Auto Trader has enhanced its 'dealer community' initiative with the launch today of its innovation programme. 

Dealer Community is Auto Trader’s private social networking forum for discussion and collaboration with dealers, launched in March and now with more than 5,000 members. 

The innovation programme will use the dealer community to help shape and develop new value-added services for dealers.  They are asked to identify, test and feedback on new and existing product ideas to ensure dealers maximise the value of advertising on Auto Trader.

The innovation programme has delivered new functionality in its Dealer Edit to help dealers manage part exchanges and customer invoicing.

Innovation programme new products include:

• Dealer Edit, Auto Trader’s free advertising software, now includes the ability to create invoices at the point a vehicle is marked as sold

• New functionality in 'part exchange assistant' allows dealers to compare a potential part exchange against similar vehicles currently held on Autotrader.co.uk.  The software also allows the dealer to perform an Experian AutoCheck to check the history of the vehicle from within Dealer Edit

• The monthly Pulse report, which shows customers how their advertising is performing each month, was previously shared with the customer by sales representatives as relevant. It is now emailed to all eligible customers and is also accessible from within the Dealer Portal meaning dealers can now conveniently view at any time.