Executive View: Motor retail can learn from the travel industry

It could be time for the motor retail sector to shine a spotlight on its inventory systems and take a leaf out of the travel industry’s book to create an experience of found it, drove it, now own it, suggests Keyloop's Jacqui Barker in her latest executive view.

As the schools break for summer and families flock to airports, or in our case the Eurotunnel with multiple vehicles heading for a European road trip through France Switzerland and Italy, this time of year becomes a masterclass in logistics. If you're reading this while queueing for a flight or checking your hotel app for confirmation, notice that you're part of a global travel rhythm powered by one key assumption: what you book is what you get.

You expect the flight seat you selected to be waiting for you, and you presume your hotel room or Airbnb to be reserved just for you. If it's not – if someone else is already sitting in your seat or unpacking in your room – you'd rightly demand answers. The reason we take these systems for granted is because they’re designed to communicate in real time. Inventory is live and systems are synced. We click “book,” and trust the network to deliver.

Now flip to the automotive industry.

Used car buyers across the UK and beyond spend hours browsing vehicles online, shortlisting favourites, running valuations and checking finance. But, too often, the car they fall in love with is no longer available by the time they contact the dealership.

The industry is all too familiar with this issue. The challenge we face is that we’ve built hundreds of digital experiences (showroom sites, used vehicle locators, classified platforms) but without a live, consistent view of stock, the risk of double booking is ever-present. It’s like allowing two people to book the same hotel room at the same time and just hoping one of them cancels.

148.3 million travel bookings are completed online every year, with the vast majority of us trusting live availability pulled from dozens of airline systems and booking sites. Travel has nailed API-led distribution where each platform, search engine, or app reflects the same reality.

The UK’s used car market is seeing a parallel digital boom. According to Google’s Auto Retail Trends Report, 95% of vehicle buyers now use digital platforms as a primary source of information. Carwow reports that buyers spend an average of 15 hours researching cars online, visiting 4–5 websites before making a purchase decision.

While Auto Trader’s Road to Purchase report (2024) highlights that 82% of all car buyers start their journey online, and that over 70% of used car buyers visit Auto Trader platform five to six times during the buying process. They view, compare, save, and share listings long before they step onto a forecourt. Auto Trader hosts over 450,000 vehicles, with tens of millions of visits per month. With three big search platforms for car buyers: carwow, Autotrader, and Google, consumers potentially see three versions of similar stock being listed before you even click through to the retailer’s site.

The friction begins when what’s shown via an online marketplace isn’t actually available when you get to the point of purchase (virtually or in person). That disconnect leaves the customer feeling misled – and in a market where trust drives loyalty, it’s a fast track to frustration, lost sales, and damaged brand perception.

The challenge lies in how stock is managed. Most dealers still handle inventory within their own systems, then manually upload updates to third-party marketplaces. But by the time those updates are made, the vehicle may already have been sold or moved. Multiply that delay across multiple platforms, and the result is a fragmented, unreliable experience that undermines confidence at every stage of the journey.

However, retailers can’t always be blamed: they are wrestling with multiple systems, inconsistent feeds, and pressure to be everywhere at once. But it begs the question: Who’s responsible for inventory accuracy? Is it the retailer? The marketplace? The platform provider? Arguably, it’s all of us.

There’s growing talk of achieving a “single source of truth” for vehicle inventory where stock data is live, accurate, and synchronised across every touchpoint a customer might engage with.

This isn't about tech for tech’s sake. It’s about respecting the customer’s time. If they’ve done their research, narrowed their search, and chosen your business, the least we can do is have the car actually available. Just like that hotel room. Just like that aisle seat.

Some marketplaces are already working more closely with platform providers to ensure real-time stock feeds from dealer systems – not static uploads, but API connections that refresh every few minutes. Additionally, we know some retailers are integrating their own digital showrooms with stock visibility tools that track online interest against actual availability.

But the industry needs to move faster. Why? Because the customer assumes it's already happening.

Auto Trader data shows that when a listing is removed or marked as ‘sold’ promptly, consumers are more likely to return to that retailer or platform as they trust that listings are up to date. When it’s not, bounce rates soar and enquiry conversion drops by as much as 35%.

Worse still, inconsistent stock data can break the relationship between retailers and marketplaces, undermining dealer confidence in the value of their digital spend. It’s like booking a holiday online and arriving to find no record of it. You wouldn’t try that same site again in a hurry, so retailers will choose the right marketplace to nurture that trust from the customer.

We’re all part of a digitally transforming ecosystem, and change takes time. Platforms, DMS providers, marketplaces, OEMs are all beginning to put the pieces together to deliver a joined-up customer experience.    

Just like airlines and hotels had to figure out how to plug into the bigger picture, we in automotive retail are now doing the same. So, as you check in to your holiday accommodation or board your flight this summer, take a moment to appreciate the orchestration behind that seamless journey.

It could be time to shine a spotlight on our inventory systems and take a leaf out of the travel industry’s book to create an experience of found it, drove it, now own it!

Author: Jacqui Barker,