Merchandising your listings

A complete listing with good photos gets more views and more leads. Merchandising tells you which listings need work and gives you the tools to fix them: a completeness score for every unit, photo quality checks, photo branding (your logo, a banner or a frame on copies of your photos), printable spec sheets, QR codes and a quick way to add a walkaround video.

You'll find it in two places:

• Inventory › Merchandising: reports across all your units.
• The Merchandising panel on every vehicle page.

Check one vehicle #

1. Open Inventory › Vehicles and select a vehicle (or select its Score in the list).
2. Scroll to Merchandising.
3. Open How the score is made to see the points for each criterion and what to improve. Each tip has a Fix link that jumps to the right part of the page.
4. Review the Photo quality warnings, then reorder or replace photos in the Photos section.
5. Use Printable spec sheet, PDF, QR (PNG) or QR (SVG) to print or download.
6. Paste a YouTube or Vimeo link under Add walkaround link and select Add walkaround.

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1. Listing completeness score out of 100, with a link to the fleet report.
2. How the score is made: points per criterion, a tip and a Fix link.
3. Photo quality warnings for this unit's photos.
4. Spec sheet, window sticker and QR code buttons.
5. Add walkaround link for a hosted video.

The completeness score #

Every unit gets a score from 0 to 100. Below 60 is Low, 60–84 Medium and 85–100 High. You can filter the inventory list by these bands.

Fleet reports #

Open Inventory › Merchandising.

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1. Report tabs: Listing completeness, Photo quality and (for managers) Photo branding.
2. Averages: the average score overall and for each rooftop.
3. Filters: status, rooftop and score band.
4. Fix first: the biggest gains for each listing, with the points each fix adds. The lowest scores are listed first.

The Photo quality tab lists every unit with photo warnings. Managers can select Check photos now to check photos that haven't been measured yet. New photos are also checked automatically every few minutes.

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Photo quality warnings #

The panel also tells you when the main photo fails a check or is shared. These are warnings only: photos are never deleted, hidden or reordered automatically.

Photo branding #

Branding templates draw your logo, a banner (for example "Just arrived · {phone}") or a frame on copies of your photos. Your original photos never change.

1. Open Inventory › Merchandising and select the Photo branding tab.
2. Select New template.
3. Give it a Name, choose a Rooftop (or all) and whether to brand every photo or only the main photo.
4. Under Use branded copies on, tick Website, Marketplace feeds and/or Social posts.
5. Set up the Logo watermark (your website logo or another uploaded image, its position, width and opacity), the Banner (text, position, colors and opacity) and the Frame (color and width).
6. Check the Preview, tick Template is on and select Save template.

Banner text can use {price}, {year}, {make}, {model}, {trim}, {stock}, {phone}, {rooftop} and {dealer}. {price} is the advertised price exactly as your website shows it.

Copies are made in the background and remade when the template, the price or the photos change. A copy is only used while it is still correct; otherwise the original is shown. On a vehicle's Merchandising panel you can select Use original photos for this vehicle (opt out) or Make branded copies now.

Spec sheets and QR codes #

• Printable spec sheet opens a one-page US Letter sheet with the main photo, specs, features, public accessories, the warranty badge, a description excerpt, the price with your price disclosure and a QR code. PDF downloads the same sheet.
• Managers set the Price disclosure text (shown under the price) at the bottom of Inventory › Merchandising. A default is supplied; it is not legal advice.
• QR (PNG) and QR (SVG) download a code that opens the vehicle's page on your website. Visits and leads from it are credited to QR in marketing attribution. If you can see marketing, you can tag the code with one of your campaigns instead.

Spec sheets only show shopper-facing details. Costs, staff notes and customer data are never included. For used units the sheet says it is not an FTC Buyers Guide.

Tips #

• Sort by Fix first each Monday and work from the top.
• Replace shared stock photos with photos of the actual unit as soon as you can.
• Use main photo only branding if marketplaces in your area dislike watermarked galleries.
• Put the QR code on the unit's windshield card so walk-in shoppers can save it.

Permissions #

Limitations #