Now, more than ever, online shoppers are giving their business to the companies that display products in the clearest, most trustworthy way.
That applies to the random products people buy on Amazon. It applies to the items people pick up on Facebook Marketplace.
And it definitely applies to the $45,000 car a shopper might be looking to take home.
Why this matters: Cox Automotive data puts 92% of U.S. car purchases starting online, with 41% of buyers visiting only one dealership before buying. BlackBook finds that 75% of shoppers use third-party automotive sites during their search.
Taken together, the vehicle detail page (VDP) becomes the primary experience for a significant share of buyers, and what they find there largely determines whether they contact the store or keep scrolling.
Despite that, inventory presentation remains one of the least standardized parts of most dealership operations.
Explaining the problem: A dealer running a single store can likely manage the photography process through sheer proximity.
But considering the volume of inventory that exists across a group running 15 or 20 locations across multiple brands, too many variables (store environments, equipment, individual habits across rooftops) make it hard to maintain consistency manually.
By the numbers: Manual photography typically runs $10–$15 per unit and delays listings by one to three days, according to several AI-powered imaging vendors operating in the space.
Adding to that, Cox Automotive puts holding costs at $30–$40 per vehicle per day while a vehicle sits offline, and getting it listed faster can unlock $400–$600 per unit in revenue that would have otherwise waited.
Expenses like these typically surface in days-to-turn and gross per unit rather than a photography budget line, which is part of why they go untracked.
What some groups are doing about it: A handful of AI-powered vehicle photography platforms have emerged to address the consistency problem at scale.
CarCutter is among the more established, processing over 85 million images per year across more than 3,000 dealerships, ranging from small- and medium-sized businesses to large groups, including AutoNation, where it now processes approximately 12 million images annually. CarCutter also processes images for Koons and Ourisman Automotive.
Beyond static imaging, their platform generates 360-degree virtual walkarounds with rotatable spin views built from the four standard exterior photos that a lot attendant is already capturing.
The technology also uses branded backgrounds and interactive hotspot overlays to let shoppers click into specific features, such as “All-wheel drive and suspension,” or to address condition issues like “Scratch on rear door,” directly from the listing.
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Zooming out: The broader trend here matters more than any single vendor. Carvana and CarMax built this kind of immersive VDP experience into their core product years ago, and it’s a huge part of why shoppers describe browsing those platforms differently than a traditional dealer site.
Now, vendors in this space are arguing that franchised dealers don't need to out-invest Carvana or CarMax as much as they just need to show up online the same way.
Case in point: A spokesperson with Koons Automotive said custom photos have become a meaningful factor in third-party site visibility.
What they’re saying: "Since we launched with CarCutter, clicks on a Koons car from our search results page increased by 52%," they said, though results will vary depending on inventory mix, market, and baseline listing quality.
Similarly, at Ourisman Automotive Group, which operates 16 brands across 18 locations, the reported return from CarCutter was standardization across rooftops, with the same quality, angles, and presentation, regardless of which location photographed the vehicle.
The Benzel-Busch Family of Dealerships reported a 65% reduction in time spent photographing each vehicle and 40% faster time-to-market, per the company's internal data.
Worth noting: Not every AI imaging solution performs equally, and some general-purpose models are known to cause texture issues, logo deformation, and visual errors that don't accurately represent the vehicle. (Quick way to ruin shoppers’ trust…)
From what we can tell, vendors have approached that problem differently, with varying degrees of human review layered into the process.
CarCutter, for one, says its automotive-trained models combined with human quality assurance produce a 99% accuracy rate, though that figure comes from the company itself.
Bottom line: Vehicle photography is a department most dealer groups haven't formalized the way they have finance, service, or BDC.
And for groups still figuring out what their current process looks like (who owns it, where it breaks down, and what it's actually costing them), that's the right place to start before evaluating any solution.
A quick word from our partner
You get 0.5 seconds to win buyers’ attention – don’t waste them.
92% of car purchases start online: poor visuals send buyers straight to your competition, slow time-to-listing kills your bottom line, and boring VDPs cost you conversions.
CarCutter’s AI visual merchandising solution already helps 2,000+ dealership groups solve these challenges and achieve:
75% faster time to listing
52% higher click rate on SRPs
21% increase in VDP conversions
