new features.
Inventory+ does not have a programmatic advertising feature like AdCue. However, it does have strong merchandising features: Media Manager, Description Builder, and Online Inventory Distribution. Dealers can easily create new listings and share listings to 3rd party sites.
Sourcing
Sourcing is the foundation of any successful dealership. Profitable sourcing is the result of accurate data and access to great vehicles. VINCUE gives dealers both.
VINCUE allows dealers to participate in online auctions without leaving the application. Search for specific vehicles, locate them at auction, and participate in multiple auctions simultaneously.
VINCUE shows you local and national auctions to provide a one-stop sourcing solution. Dealers can utilize VINCUE’s real-time market and inventory data to make informed purchasing decisions.
Absolute Sourcing from Inventory+ offers many of the same features as VINCUE. Dealers can participate in online auctions, follow up on missed appraisals, and make in-group acquisitions. Absolute Sourcing pulls data from Inventory+ and DealerSocket DMS.
Reporting
Both VINCUE and Inventory+ provide a wide range of reporting on sales, marketing, inventory, and more.
VINCUE has a unique report card feature that gives dealers a snapshot look at their business’s overall health.
Inventory+’s Marketing Health Report measures the effectiveness of ads and merchandising.
Pricing
Perhaps the biggest difference between VINCUE and Inventory+ is the price.
According to Capterra, DealerSocket starts at $750/month. Many Capterra reviews say that the cost is not worth the value you get with the tool.
With VINCUE, you get the same features with better market data for just a fraction of the cost. Plus, the cost doesn’t change based on the size of your dealership. VINCUE is an exceptional value for dealerships of any size.
Inventory+ vs. VINCUE: Which Tool is Right for you?
Inventory+ is a popular pricing/appraisal/DMS/CRM tool designed for larger dealerships. They have a large audience but a high price point that might not work for small and mid-sized dealers.
VINCUE offers the same functionality as Inventory+ but for a fraction of the cost. It is easy to set up and integrates with your favorite DMS and CRM. VINCUE is great for any size dealership, but the price point makes it most valuable for small and mid-sized dealers.
If you want to give VINCUE a try, contact us to schedule a demo.
