J.D. Power, a Troy-based provider of data analytics and consumer intelligence, today announced the acquisition of the Inventory Command Center, an automotive inventory management platform with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The ICC business, which is being integrated into the Autodata Solutions division of J.D. Power, is positioned to anticipate the growth of VIN-specific details brought on by more electric vehicles and automated technologies.
“With more automobile buyers than ever searching local inventories online before they ever set foot in a dealership, accurately and consistently displaying vehicle inventory has taken center stage,” says Dave Habiger, president and CEO of J.D. Power. “Accurate information on vehicle supply has become a critical component of the increasingly complex auto sales ecosystem thanks to the growth of new technologies and powertrains, such as electric vehicles and automated technologies.
“By combining ICC’s proven inventory management technology with our robust vehicle feature information and valuation tools, we are giving multiple industry stakeholders, including dealerships, manufacturers, third-party websites and consumers the most comprehensive information available on nationwide vehicle supply.”
Evolving digital retailing strategies require dealers to merchandise and differentiate their digital inventory from the competition by utilizing solutions that showcase their inventory to online shoppers within a customer-centric experience and then syndicate that experience to all third-party sources from one unified command center platform.
The command center platform combines, normalizes, transforms, and distributes vehicle data — creating a “source of truth” of vehicle information for dealers, automotive manufacturers, car shopping sites, dealership websites, and anyone else who needs to present accurately described and priced inventory. The command center platform, for example, specifically merchandises the new automation technologies and powertrains such as battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), according to J.D. Power.
“Like the current market of cars and trucks available today, inventory data comes in all shapes, sizes and engine types,” says Craig Jennings, president of the Autodata Solutions division at J.D. Power. “ICC’s team has developed a unique platform that filters innumerable and often inconsistent data sets into a single, robust feed that is easy to consume. The result, combined with J.D. Power VIN description and merchandising solutions, is a service that supports dealers and manufacturers with syndicating appropriately branded, described and priced inventory. This will be even more critical with the influx of new EV models, features and technologies.”
Vehicle inventory merchandising is a critical aspect of online marketing with more than 56 million new and used vehicles being sold each year, J.D. Power says. Providing accurate branded descriptions, options, and pricing are key to a full and complete online view of a vehicle specifically as it related to digital retailing. The command center’s inventory as a service platform is already integrated with thousands of dealer inventory feeds and powers numerous third-party car shopping websites. While it combines VIN-level data, Inventory as a Service will leverage the ChromeData suite of products, which will properly brand, describe, price, and visually merchandise each vehicle.
The service also is able to deliver with each exported inventory record incentives and rebates, Chrome Image Gallery photos as well as VIN and model-specific videos.
The ICC acquisition follows J.D. Power’s recent acquisition of ALG and the merger with Autodata Solutions to create a provider of new and pre-owned automobile transactional data, valuation tools, vehicle feature information, and consumer analytics to the automotive industry.
