MISSISSAUGA, Ontario -

A new mobile app for dealers from Carpages.ca is a recently revised mobile inventory management tool that is a complete rebuild of the previous Dealer Dashboard, which was a first-generation mobile app.

With the revised app, dealers can extract vehicle information from the VIN decoder built into the in-app camera to create vehicle listings of their inventory.

Dealers using the app can directly edit and add vehicle information. That eliminates dependency on a web-platform to manage inventory, according to Carpages.

Creating offline drafts of vehicle listings when disconnected from the Internet, and a search tool to find a specific vehicle from dealers’ inventory, are among the key features of the new Carpages Dashboard app along with the VIN decoder.

The app can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices. It automatically fills in listing forms, helps dealers capture vehicle photos and uploads listings to their site alongside other marketplaces. Users can select images from the phone’s photo album or use the in-app camera to take images instantly.

“The biggest obstacle is if a dealer decides to advertise on four different marketplaces, for example, the challenge always was how do they get their inventory on those marketplaces as fast and as efficiently as possible,” Carpages.ca president Ben Mirecki said in a news release. “The new Dashboard app gives dealers the ability to capture vehicle photos and specs in the simplest way possible and to then syndicate their vehicles across multiple platforms including Carpages.ca, Kijiji, AutoTrader, and Facebook Marketplace.”

Dealership staff can use Carpages Dashboard to view the marketplaces where their inventory is syndicated — such as Carpages partners Auto Trader, Kijiji, CarGurus, and Facebook Marketplace — and that is an automated process. Staff can organize vehicle status inventory as Active, Pending, or Sold.

Mirecki said dealers can post on marketplaces with no restrictions.

“We believe that a dealer’s inventory data and photos belong to them, and so we don’t restrict the dealer from the ability to syndicate to any marketplace platforms they choose to work with,” Mirecki said.

Carpages.ca business analyst Adam Taufiq said, “Having used both generations of the app to manage and upload a client’s inventory, I can advocate that the second-gen app improves the entire process.”

Taufiq said that by decoding the VIN, adding photos, and editing information, clients can get more of their inventory posted online, more quickly.

“Uploading five to 10 cars on busy days has taken, on average, less than two minutes per vehicle from VIN decoding to the vehicle appearing online,” Taufiq said. “With that in mind, dealers now have the opportunity to better serve car shoppers by always having their inventory uploaded.”