What Is Days Supply?

How long the cars on your lot would last at the rate you are actually selling them.

Units in stock divided by average units sold per day equals days supply. The average comes from a trailing window the store picks, commonly the last thirty or forty five days of retail sales, and the window matters more than people expect. A forty five day window smooths out a single strong weekend; a fifteen day window will tell you a holiday week changed your business when it did not.

Two phrases sit next to it. Days on hand, or days in stock, is about one car: how long that specific unit has been in inventory. Days supply is about the group: how long the whole segment would last at the current pace. A car can be at ten days on hand while the segment it belongs to sits at a hundred and twenty days supply, which tells a used car manager the unit is fresh and the appetite for it is not. The phrase is also used in pharmacy and general retail for the same idea applied to prescriptions and to stock keeping units; the dealership version is the one defined here.

Stores run the number by segment, not just in total. Trucks, three row crossovers, compact sedans, and anything over a certain price point behave like separate businesses, and a healthy total can hide a segment that has stopped moving entirely.

Market days supply counts every comparable vehicle listed for sale in a defined radius and divides it by how many of those are selling per day in that same radius. It answers a different question than your own days supply does: not how long your cars will last, but how much competition a car of that year, make, model, trim and mileage band faces the moment you list it.

The practical use is at appraisal. A unit with a thin market days supply is scarce relative to demand, which supports a stronger number for the customer's trade and a firmer price on the line. A unit with a heavy market days supply is everywhere, so the price has to be right on the day it is listed rather than three price cuts later. Nothing about market days supply is a promise about any individual car. It is a way to be less wrong about a decision that gets made in four minutes at a service drive.

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Say a used department has 120 cars in stock and retailed 90 units over the last forty five days. Illustrative figures only. That is 2 units per day, so days supply is 60. If the store's turn target is 45 days, it is carrying roughly 30 units more than the pace supports, and the fix is either faster retail or fewer acquisitions for a couple of weeks.

Split the same store by segment and the picture sharpens. Trucks: 30 in stock, 30 sold in 45 days, so 0.67 per day and a 45 day supply, right on target. Compact sedans: 40 in stock, 12 sold, so 0.27 per day and roughly a 150 day supply. The total said the store was a little heavy. The segment split says stop buying compact sedans and price the ones already on the ground to sell. The vehicle days supply calculator runs the arithmetic if you would rather not do it in your head.

The first mistake is counting cars that cannot be sold yet. Units still in reconditioning, units without photos and units awaiting title are in stock on paper but invisible to a shopper, so including them flatters the number while the front line is actually thin. Count what a customer can see, and track the rest separately.

The second is a sales window that does not match the season. The third is running one number for the whole store. And the fourth is treating days supply as a score instead of a decision. The number is only useful when it changes something: an acquisition target, a price, a spiff, an advertising choice. A dealership inventory turn dashboard is worth having for exactly that reason, because turn and days supply are two views of the same question.

Inventory Link keeps the list of what you have accurate and in front of buyers. It takes a feed from your provider, or imports inventory straight from your own website when there is no feed, and an inventory feed and dealer management system access are not required to use the platform at all. From that one list it builds a merchandising site, an embeddable widget for any page you already own, brand offer pages, and stock imagery for units that have not seen a photographer yet. Inside LeadLocate CRM, the same vehicles appear in the Inventory menu and on a vehicle button inside every text and email composer, so the cars carrying the heaviest days supply can be sent to a real shopper with photos and price while you are still on the call.

What is a good days supply for a dealership?

Every store sets its own target by segment, its floorplan terms and how fast it can recondition. Rather than chasing a universal figure, compare your days supply to your own turn target and to the market days supply of the same segment.

What is the difference between days on hand and days of supply?

Days on hand measures one vehicle, counting from the day it entered stock. Days of supply measures a group of vehicles against the rate they are selling. A fresh car can sit in a badly oversupplied segment, and both numbers are worth knowing.

How do you calculate market days supply?

Count the comparable units listed for sale in your radius and divide by the number of those selling per day in the same radius. The definition of comparable, year range, trim and mileage band, changes the answer, so keep it consistent.

Should reconditioning units count in days supply?

Keep them separate. A unit a shopper cannot find online or walk up to on the lot is not supply yet, and including it makes a thin front line look healthy.

A specialist shows your inventory live in the platform, then texts a vehicle with photos and price to a shopper and books the appointment.

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