Merchandising has become increasingly complex. OEM requirements, photo standards, and rising consumer expectations all add to the workload. And having a strong digital presence is now critical to staying competitive. Every inconsistency provides an opening to weaken buyer trust and lose customers to your competition. Let’s look at the two main bottlenecks impacting your merchandising process.
The Bottlenecks Holding You Back
Manually writing descriptions and enhancing photos isn’t just time-consuming – it directly impacts your profitability on every used vehicle.
You just finished recon on a newly acquired vehicle, and it’s ready for merchandising. You know it’ll sell quickly – it’s a high-demand model, the right color, and it’s low on miles. You want to get it online fast because your competition down the road is selling the same vehicle.
But there’s already a line of vehicles waiting to be merchandised. This isn’t the fault of your employees — sometimes a wave of vehicles clears recon seemingly all at once. But this means your team now has to work through photos, videos, and vehicle descriptions for multiple vehicles — and fast — so you can put them online and get to the customers before the competition. Having multiple vehicles ready for merchandising is a good problem to have, but it can quickly shine a light on the limits of a manual merchandising process when it comes to getting high-caliber listings on your website.
Take photos and videos, for instance. Today’s buyers expect instant access to quality media the moment they land on your website. But capturing excellent photos and videos can be tedious. Not to mention, backgrounds can be tricky. If the backdrop of your vehicle is too cluttered or the lighting is bad, generic, forgettable photos are often the result.
As for the vehicle description, when juggling multiple vehicles on a time crunch, it may end up being rushed to get it on the website, doing little to highlight what makes the vehicle stand out. Ideally, you’d have time to write a detailed, engaging description, but the clock is ticking, and your team is already swamped.
Manually writing descriptions and spending hours trying to enhance photos delays your turn time. And every delay keeps the vehicle off your site, giving your competition more time to win the customer. So, how can you avoid the bottlenecks of manual merchandising? The answer lies in merchandising differently — and most importantly — more efficiently.
Merchandise Differently
-
Shifting from manual merchandising to the world of AI-powered merchandising can change the game by eliminating long turn times and accelerating your entire process. Instead of waiting days for photos, descriptions, and pricing to come together, AI accelerates the entire process without sacrificing quality.
-
Vehicle images are instantly enhanced with clean, consistent backgrounds and overlays, eliminating distractions and creating a professional, polished look across every listing.
-
Descriptions are generated automatically using VIN-specific data, highlighting key features and details most important to buyers.
-
And rather than relying on
manual effort for every vehicle, these enhancements can be applied consistently across your entire inventory, ensuring every listing meets the same high standard.
What once took days can now happen in minutes.
The dealerships winning aren’t just faster, they’re more consistent, more polished, and easier to shop. If you’re ready to get inventory online faster, our new eBook breaks it all down for you.
Download the eBook to see how AI can help you stay ahead of the competition with a faster and more consistent merchandising process.
