Summary
- Source smarter and faster with real‑time market intelligence that shows exactly what to buy—and what to skip.
- Expand your reach without slowing down by evaluating more wholesale opportunities in one streamlined Stockwave workflow.
- Stay stocked and profitable with faster decisions, stronger inventory levels, and deeper auction integrations that give you a competitive edge.
Affordability pressures are pushing more shoppers toward used vehicles, and trade‑in volume continues to swing week to week. Dealers can’t rely on instinct alone. To stay competitive this year, you need a sourcing strategy that helps you buy smarter, move faster, and consistently protect your margins.
The top performers aren’t guessing. They’re leveraging better data, broader visibility, and tighter evaluation workflows to stay stocked with the right inventory—no matter how the market shifts.
Here are six must‑do’s to sharpen your sourcing strategy and keep your lot ahead of the competition.
1. Know Exactly What to Buy, and What to Skip
The quickest way to lose margin is to chase the wrong cars. Smart sourcing starts with being able to see: Which vehicles match true local demand? Will they turn quickly? How will they price on day one? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
But wait—if you’re relying solely on gut instinct or a magic 8‑ball for answers to these questions, you’re in for a rough year. Even the flashiest technology—or AI, for that matter—is only as good as the data fueling it.
That’s where smarter tools make all the difference. Dealers using Stockwave gain instant clarity with Live Market View—accurate, up‑to‑the‑minute data on today’s used‑car values—so they can make faster go/no‑go decisions with confidence instead of second‑guessing every bid.
2. Source From More Places Without Slowing Down
The days of relying on just trades and a couple of local auctions are long gone. Today’s top performers cast a wider net—service lanes, trade‑ins, private‑party sellers, and auctions across the country—because that’s what it takes to stay stocked and competitive. But expanding your sourcing channels shouldn’t slow you down. More places to buy only helps if you can evaluate everything quickly and confidently. That’s where Stockwave becomes essential.
Stockwave brings all your wholesale opportunities into one streamlined view, connecting you to an average of 300,000 vehicles per day across 300+ marketplaces—and surfacing them through consistent, real‑time market intelligence. Instead of bouncing between tabs or missing great units because you didn’t see them in time, Stockwave delivers the reach you need without adding complexity. The result is more channels, more visibility, and more opportunities. With Stockwave, you keep the process fast, controlled, and profitable.
3. Turn Cars Under 4 Days — Because Speed Is the New Profit
You don’t make money by stocking cars — you make money by moving them. And in 2026, speed isn’t a “nice‑to‑have”; it’s the whole game. Every extra day a vehicle sits chips away at your margin, ties up cash flow, and risks getting undercut by a competitor who got their car frontline‑ready faster.
A sub‑4‑day turn isn’t a flex — it’s a survival tactic.
If you’re still waiting on process bottlenecks, recon delays, or slow sourcing decisions, you’re leaving gross on the table. Faster sourcing leads to faster recon, faster front‑line readiness, and ultimately faster sales.
Dealers using Stockwave shave 3.5 days off their turn time, which is often the difference between capturing full retail potential and watching it slip away.
4. Beat Margin Slumps with Stronger Inventory Levels
You can’t win if your lot looks empty. Low inventory doesn’t just limit choice — it drags down margins, weakens pricing power, and sends shoppers straight to competitors who simply have more to offer. In a market where affordability pressures are sending more buyers into the used‑car lanes, being under‑stocked isn’t just inconvenient — it’s costly.
Healthy inventory levels give you control. They let you match demand more precisely, protect front‑end gross, and maintain momentum even when trade‑ins slow down or market conditions shift. When you can consistently keep the right cars on the ground, everything else in your operation gets easier.
That’s why dealers rely on broader visibility and faster acquisition cycles instead of waiting for inventory to come to them. Stockwave users maintain 40% higher inventory levels, not because they buy recklessly, but because they can see and secure more of the right vehicles before anyone else does. More cars. Better fit. Stronger margins.
5. Integrate With More Auction Partners for Faster, Smarter Decisions
The more auctions you can evaluate inside one workflow, the faster and more confidently you can source. That’s why expanding integration with partners like ADESA Clear and Auction Streaming matters.
ADESA Clear Integration brings Stockwave’s evaluation tools—Lightbulbs, Favorites, Carfax snapshots—directly into the ADESA Clear auction experience. No switching tabs, no re‑running analysis. You get cleaner, quicker decisions right in the lane. Auction Streaming Integration adds even more auction partners into your sourcing view, giving you broader reach without adding complexity. More inventory surfaces in one place, analyzed through the same consistent data.
6. Build Confidence into Every Bid with Smarter Market Intelligence
Auction lanes reward confidence and punish guesswork. Every bid you place needs to be grounded in what’s happening right now, not what happened last month or what your gut thinks might work. If you don’t have real‑time clarity on value, demand, and profit potential, you’re either hesitating too long or paying too much. Both cost you money.
What you really need is simple:
A clear picture of what a car is worth today, how it will retail in your market, and how high you can bid without putting your margin at risk. Once you have that level of insight, sourcing stops feeling like a gamble and starts feeling like a strategy.
That’s why top‑performing dealers lean into stronger market intelligence instead of instinct. And with Stockwave’s Live Market View—backed by accurate, up‑to‑the‑minute pricing and demand data—every decision becomes more defensible, more profitable, and more decisive. It’s no surprise that 80% of Stockwave users say they feel more capable at sourcing than their peers. When the data is clear, your confidence follows.
The dealers who win this year won’t simply work harder—they’ll source smarter. They’ll know exactly what to buy, move quickly, keep inventory strong, and back every decision with real‑time intelligence rather than gut instinct.
That’s exactly what Stockwave delivers. With broader marketplace visibility, faster evaluations, deeper auction integrations, and clearer market insights, you stay ahead of margin pressure and confidently secure the right cars before your competitors do.
When you’re ready to make sourcing easier, faster, and more profitable, Stockwave is built to be the partner that helps you do exactly that.
Ready to source smarter and move faster?
Sources:
Based on Cox Automotive dealer performance data from November 2021 through April 2022.
2022 Stockwave Purchase Motivation Study, August 2022, 35 users surveyed
