SANTA MONICA, Calif. and BOSTON -

TrueCar has purchased Boston-based DealerScience in a move that gives the company’s dealer customers a path to digital retail.

DealerScience, a digital retail software tool provider, will be a subsidiary of TrueCar and maintain its leadership team and Boston headquarters.

Dealer customers can look forward to “improvements that enable them to expedite vehicle desking, calculate accurate monthly payments and streamline the consumer experience from shopping to showroom,” TrueCar said in Friday’s announcement.

“Consumers expect to be able to configure more elements of their car deal online, and they want greater transparency and validation of the elements of their car deal,” TrueCar president and chief executive officer Chip Perry said in a news release.

“We believe that dealers that place DealerScience’s state-of-the-art digital retailing tools on their own websites, in their showroom and within TrueCar’s marketplace will be well positioned to generate strong growth and profitability,” Perry said.

Later in the news release, Perry said digital retail has been welcome by “many dealers,” calling it “a wave of the future.”

As for TrueCar’s position in this space, Perry said: “We believe that it is important as a third-party provider to enable dealers to participate in this trend in a way in which they maintain control of the timing and content of F&I offers and products provided to their customers through digital retailing tools.”

Andrew Gordon founded DealerScience in 2011. He will now be vice president of digital retailing at TrueCar.

“I am excited to see DealerScience join forces with TrueCar,” Gordon said. “Our two companies share a common passion for helping both consumers and dealers leverage technology through strong product innovation and customer service.

“Together, we are intent on ensuring that customers of both DealerScience and TrueCar continue to benefit from the expertise and pace of innovation that they have come to depend on and trust,” he said. “We also expect to provide to both companies’ dealers improved data products and services enabled by the combination of TrueCar and DealerScience.” 

In an interview last month about TrueCar Trade, Perry said the digital retail space was something in which TrueCar had interest.

“We also have plans to move into the digital retailing world,” Perry said after giving an overview of TrueCar Trade, “and enable dealers to put monthly payment offers in front of consumers in addition to just price. TrueCar will never get involved in F&I directly. That’s not our business; that’s the dealer’s business.”

TrueCar moved up its plans to launch a national marketing campaign for TrueCar Trade, a tool the company considers vital to its to-be-launched “end-to-end, shopping-to-showroom consumer experience,” according to notes on TrueCar’s earnings call provided by the company.