CDK launches online wholesale platform
Add another major player to the growing online wholesale space.
CDK Global announced Wednesday it has launched an online wholesale marketplace called CDK CarSource that is designed to connect dealers to used-car inventories from other dealers across the country.
The platform does this through an integration with the company’s CDK Drive dealership management system.
“With the demand for used vehicles at an all-time high, wholesale and used inventory management are top priorities for many dealers,” CDK chief operating officer Joe Tautges said in a news release.
“With CDK CarSource, we are partnering with dealers to help them maintain an ideal used-vehicle inventory, while reducing the time and cost associated with listing their current inventory and sourcing additional vehicles,” Tautges said.
“This is another great example of how we are leveraging our unique position within the automotive ecosystem to create a seamless, integrated experience across all aspects of selling, buying and owning a vehicle — from sourcing to retail sale, and beyond.”
The company said in the release that CDK CarSource is an additional time- and money-saving perk for dealerships using the CDK Drive DMS.
CDK CarSource is designed to list inventory automatically “to the marketplace from a large, trusted network of actively governed and screened sellers nationwide,” CDK said.
All dealers, even those using other DMS systems, can search for and bid on vehicles for free on CDK CarSource. Its transaction fees are “the most competitive,” and CDK customers receive discounts on those fees, the company said.
The platform allows for dealers to sync their available inventory from CDK Drive to CDK CarSource without having to rekey the information.
The CDK CarSource expert wholesale management feature provides dedicated experts who look for opportunities for dealers based on their inventory goals.
Additionally, dealers can list vehicles on CDK CarSource and still have them listed for retail sale.
CDK joins an increasingly crowded online wholesale space, one that includes online auctions, dealer-to-dealer platforms, upstream/direct channels and more
Incumbents like Cox Automotive, KAR Global and Auction Edge are well-entrenched in the online wholesale space, and once-newcomers like ACV and EBlock are now publicly traded.
Likewise, CarOffer was recently purchased by publicly traded CarGurus.