With the Availability Updates capability on Auto Trader Connect, you can manage the availability of the dealer’s stock on our site.
Here’s a full list of the functionality:
- Update reservation status
- Manage lifecycle state
- Unpublishing advert locations
Update reservation status
With this capability, you can update the reservation status of an advert. This can be to reserve a vehicle or unreserve a previously reserved vehicle.
If a vehicle has been reserved in your system, then you should send a PATCH request to the Stock API to update the reservationStatus to ‘Reserved’.
This will mark the vehicle as reserved on our site.
If the reservation is then cancelled, you can send a PATCH request with reservationStatus set to null.
Check out an example of updating reservation status
Manage lifecycle state
The lifecycle state of a stock record shows where the vehicle is in its sale lifecycle.
Stock records can only be advertised in certain lifecycle states.
You’ll need to update a stock’s advert locations at the same time.
| Lifecycle state | Meaning | Can be advertised | Can't be advertised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Due in | Vehicle that is not in the retailer’s location | ✔️ | |
| Forecourt | Vehicle ready for sale | ✔️ | |
| Sale in Progress | Vehicle is in the process of being sold | ✔️ | |
|
Sold |
Vehicle has been sold | ✔️ | |
| Deleted | Use to delete the stock record | ✔️ | |
| Wastebin | Vehicle needs to be removed by the retailer, but retailer wants to keep the stock in the system for a while. This status is also used by data feeds when a record is removed. | ✔️ |
You can update this state to any of the above values when a vehicle moves to a different part of the sale lifecycle.
Check out an example of updating lifecycle state
Unpublishing advert locations
There are five advertising locations you will be able to unpublish stock records from. These can have a status of either PUBLISHED or NOT_PUBLISHED.
The five locations are:
- autotraderAdvert - This is for publishing stock to be searchable on autotrader.co.uk
- advertiserAdvert - This is for publishing on the dealer’s website
- profileAdvert - This is for publishing on the Retailer Store page
- locatorAdvert - This is for publishing on a manufacturer’s used approved site
- exportAdvert - This identifies that the stock has been selected for a 3rd party CSV export
With this capability, you will be able to set any or all of the above advert locations to NOT_PUBLISHED.
For example, if you are updating the lifecycle state to SOLD, then you need to set all advert locations to NOT_PUBLISHED.
If a vehicle is reserved, then you may want to set autotraderAdvert to NOT_PUBLISHED to free up the advert slot for another vehicle.
Check out an example of unpublishing advert locations
Error Handling
When using the APIs above, you may get error response codes that you need to handle. This makes sure you have a smooth service for both you, as a partner, and your end user.