If you or anyone on your dealership’s staff is a newcomer to online wholesale buying and selling, the folks at ADESA have four recommendations to help you ease into this increasingly important avenue of remarketing.

In a post to the company’s Overdrive blog — titled “Just Starting in the Online Auction World? Here’s What You Should Do First” — ADESA’s Keith Crerar outlines four suggestions for dealers just getting their feet wet in online auctions.

The first tip listed in the blog emphasizes the importance of grasping the basic differences between online auctions and brick-and-mortar auctions.

“The main difference between online and in-lane auctions is the ability to touch, smell and feel the vehicle you are purchasing. You’ll use condition reports and photos to educate yourself about a vehicle sold online, though it might not be that same level of detail that a hands-on experience in the lane would give you,” Crerar said in the post. 

“But, there are so many advantages to online sales: More inventory available, better protection for your purchases through arbitration and the flexibility to bid from anywhere are just a few of the positive parts of buying online,” he added.

The other three tips and more advice about online auctions can be found in the full blog post on Overdrive.