How Can Dealerships Buy Car Stock Images?

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Some dealerships might take a DIY approach to the photographs on their website that showcases their inventory. While photos snapped on a smartphone or tablet could be an inexpensive way to showcase all the options on the lot, photography is an artform. Marketing vehicles requires photographs that highlight their best features. If a photo falls flat, the customer might just surf onto another dealership’s site.

To ensure that new models receive the best marketing possible online, in advertisements or even when car dealerships profile models on social media, car stock imagery is the best photography option. How can dealerships buy car stock images?

Not Every Car Stock Image is Ideal

There are many stock photo companies that could offer photos of vehicles—new and older models. However, not all companies specialize in car stock images. When a company’s niche is automotive, dealerships are more likely to have the shots they want of the vehicles they need.

Car stock photography doesn’t just require photos of the exterior of the vehicle and a few snapshots of the interior. Buyers want all the details about a vehicle; they want to be able to visit a dealership’s website and gain as much insight about the vehicle as possible.

In the past, car buyers spent more than seven hours researching and buying a car online. For one out of three car buyers surveyed for Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study: Pandemic Edition, the dealership website was the last online destination.

A dealership’s website needs to be impactful, engaging and perhaps even interactive, too. Buyers want to find what they need. However, they also might stay on the site longer if the dealership offers tools that are interactive and immersive. These tools could include:

  • 360 degree spin photos
  • Animated photos
  • Panorama interior photos
  • Augmented reality or virtual reality showrooms
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Some Car Stock Photos Let Users Take the Car for a ‘Spin’

Car stock photography for models should include a variety of photos detailing features of the interior and exterior. However, these photos also can be used to provide even more information about a model.

Flat one-dimensional photos don’t show potential buyers the entire design of the vehicle. However, a spin photo allows site visitors to see the car’s design from any and every angle. These photos are designed to allow for user interaction.

Spin photos let users turn the car around with a fingertip or their mouse. Interior panorama photos are designed the same way. Site visitors can actually look around the interior of the vehicle.

When buyers are researching cars online, a spin photo can let them better understand the vehicle’s design elements and look at the interior, too.

How Dealerships Can Get Animated with Stock Photos

Stock photos also can include animated imagery of vehicles. EVOX Images offers the following animated photo options for dealerships that want to add an element of excitement to their vehicle marketing:

  • Drive-in animations
  • Drive-in / spin animation
  • Colorized fly-around
  • Colorized spin

Not all stock photo companies offer animated photos of vehicles. EVOX showcases every make and model via high-resolution imagery to provide dealerships with the best digital assets. Now these assets have become more exciting by incorporating video-like animation.

What do these images showcase to the customer and why are these animated photos important for dealerships? Here’s what to know about animated photography.

About Drive-In Animations

Drive-in animated shots are a unique way to introduce a new model online. These photos show the vehicle driving into the photo.

Drive-in / Spin Animation

These images show the vehicle driving into the photo and then rotating 360 degrees. These photos let customers see the car in motion, and they also help buyers understand the design of the vehicle, too.

Colorized Fly-Around

While dealerships typically include swatches of all the different paint hue options for each model, show these options on the car instead. Colorized fly-around photos capture the vehicle at different vantage points; as the photo changes, so does the paint hue of the vehicle.

Colorized Spin

These photos are animated to show the car rotating 360 degrees. As the car rotates, the paint color changes. This is another great photo that shows all the paint trims for a model. Customers can immediately preview all the hues in one photo.

Animated photos aren’t the same as spin photos. Animated photography loads automatically and requires no interaction from the user. These images are a great inclusion to a vehicle model’s web page or even to use on social media.

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This Car Stock Image Site Offers Extensive Choices

Dealerships might be excited to integrate these interactive and animated photos. What company offers all these extensive photography options for car stock photos?

EVOX Images includes thousands of makes and models in its online photo library. For every model, EVOX Images offers a variety of photo options that could include these animated or spin photos and:

  • 3-angle colorized sets
  • Full stills set
  • Base trim library
  • Splash images

In addition, when dealerships use EVOX Images for their car stock photography, searching for the best photo is always easy. EVOX Images integrates API into its search; this enables dealerships to easily find the make/model/year that they want as well as the type of image they need for each model.

API stands for Application Programming Interface; Red Hat explains that these interface designs “… let your product or service communicate with other products and services without having to know how they’re implemented.”

EVOX Images’ search query system lets dealerships specify the exact type of photo they need for the vehicle. The results are displayed as actual images, and this allows dealerships to easily sort through their options to identify the best photo for their needs.

While many other stock image sites could require dealerships to sort through thousands of folders and image links to find what they want, EVOX Images simplifies the process. Dealerships can find photos quickly and save time.

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How Can Dealerships Buy a Car Stock Image?

Dealerships that need specific images for a car model might wonder how they can buy the images they need. EVOX Images lets dealerships search for images at any time and purchase images individually.

In addition, EVOX Images also offers digital assets that are compatible for virtual reality and/or augmented reality experiences. This allows dealerships to create engaging immersive showroom experiences for clients.

While augmented reality experiences let users access the camera of their phone to control where a vehicle appears, virtual reality experiences require the user to have access to a headset to enter the virtual world. Both experiences, though, might be used to help simulate the in-person showroom experience.

EVOX Images also can customize some images. Dealerships that are interested in customizing any image, though, should reach out to a customer service executive to discuss their needs.

Why Dealerships Need Extensive Stock Photo Selection

While DIY photos might be fine for dealerships to market used or pre-owned models that can’t be captured by stock photos, using high-resolution stock imagery for new models adds a professional appeal to online content. In addition, EVOX Images’ car stock photo library offers extensive choices for animated or interactive photos.

Car stock photos should incorporate imagery that encourages customers to engage and interact online. Animated photos and spin photos add exploratory and  exciting elements to a dealership’s vehicle marketing. Explore all the photos that EVOX Images offers and purchase the images that will enhance the user experience and set the dealership apart from its competitors.

EVOX Images leads the industry in automotive imaging and offers the largest library of virtual reality and augmented reality assets available for commercial use. Contact our team or call us at 310-605-1400 to learn more about our innovative imaging solutions.