With the Deal Updates capability on Autotrader Connect, you’ll be able to update top-level details for deals submitted by a consumer using Deal Builder on the Autotrader website via the API.
Here's a full list of the functionality:
- Deal updates
- Mark a deal as complete
- Mark a deal as cancelled
- Reserve through a deal
- Removing components
- Removing part exchange
- Removing finance
Deal Updates
As part of this capability, you will be able to update some top-level details to control whether the deal should be complete, cancelled or to reserve an unreserved vehicle.
Complete a deal
Once the dealer confirms the sale of a vehicle, you should send a PATCH request to the Deals API using the deal ID and advertiser ID, with advertiserDealStatus set to “Complete” in the body.
For the deal to be fully marked as complete, the consumer will also need to confirm completion of the deal in their Autotrader account.
Cancel a deal
If the deal isn’t going any further, you should send a PATCH request to the Deals API using the deal ID and advertiser ID. The body of this request should contain advertiserDealStatus set to “Cancelled” and advertiserCancellationReason set to one of the following values:
- Different vehicle
- Unaffordable
- Not interested
- Went elsewhere
- Not available
- Condition
- Poor customer service
- Other
You can also optionally provide notes on the cancellation in the advertiserCancellationNotes attribute.
Check out examples of completing and cancelling a deal
Reserve through a deal
The majority of deals that are available via the Deals API will be created once the consumer has completed the reservation of a vehicle via Deal Builder on Autotrader.
The one exception to this is when a consumer completes the finance application stage of Deal Builder but doesn’t go on to complete the reservation. This will create a deal the following morning while leaving the vehicle as unreserved on Autotrader.
The dealer can then reach out to the consumer to let them know they have completed the finance application and ask whether they would like to proceed with the reservation. If so, via the Deals API, you will be able to mark the vehicle as reserved against that deal by sending a PATCH with reservation status.
Check out an example of reserving through a deal
Removing Components
As part of this capability, you can remove certain components if the consumer is no longer going to proceed with them in their deal.
Remove finance application component
To remove the finance application component from a deal, you should send a PATCH request including the deal ID and advertiser ID in the URL, with the finance attribute set to null in the request body.
Remove part exchange component
To remove the part exchange component from a deal, you should send a PATCH request including the deal ID and advertiser ID in the URL, with the partExchange attribute set to null in the request body.
Check out examples of these requests
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.