If not for a camera and a process, I wouldn’t be writing this article behind a desk inside a publically traded company.

eCarList’s founder, Len Critcher, sold over 6,000 cars online with a camera and two porters…oh, and some incredible software developed in-house to merchandise and distribute his vehicles to the web.

Chances are you have access to all of the above, and with the capability of apps and megapixels in the smartphones of today, dealers are running out of excuses as to why they are not taking ownership of what could arguably be considered the most important phase of marketing a vehicle – photography and merchandising.

Len’s famous rhetorical question to dealers, “does the Gap hire outside contractors to come in and fold their T-shirts?”, led us to conduct our own study.

In short, we studied a sample of franchise dealers who have an internal photography process vs. those who outsource it. The results showed an average profit increase of $288K based on decreased time-to-market and days-in-stock (not including the actual cost of your outsourced vendor).

We understand every dealer has their own set of circumstances, but for those that have the potential and the desire to merchandise more effectively, we also put together a quick-guide on how to setup a photo booth inside your dealership, courtesy of our in-house “film crew”.

Here are some findings from our study OR you can download our full study “eCarList Photography Study“.

In-house merchandising on average:

• decreased time to market by 4.2 days
• decreased days in stock by 10.7 days
• increased average 90 Day Unit Sales by 23%
• increased average 90 day profit by $72,000
• increased annual profit by $288,000

Download “eCarlist Photography Guide”

Are your vehicles being merchandised / photoed In-House or Out-Sourced?

What has worked best for you and your dealership?