IMS · Integration research

Dealer Specialties + AutoScope

Put the inventory you have behind the marketing you run.

Plan my Dealer Specialties connection →Explore the workflow ↓

Where it fits

Keep your tools.
Connect the useful parts.

Dealer Specialties in your stack

Vehicle photography, data and inventory merchandising.

Keep your inventory platform in charge of the vehicle record. AutoScope’s integration plan uses approved inventory information to align campaign priorities, merchandising and availability.

For Dealer Specialties, begin with merchandising completeness: approved vehicle data, photography and the readiness of each listing for promotion.

Inventory changes faster than a campaign brief. Vehicles arrive, pricing changes, photos become available and units sell while ads are still running. A useful connection gives the marketing team an agreed view of what can be promoted and makes the timing of that view clear.

Dealer Specialties · Example workflow

Photography and listing completeness

Illustrative scenario, not a customer case study or a claim of a deployed connection.

The dealership question

New arrivals are on the lot, but some listings still lack the information needed for accurate promotion.

How we would approach it

Review authorized vehicle data and photography against a dealership-defined merchandising checklist. Confirm that each asset belongs to the right vehicle and may be reused.

The useful output

A vehicle-by-vehicle readiness list that helps the store prioritize missing photos or listing details before campaign launch.

The first review should be small enough for your team to inspect the underlying records. Once the result is reliable, additional sources or stores can be assessed against the same acceptance criteria.

A practical integration plan

From available data
to a useful workflow.

01 · THE WORKFLOW

Start with the decision.

Identify vehicles worth a campaign review; align ad messaging with published pricing; flag sold or unavailable units before the next campaign update.

Start with a vehicle cohort the store wants to review, such as a model group, aging stock or recently merchandised arrivals. Check availability and approved pricing before developing campaign recommendations. Keep the dealer’s decision to promote a vehicle separate from the feed that describes it; a feed should not become an automatic instruction to change budget or price.

02 · THE INFORMATION

Scope the right fields.

VIN or stock number, make, model, year, price, availability, listing assets and permitted inventory-age fields.

Use VIN and stock number carefully: a stock number may be reused, and a vehicle may move between stores. Include the dealership and last-updated time in the match. Keep published price separate from internal cost or appraisal information. Photo and description reuse depends on the rights attached to those assets, not merely whether a URL appears in a feed.

03 · THE CONNECTION

Confirm access first.

Confirm feed rights, field ownership, photo permissions, update cadence and sold-unit handling. Pricing decisions stay with your dealership.

Confirm whether the authorized source is an API, inventory feed or export, and whether it includes incremental changes or a complete stock snapshot. Agree on the meaning of a missing vehicle. A unit absent from an incomplete export should not automatically be classified as sold. The response to an interrupted feed must be decided before campaigns rely on it.

Data with a purpose

What we map.
What we verify.

These are the business fields we would assess for your Dealer Specialties workflow—not a list of guaranteed API fields. Exact names, availability and permitted uses are confirmed against your account.

Proposed field map — subject to the access approved for your account
Information	Why it matters	What we check
VIN + stock + store	Match the correct vehicle and location.	Transfers, reused stock numbers and missing VINs.
Retail price + effective time	Align recommendations with the approved advertised price.	Special offers and delayed price updates.
Availability + update time	Identify stock that is suitable for current promotion.	Sold units, partial feeds and stale snapshots.
Approved assets + vehicle details	Build accurate merchandising and campaign briefs.	Missing photos, reuse rights and inconsistent trims.

Missing information stays visible. We do not fill gaps with invented records, assume two similar names represent the same customer, or treat a successful file transfer as proof that the business data is correct.

How we make it work well

A clear handoff.
A connection you can check.

Fit the connection to your store.

We assess provider-approved APIs, feeds or exports available to your account. Together, we define field mappings, data direction, refresh timing and who handles exceptions. If access is not available, we explain the gap before promising delivery.

Validate before relying on it.

Check a sample of active, newly arrived, repriced and sold vehicles against the source. Verify identifiers, displayed prices and the timestamp of the latest successful update. Test a missing file and a partial feed. The campaign review should show when the information is stale and which recommendations still need a dealership decision.

Match sample records against the source, check missing or duplicate records and test stale-data handling. Agree on the success criteria with your team before a workflow goes live.

Define success before launch.

Measure inventory-match quality, completeness of merchandising fields and the time between a source change and its appearance in the marketing review. Review sold-unit and stale-price exceptions before evaluating campaign outcomes.

What is confirmed today?

This is an integration planning brief, not a claim of a live connector, certification or partnership with Dealer Specialties. Availability, vendor fees and permissions depend on your account and the agreed scope. Automated updates and real-time sync are not assumed.

Explore the related AutoScope service →

From discovery to a dependable handoff

A rollout your team
can follow.

The scope is agreed before implementation. There is no fixed launch promise until access, sample data and the provider’s requirements are understood.

01 · AGREE

Choose the first workflow.

Identify the decision, dealership owner and source report. Record the fields, permissions, exclusions and success criteria. Confirm any vendor charges before the work depends on them.

02 · PROVE

Reconcile a controlled sample.

Validate the mapping with representative records, including exceptions. Review the result with your team and resolve discrepancies before expanding the data or relying on the output.

03 · OPERATE

Make refreshes accountable.

Agree on a refresh schedule, a visible last-successful-update time and a contact for failed or incomplete transfers. Document how access can be revoked and how the workflow is paused if the source changes.

Questions worth answering early

Your Dealer Specialties
integration questions.

Will AutoScope change our prices or automatically advertise every vehicle?

No automatic pricing or campaign action is assumed. The initial workflow uses approved inventory information to prepare a review. Your dealership keeps control of pricing, vehicle priorities and spending decisions. Any later automation needs explicit rules for approval, stale data and unavailable stock.

What if our account only supports exports?

We assess whether an approved export provides the fields and timing your workflow needs. A scheduled review can be useful without real-time access. The plan should state who produces the export, how it is transferred securely and how incomplete or delayed files are handled. If the export cannot support the goal, we explain the gap.

What happens when information is stale or missing?

The agreed workflow should expose freshness and exceptions. A failed update is not an empty dealership, a missing outcome is not a lost sale, and an absent activity field is not proof of inaction. We define when the result needs manual review and when dependent actions should pause.

What should we bring to the first conversation?

Bring the product and modules you use, the dealership contact who can approve access, a description of the handoff you want to improve and a redacted example of the report you use today. Do not send passwords or unapproved customer records. We can define the appropriate access route after the workflow is understood.

Can this expand to multiple rooftops?

That is a scoping question, not an automatic extension. Each store needs clear identifiers, appropriate access and compatible definitions. We reconcile stores separately before combining them, so a group summary does not hide local differences or access restrictions.

Your Dealer Specialties workflow.
A clearer next step.

Bring your Dealer Specialties setup and one workflow you want to improve. We’ll help define the source data, approved access, ownership and acceptance checks. You’ll know what the proposed connection is meant to do, what it depends on and how your team can judge whether it works.

Talk through my integration →