Introduction:
In the digital age, car dealerships face intense competition for online visibility, since there are so many options to choose from online. Of course, high-quality imagery is extremely important to stand out of the crowd, however, there are some other aspects to keep in mind in order to provide an even better customer experience.
The following article will explore:
- the benefits of professional car photography
- the impact quality images have on sales
- how CarCutter streamlines your image process
The Benefits of Professional Car Photography
Now, when we talk about professional car photography, we refer to clean, sleek images that make for consistency across your website and therefore not only makes your business more recognizable but also attracts more customers and keeps them engaged on your site.
There are various ways in which you can professionalize your car photography. First of all, you have to make sure that every vehicle and each picture look the same by creating consistency with angles, backgrounds and order of appearance of the pictures on the VDP (for example: all cars are displayed with the photo of the front left and end with interior shots).
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This is mostly achieved by using showrooms, which can either be of physical form or virtual (3D). However, mostly physical showrooms cost a lot of money and do not save you tons of time, since you still have to move the car around and park it in the showroom and clean the showroom, which is why most companies opt for virtual showrooms– more on that later.
Then you have to think about customisation and branding. These give you the chance to become recognizable to your customers and connect with something beyond your brand. With CarCutter, you have multiple options when it comes to customizing and branding your showroom:
- Logo implementation: displays your logo in each showroom. You can have different placements for the logo (static or dynamic) and also choose the size of it.
- Colors: A splash of color in your showroom not only makes it more recognizable, but if you have specific colors in your branding for example, you can also boost your brand and attune it to your website.
- Architecture: When you’ve opted for a customized showroom, you can choose everything from branding to colors to the specific structure of the showroom to make it seem more in tune with your images. For instance, if you take a lot of photos of your vehicles outside, you can put windows in your showroom to mirror the natural lighting on your vehicles. Or if you were to photograph your cars inside, you can opt for a showroom that mirrors a storage hall for instance.
- License plate inlays: are another great way to boost your brand. The inlays can also be attuned to the colors you chose for your showroom and increase recognition even more!
We all can agree, the more branding and the more customized your showroom is, the more you’ll draw attention to your images online. This not only builds more loyalty with already existing customers, but also builds trust into your business with new clients, since you’ll appear more professional and trustworthy. Additionally, an often-overlooked aspect of more valuable backgrounds is that a high-quality image will also make the vehicle seem more valuable. However, we didn’t only notice a change in behavior offline, but also online! One of our partners, Koons, registered a 52% increase in their click rate after implementing high-quality images, which proves the importance of high-quality images when it comes to attracting potential customers.
The Impact of Image Quality on Sales
The automotive industry is changing to a digital, more customer-focused industry. Since shopping for cars is shifting online and more and more offers are to be seen on the internet, you not only have to make sure that your images stand out of the crowd but also make sure that the all round service and customer experience is constantly improved.
Having professionally backgrounded images on your website is the first step to achieve that, since it provides for a pleasant experience browsing on your website and as mentioned before– customers will be more drawn to these images. Additionally, since it makes for a better customer experience, they automatically gain more trust in your business. Unprofessional images may seem scammy and not trustworthy, which is why backgrounded images are associated with a trusting, transparent brand.
Furthermore, high-quality images not only influence the appearance of your business, but also how the individual vehicles are perceived. In fact, a study conducted by CarCutter in 2021 showed that customers would have been up to pay 2540€ more for the same vehicle in the backgounded image! Read more up on that here.
Backgrounding your pictures does not only look clean and professional, but placing the vehicle in a neutral showroom means that you don’t have to worry about the weather or season showing on your images, which is something one of our customers, Christian Sakl, Expert Consultation Used Cars and Deputy Brand Manager Used Cars, really appreciates:
“There is nothing sadder than when the customer looks on the website in the summertime and there are still the photos online that were taken in winter with snow in the background and such. Or you look on the website in the fall and then the summer photos are still on there. Everything is bright and green, the flowers are blooming and then you know anyway that the car has been standing there since May/June and that is not necessarily a positive thing. And that's the advantage with CarCutter that the photos are neutral and you no longer have to pay attention to such things.”
Using the App also helped Vogl+Co in saving 10 minutes of uploading time per car:
“If I take the photo with the CarCutter App, it is automatically transferred to F-Sales and ten minutes later - 15 minutes later - it’s in the system and actually online. And that’s it: I take the photo and while I’m taking the photo, the app uploads it, then it’s online and done. That means I’m quick, I’ve got it right away, and it’s impossible to forget an angle.”
“Look, without me using a third-party editing program, you save yourself a minimum of 10 minutes just with the upload of the images. Concerning photographing– I don’t know now if it makes that much difference–, but I think the advantage with CarCutter is that it’s a guided app. If it’s guided, you can’t forget a single step.”
How CarCutter Can Help
At CarCutter, we offer multiple services that resonate with your goal of selling more cars and achieving a professional online presence.
- Backgrounding: works with our App (for dealerships and dealership groups) and our API (marketplaces). With our backgrounding, the vehicle is placed in a virtual showroom
- Showrooms: help with boosting your brand and giving your website consistency. We offer standard showrooms, which can only be adapted by implementing your logo, or you can opt for a customized showroom, where all design choices are completely up to you– whether it’s the structure, specific colors,…
- Dealer Branding Removal: supports marketplaces in keeping customers on their website instead of diverting them off because of distracting banners and such.
- License Plate Inlay: boosts your branding even more!
- The CarCutter app: supports dealerships in streamlining their photography process by guiding them step by step through each image and uploading the images to their DMS system simultaneously!
- Upscaling: makes sure that every image is the same size and sharp!
Conclusion:
In conclusion, professional car photography is essential for any dealership looking to increase sales and improve their online presence. By investing in high-quality images and utilizing CarCutter's professional image backgrounding and editing services, dealerships can attract more clicks, increase customer trust, and sell cars for a higher price!
