Import Inventory From Your Own Website

You already publish your inventory in one place: your website. Inventory Link reads it from there, with your permission, so the platform has your cars without a feed contract.

Importing inventory from your website means Inventory Link reads the vehicles you have already published on your own dealership website, with your permission, and makes them the vehicles in the platform, so a store with no inventory feed starts with its full lot on day one. That is the one sentence version. It exists because the feed is where most dealer software quietly excludes people. A small independent whose website vendor charges extra for a feed, a store between inventory providers, a broker who lists a few units on a simple site, all of them have inventory online and none of them have a feed. Inventory Link treats the website as a perfectly good source.

The import recognizes the platform your website is built on, across twenty eight common dealer website platforms, and reads the inventory the way that platform publishes it. Each vehicle then goes through the same treatment as a vehicle from a feed: VIN decode, enrichment from an automotive database, text parsing on the description, stock number overrides and stock imagery where a photo is missing. From there it appears in the LeadLocate CRM, on the phone app, in the vehicle insert button inside every text and email composer, on the inventory website builder and widget, and in the vehicle finder.

This page is the product side view of one source. The inventory feeds page covers all three ways a vehicle gets in, and the dealer inventory feed management page covers feed management as a buying question.

An independent store with forty units has a website from one of the common dealer website vendors, updated by the office manager every morning from the DMS printout. There is no feed, and the last quote for one was more than the store wanted to spend. At signup the store gives us the website address. Our team confirms the platform and runs the first import, and by the afternoon all forty units are in the platform with their VINs decoded, their descriptions parsed and their photos pulled from the site.

The next morning the office manager adds two arrivals to the website and removes a unit that delivered Saturday. The next import picks up the two and drops the one, and the Feeds page in the Inventory Link portal shows the last refresh. At eleven a salesperson texting a customer taps the vehicle button in the composer, picks one of the arrivals, and the text goes out with the photos and the price that are on the website, because they came from the website. At three, a shopper on the store's inventory site uses the vehicle finder to describe a truck, and the finder shows the unit that came in that morning. Nobody at the store did anything they were not already doing. The website was the source of truth before; now the platform reads from it.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

Dealer websites are built on a fairly small number of platforms, and each one publishes inventory in its own way: a search results page here, a vehicle detail page there, photos in one structure, prices in another. Inventory Link carries platform detection that recognizes twenty eight of the common ones and reads inventory the way each one publishes it, so the import works the first time rather than after a week of tuning. A store does not need to know which platform it is on; the detection figures that out from the site.

If your website is on a platform the import has not met, that is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership. The same goes for a site with an unusual layout, a group site that carries several rooftops, or a store that wants only part of its published inventory imported. The feed editor that handles provider feeds handles the mapping for a website source as well, so an adjustment is a setting rather than a project.

The import captures what the website shows: year, make, model and trim, VIN, stock number, price, mileage, the description and the photos. Then the platform improves on it. The VIN is decoded so the vehicle's identity is exact even where the website's text was loose. An automotive database attaches government safety and efficiency data. Vehicle text parsing reads the description and pulls out the details a shopper filters on. The VIN decode and vehicle database page covers that layer.

Where the website has a unit with no photo, promo photos and stock imagery stand in until a real photo is added on the site or in the portal. Where the store's stock number differs from what the website shows, a stock number override makes the store's number the one the platform uses. And a unit the website has never had, a fresh trade a salesperson wants to text about right now, can be added by hand on the portal's Add vehicle page and edited with its photos, so the website import is the foundation rather than a ceiling.

A website import is a source on the Feeds page of the Inventory Link portal, next to any provider feed the store adds later, with its last refresh shown and the request change form for asking our team to adjust it. The portal dashboard, inventory list, Add vehicle and edit pages sit alongside, and the portal opens from the LeadLocate CRM with one login. Team invites and roles decide who can touch inventory.

In the CRM the imported units appear under the Inventory menu, and on the phone app as the inventory list with a detail sheet and an inventory picker. The vehicle insert button in every text and email composer reads from them, which is what makes sending a vehicle by text a tap. In-Store Now flags the unit a customer is standing beside. The imported inventory is the store's inventory everywhere in the platform, indistinguishable from inventory that arrived by feed.

It replaces the feed contract a store was told it needed before it could use inventory software: the setup fee, the monthly charge, and the weeks of waiting while a website vendor and a software vendor decide whose job the feed is. It also replaces the alternative most small stores actually use, which is retyping inventory into a second system and letting the two drift apart within a week.

For a broker or a solo salesperson it replaces exclusion. Inventory Link is built so that an inventory feed and DMS access are not required, and the website import is the clearest example of why: if your cars are online, they can be in the platform. The auto broker inventory mode covers the broker with no inventory at all. Inventory Link is part of every LeadLocate plan rather than an add on, plans are month to month, and the pricing page lists them.

The import reads one source, the dealership's own website, with the dealership's permission. The vehicles that come in are vehicles the store has already decided to publish, at prices the store has already decided to show, so the inventory in the platform is the store's public position and nothing else. There is no second price to reconcile and no description somebody wrote for another system. When the store changes a price on the website, the next import carries the change into the CRM, the composers, the inventory site and the finder together.

That consistency is the practical compliance benefit. A price texted by a salesperson that matches the price on the website is a conversation rather than a complaint. Stock imagery is used only where the site has no photo, and a real photo replaces it as soon as one exists. Nothing here makes a store's advertising compliant by itself; it removes the copies of a price that tend to drift.

Give us your website address at signup, or from the request change form on the Feeds page if you are already on the platform. Our team confirms the platform, runs the first import, and the Feeds page shows the refresh. If the store later adds a provider feed, the feed and the website import sit side by side as sources, and switching from one to the other is a conversation rather than a migration. A website on a platform we have not met is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Pair the import with the inventory website builder and the embeddable widget, so the units read from your site are merchandised on a site of your own and on any page you already have, with the vehicle finder so a shopper's description finds the unit, and with the CRM composers so a salesperson sends the actual car with its photos. The all features list shows where the import sits among everything else in the platform, and the pre-recorded live demo shows a unit going from a website to a text message.

Do I need an inventory feed if my cars are on my website?

No. Inventory Link imports inventory from your own website, with your permission, and the platform works the same as it would from a feed. An inventory feed and DMS access are not required.

Which website platforms does the import recognize?

Twenty eight common dealer website platforms are recognized on sight, and the import reads inventory the way each one publishes it. A platform beyond those is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

What happens when I add or remove a car on my website?

The next import picks up the new unit and drops the removed one, and the Feeds page in the Inventory Link portal shows the last refresh. Price and description changes carry across the same way.

What if a unit on my website has no photo?

Promo photos and stock imagery stand in until a real photo is added on the site or in the portal, so the listing is never blank in a text or on the inventory site.

Can I add a vehicle that is not on my website yet?

Yes. The portal's Add vehicle page takes a unit by hand, with photos, and it joins the imported inventory everywhere in the platform. A stock number override lets the store's number win if it differs from the site.

Is the website import an extra charge?

No. It is part of Inventory Link, which is part of every LeadLocate plan. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

Give us your website address and Inventory Link imports your lot, with your permission, no feed and no DMS access needed. Part of every LeadLocate plan, month to month.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.