This is how you properly showcase used cars

This is how you properly showcase used cars

Every car has its bright side, you have to find it," says someone who should know. After all, Peter Pellkofer's official job title is "used car sales consultant". “Maybe a particular model doesn’t look that great from the front, but it does look great from the side.” This is exactly what needs to be taken into account when presenting the vehicle as a used car dealer, be it on the used car lot or - increasingly important - on the Internet. Photos are of central importance there and the most beautiful view should at least be the main photo of an advertisement. “Photos should not only show the color of a car, but also increase desire and arouse the desire to buy,” says the expert. 
 

AutoScout24 is also aware of the importance of images: “The images of your used car form the heart of your online advertisement. Because they demonstrate the condition of the vehicle and arouse the interest of potential buyers,” it says there. The operator of the trading platforms autoscout24.at and, in Austria, suchtwagen.at is the largest online car market in Europe with around ten million users per month and more than two million vehicle offers. In a free photo guide, the company provides anyone interested with detailed instructions for photographing vehicles. The automotive industry has filtered out the most important tips: 

• Environment: Choose a quiet environment that doesn't show people or distract from the car. A house wall or a parking lot in daylight is ideal. 
• Views: Photograph the vehicle from different angles and perspectives with detailed views of the rims, interior and damage. 
• Safety: Unscrew or cover the license plate. Alternatively, you can retouch it afterwards. Under no circumstances should it be visible in your ad. 

A good tip is also relevant tools that make the whole thing much easier. At AutoScout24 you can advertise used cars directly using the AutoScout24 app. “So you can easily take photos of your vehicle with your smartphone or tablet and upload them directly to the sales ad,” promises the provider. Of course, this is aimed more at private individuals. 
 

Consultant Pellkofer advises using relevant modern tools - especially used car professionals, who on the one hand should not afford bad pictures, but on the other hand should also act economically and not invest too much time. 

Nowadays there are – how could it be otherwise – own apps that were developed specifically for used car dealers. With their help you can record cars where they are standing, so you don't even have to pay attention to the background. The reason: The images are automatically cropped so that they can then be presented professionally in a uniform company design. It only takes a few minutes until then.

One such tool for professionals is CarCutter, a photo app for smartphones. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it promises optimized car images within a few seconds. CarCutter offers different monthly tariffs - depending on how many pictures you want to take. The basic package with an exemption costs 2.99 euros per car, the premium package costs 7.99 euros. The latter includes 8 exemptions and the automatic upload to the dealer's DMS. This should pay off, as the Graz-based company promises: “We had it examined and found that the images edited by CarCutter actually had click rates that were almost 60 percentage points higher,” says Julian Robida, who acts as Head of Growth. CarCutter commissioned a study from an independent provider in which more than 1,000 people who were considering buying a car in the foreseeable future were surveyed. 95 percent of them are convinced that high-quality photos are of central importance when finding out about used cars on the Internet. In the survey, potential buyers were shown a photo of a BMW - once with the original background and once edited and cropped by CarCutter.

The result is clear: 79.3 percent preferred the edited image. This was also associated with more professional providers: 68 percent of those surveyed thought that the exempt BMW was offered by a brand dealer. In the original picture, which was photographed professionally, only 40 percent were included; the majority assigned the vehicle to independent or even backyard dealers or private sellers. The result is impressive: the test subjects were willing to pay 2,540 euros more for the BMW staged by CarCutter than for the same car in the original setting! 
 

It obviously pays to pay some attention to the subject of image design. Because at some point you will be presented with an invoice for carelessly posted pictures of used vehicles online.