digital retailing – DealershipNews.com

How Dealers Approach Automotive Photography in the Current Economy

Guest Blogger — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 20:57:22 +0000

A picture is worth a thousand words, but in today’s world of automotive digital retail it needs to be worth a thousand clicks. That’s because while more people are shopping online today for cars and trucks, they’re making many of their considerations and purchase decisions based on the vehicle photos they’re looking at.

Yes, sticker price size matters. Yes, financing matters. Yes, credit availability matters. But what gets a person interested in a particular vehicle, and moving through the funnel, is what excites their eyes.

It’s the same reason why millions of people spend so much time on Instagram, or why they spend so much time making sure they have just the right set of photos for their Tinder profile.

Selling cars in an Instagram society

Just consider for a moment that there are over 1 billion active Instagrammers, and more than half of those users (500 million) are active every day. What’s more, 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram every day, and over 40 billion photos and videos have been shared on the Instagram platform since its conception¹.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s a good photo that gets their attention, and to buy a car.

So, other than the obvious (higher sales), why should dealers care so much about better photos? Because without them they’re literally flushing money down the drain. Borrell Associates expects auto dealers will spend roughly $9.4 billion this year on advertising and marketing² — up 8.8% compared with 2021.

Online technology makes the photo process different

That’s a lot of money for a segment of the industry notoriously careful about advertising expenditure. However, the problem dealers run into isn’t the decision on whether to spend on advertising, but rather “how” they go about that spending. Especially when it comes to vehicle photos, online technology has become extremely advanced, and you can’t pull out a polaroid, snap a few quick pics and expect to grab someone’s attention anymore. In fact, without understanding all of today’s technical nuances of photography, your photos may not even make it to Google.

Across the hundreds of dealership advertising campaigns, we observe and consult on each month across the U.S., we typically see about half of dealership vehicle inventory photos disabled and rejected by search engines after initially posted due to poor image quality, overlays, dumb text, etc. Educating dealers on the finer intricacies of acceptable photography today, and how that translates over to their marketing technology needs remains mission number one.

Good vehicle photos aren’t just point-and-shoot

Dealers today have two primary areas of need when it comes to building the right vehicle image inventory – the right resources to take the photos, and the right training on understanding how to take good photos. Like many other areas of digital business today, there are plenty of apps and software available where dealers can upload their photos. But if they don’t have the right equipment and training, all of that software is like a shirtless guy on Tinder holding a fish – it’s useless, and it won’t get you paid. And training is important because dealership turnover remains a significant issue. Your best in-house vehicle photographer might be here today and gone tomorrow, so finding a partner with unlimited employee training is critical.

Once the photos are taken and uploaded, there’s one more key element that today’s apps and software won’t help with – professional editing. Vehicle images must offer the right angles, light balance, straightness and color corrections. These minor details can mean the difference between someone falling in love with their next BMW or moving on to see a Lexus.

The last thing to point out with photos today is quality control. Whether it’s used or new inventory, when it shows up on the lot the photos must be taken, and taken right. This is especially important today, where used and pre-owned inventory is just as critical as new. When vehicles come out of reconditioning, professional editors must catch every little detail, such as a photo of a vehicle with no bumper – it happens more than you think.

Understanding each of these photography best practice areas will be critical to not only meeting and surpassing monthly sales goals, but they will help ensure car shoppers remember the superior online shopping experience they had in your digital storefront. The right vehicle photography will keep them coming back, improve sales, and ensure that you’re not wasting digital marketing dollars each month on search engines.

About The Author: Peter Duffy is the Founder/CEO of Dealer Image Pro, a professional photo, video & 360 software company based in California. Dealer Image Pro helps hundreds of dealers take their merchandising in-house by offering the equipment, unlimited training, and professional editing, and quality control for all of the dealers they work with. They are experts in-house merchandising and studio design for auto dealers. For more information visit https://www.dealerimagepro.com/.

Appendix:

1: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/20/instagram-statistics

2: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/370082/automotive-dealerships-poised-to-spend-94-billio.html

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PureCars Customer Survey on Digital Retailing Tools

Guest Blogger — Fri, 28 May 2021 16:41:08 +0000

ATLANTA – (May 17, 2021) – PureCars, a leading provider of digital marketing technology and services for automotive dealers, today announced results of its latest industry survey that shows which digital retailing tools automotive shoppers are using the most today, approximately one year into the pandemic. PureCars commissioned an online survey that was presented to more than 2,000 automotive shoppers across the U.S. during March to get a better sense of how and where they are leveraging new digital retailing technologies and solutions.

Trade-in Estimate: 71%
Virtual Test Drive: 64%
Contactless Delivery Options: 61%
Build Your Vehicle: 57%
Lease/Payment Calculator: 52%
Finance App: 46%

Price & Payment Trends During Shopping

48% of car shoppers say they still budget by total vehicle price; while 42% budget by monthly payment.
46% of car shoppers say they included the value of their trade-in when budgeting for their next vehicle.
31% of consumers said the dealer offered a slightly different payment onsite as advertised.

Advertising Trends

58% of consumers said the dealer had either a slightly different vehicle onsite as advertised, or a completely different vehicle.
Most people (76%) visited their local dealer after viewing an advertisement via an online video (YouTube); followed by streaming TV (72%); social media (71%); and search via Google (70%).
Only 32% of people reported visiting a local dealer after seeing or hearing an advertisement on traditional media (broadcast/cable TV, radio or newspaper).

Vehicle Delivery/Online Purchase Trends

Nearly the same number of respondents said they had their vehicle delivered to them directly (29%) as those who said they picked up their car at the dealership (30%).
However, another 26% said they would have purchased their car or truck completely online had the dealership offered that option.

“These survey results illustrate where car shoppers have been focused in leveraging the growing cadre of digital retailing tools being implemented by retailers today,” said Jeremy Anspach, PureCars Founder and CEO. “Since we now understand the effects the pandemic has had on the car-buying process, it’s good to start analyzing where consumers are most interested, and the changing role digital advertising is playing in driving people to the showroom.”

About PureCars

PureCars is an automotive MarTech company that’s in the business of transforming the way dealers, dealer groups, Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers make decisions that impact their bottom line — from advertising to operations. Everyone claims to have data, but only PureCars has PURE Intelligence, giving dealers a competitive edge. By providing superior information and execution, we give our customers precisely what they need to operate more efficiently, lower their cost per unit sold and win in their market. PureCars has been serving the automotive industry exclusively since 2007. We are a certified digital provider for 15 OEMs in the U.S. and 1 in Canada, compliant with 40+ brands and serve 65 of the top 100 dealer groups in North America.

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Is the Dawn of Digital Retailing Upon Us?

Kelly Kleinman — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:00:02 +0000

Has the Novel Coronavirus Sped up the Adaptive Process for Dealers to Scale Up DR?

We’ve been blasting calls to dealerships lately in order to get some insight as to how the current epidemic is effecting consumer behavior. As one would expect, the results are variable depending on the market. This past weekend saw some many dealers at or near par, and others down by double digits, nothing new there. It isn’t catastrophic yet, but it’s not trending favorably, especially with mandatory shutdowns looming and in place. Foot traffic was down everywhere, but online engagement increased as would be expected. But for dealers experiencing far less foot traffic, and not set up for state-of-the-art digital retailing, sales may be lost in the turbulence of inefficiency.

Why Are Car Sales Not Falling Through the Ice Yet?

It’s quite possible that the sales we’ve seen reflected during the last couple weeks are indicative of individual buying cycles that began several months ago and simply culminated over the last couple weekends. As the crisis grows, the slow down in transactions will be more akin to a ceiling fan that gets turned off and takes time to come to a complete stop. Hopefully, something will flip the switch back on before that happens.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and this crisis has shed some light on the real future of automotive retailing.

Those dealers whose websites have been modified or rebuilt to accommodate digital retailing platforms should be seeing an uptick in activity right about now. People are resistant to leave the safety of their homes, let alone drive into a car dealership and have to face off with any number of potential disease vectors for what is usually a long period of time. It’s no longer a preference, rather a necessity to reduce “perceived and real risk” during this period to buy online and avoid human contact.

Several dealers I have chatted with are actively engaging folks to transact online, but they’re freestyling it, and not using any particular digital retailing platform so the constant back and forth of docs and questions may feel clunky and time consuming. Some are assuredly warming up to the inevitable truth that online car buying will be the preferred method of car buyers possibly much sooner than later.

Just 4 short weeks ago at NADA, digital retailing sounded like an ancillary model for the future.

Everyone was still waiting to see which platform would deliver the best results. Webbuy had some very impressive numbers, but no one else was all the too forthcoming with a case study, at least when we asked. Many of us thought that DR was going to be commonplace somewhere down the road. No one expected it to be at the next Stop sign, but here we are. This “crisis” is unquestionably an anomalistic one in real-time, but it shows why having a customer friendly, seamless DR solution is an absolute must.

How long this nightmare will last, it’s hard to say. Will digital retailing-based transactions reach 10%, 20%, or 25% of some dealership’s sales in the next several months? That all remains to be seen. I don’t think it will, but I do think that those pushing digital retailing should take advantage of the current chaos and start charting activity now so they have something to show dealers when the time is right. Meanwhile, keep on marketing. Slow downs are no time to slow down!

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WebBuy Certified as Digital Retailing Application Provider by Subaru

Kelly Kleinman — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 18:02:36 +0000

BILLINGS, MT – February 10, 2010 – WebBuy, today announced it has been certified to be part of the Subaru Certified Digital Tool Program, following a rigorous review process.

WebBuy’s Digital Retail Application provides:

An all-inclusive end-to-end solution which drives a superior consumer experience
Multiple instant real-time financing options for the consumer to choose
Fully integrated and customizable Trade-In appraisal and used vehicle acquisition solution – CarValuator®
Dealer centric control of operational / profit drivers and analytics
Vehicle reservation and digital check out

“It’s important to provide the consumer with the transparency they demand”
Tom Murray
CEO of WebBuy.

“It gives the self-directed consumer the confidence they desire to complete the online retail process. The combined effect of providing a best-in-class consumer experience with the flexibility Subaru retailers need to maintain profitability is essential and a win-win situation.”

About WebBuy
Complete, LLC dba WebBuy is located in Billings, MT and is a leading provider of Digital Retail Solutions for automotive retailers. The WebBuy team is comprised of dealership and automotive industry experts. For more information, please visit www.webbuy.com

Media Contact:
Greg Kelly
586-557-0672
gk@webBuy.com

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Tom Murray with WebBuy

Kelly Kleinman — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 18:03:52 +0000

CEO and Co-Founder Tom Murray discusses how you can take advantage of the new way to buy cars that are emerging online, for your own dealership. Find more informative interviews like this one, at DealershipNews.com

Kelly Kleinman:
Kelly Kleinman DealershipNews.com we are the Digital Dealer Show at the lovely Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the sinful city we’ve got with us from WebBuy Mr. Tom Murray. He is the CEO and Co-founder. Tom, what’s the value proposition? What do you guys do over a Web Buy?

Tom Murray:
Nice to see you Kelly.. We we are dealers primarily that decided seven years ago that we wanted to create an Amazon solution, including a proceed to checkout, so to speak, functionality for the franchise dealer world. And we we began the journey and its been an interesting path for seven years. And the things that differentiate us Kelly. is that we a number one, our solution works that had an approved by most OEMs that we have now have hundreds of happy dealer customers. But there’s a couple of key differentiation points in our solution. We create a sandbox of sorts, right, for that demographic. I call it the Carvana effect, right? Carvana nd I think the number was 4700. They reach out in 2017 and 2018, sold 94,000 this year. They’re tracking, I believe, about a 170,000. So whatever you believe about their value proposition in terms of their business model, the one thing they’ve certainly done is to have validated. Right. The fact that this is in this demographic of of a buyer who’s conflict averse, who’s digitally savvy, and maybe most importantly, who wants to control the process. Right. It isn’t growing. It’s exploding. And if you’re a franchise dealer, whether whether you want to partner with my company or not, I would I would call special attention to you to really focus on the fact that this is this isn’t a fad. Right. This is coming. It’s not just coming. It’s here. And then you look at the vroom’s and the digital disruptors. Right. And if you’ve ever seen a Carvana TV commercial, for example, they’ll tell you car salesman is bad, a car dealer is bad. Don’t go there. And so we’re under attack. And I would encourage my friends in the in the franchise dealership to to recognize that right. To not stick our heads in the collective sand and go.. It’s a fad. It’ll pass. It’s not a fad and it’s not going to pass. You either need to reinvent that portion of your business because today it’s probably 25%. And I would say in the next 24 to 36 months, it may be as much as half of your customer base. So even if you’re not digitally, digitally retailing, at least give your consumer, your customer and the people in your marketplace a path to engage with you. Right. Because today, if you don’t have that opportunity, if they don’t have that opportunity, you’re never gonna meet them. And there’s so many other places that will meet their needs. CarMax. Right. Even Tesla gets referenced not because it’s a high volume car, but it’s the process. Right? It’s simple. It’s easy, and most importantly, it’s user controlled. So that was our mission statement from day one. Number two, we wanted to be able to make it dealer centric. Right. We my co-founder owns a big dealer group in Billings, Montana. My background, I spent half of my career in the retail space. The other half, I worked for the warranty group.

Tom Murray:
I was the president of Resource Automotive, the biggest division. It’s now Assurant. So we understand the car business. And we not only protect the dealers profit centers, but we grow them and we’ve actually created new profit centers. And then lastly, we give you as a dealer all of the impact drivers to control the business digitally, just like you would with a green sharpie marker in the force in the showroom we use in essence Kelly. just the way summarize it would be say we digitize the 10 steps to the sale. Right in every aspect of our solution, whether that’s sales tax to the penny, whether it is rebates and incentives, whether it’s payoff information. Our billboard is it real time auto decisioning machine that allows you to markup the loans, control it, and foster that rapid less than 60 seconds communication and the deals bought are customizable training tool, which is part of our solution. We built it from scratch. We made a dealer centric. You decide all of the impact drivers in terms of the deductions, the additions. Right. How you want to give you one quick example and the appraisal front. If if a customer is in a dealership and you say to me, hey, Tommy and both remotes for your trading, and I say, no, Mike, my son lost one of them. But we’re gonna have to deduct $400. Right, because we have to give the next customer.

Tom Murray:
I’m probably mad at you at that moment, the dealership, because you’re the message. I’ll spin the paradigm and change that dynamic, and I’m in my sweats at 10 o’clock at night on my computer and I’m clicking right. New tires click. Does it need brakes? Click? Yep. Both remotes now are missing one click and then the reconciliation comes up and it deducts the 400. I’m not mad at the car dealer. I’m mad at my son. Right. For losing the remote, possibly $400. But here’s the here’s the punchline. The people who had the self-guided experience are. 78% more likely to accept the wholesale offer, not a retail offer, because they’re in control. They’re the ones they’re appraising your own car.

Tom Murray:
So that’s just one impact driver in our solution. And then we literally take it all the way A to Z. We give them a sandbox to play with regular rates. Then it rates lease payments in real time with updated impact factors, rather return interest rate or money factor. And then we literally have an Amazon proceed to checkout functionality at the end where the customer puts the credit card in and literally buys the car. So we’ve spent a lot of time Kelly. 7 years building this solution and trying to make it dealer centric. Most of our investors are car dealers. We’ve gotten a lot of great ideas along the way and we’ve endeavoured to continually reinvent and update on a regular recurring basis in a position where a dealer says This is exactly what I do right in my showroom manually on a Saturday afternoon. If I’ve got 15 salespeople at one o’clock in the afternoon and there’s 22 ups, I’m going to lose that op on a Saturday because I don’t have a way to handle to ups. I want to augment what you do and what your salesperson to take. Three ups, not one. So if I say to you, hey, Jimmy, from pulling out, that’s what I’ve done. If nothing else had slowed you down and bought myself some time to finish with the first up right and get to you. But at the end of the day, they could literally take the phone and buy the car while they’re sitting in the customer. So there’s a lot of a lot of good impact drivers in our solution. But most importantly, I guess the advice I would give to dealers is again and I’ll kind of end where I began. This is not a fad. This is not a flash in the pan. And most importantly, it’s not going away. The franchise dealer model is under attack by digital disruptors.

Tom Murray:
And fortunately for you, we have a solution that would combat that Carvana effect and level the playing field for you and allow you to engage with those people that, you know, don’t like negotiation. They do everything on their phone. They forget about negotiating, they don’t even want to talk to another human being right then and say, hey, we’ve got a path to make you happy and to allow you to engage in a self-directed digital purchasing experience. You’re in control. So I look forward to visiting with you again. Thank you for the opportunity to visit with you today. And I hope you have a great finish to show folks.

Kelly Kleinman:
That’s whereby Tom Murray, CEO, the man, the myth, the legend. We’re going to do a podcast and then we’ll get a little more into it. In the meantime, have a great day.

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