Dealer Image Pro, a provider of professional photo, video and 360-degree software for automotive dealerships, announced results of a survey it commissioned on the level of satisfaction dealers have with their preferred vendors and how using a preferred vendor has influenced dealership vehicle inventory photo and video decisions. 

The company surveyed more than 3,000 automotive dealer professionals online in December, finding that 40% said they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the preferred vendor managing their vehicle inventory photo and video process. It also found that 33% of dealerships' preferred vendor decisions are primarily influenced by pre-existing relations, while another 31% said they don’t use only preferred vendors and still look at outside vendors to take the dealership’s vehicle photos and videos. 

As preferred vendors often have too many dealership clients to customize campaigns for and can’t fit the various needs of dealerships in different markets, according to Automotive News, another 40% of automotive dealer professionals said they are not currently working with a preferred vendor to photograph their dealership’s inventory. That ultimately shows that outside vendors are starting to engage more local markets and outweigh the preferred-vendor status.

 “(Original equipment manufacturers) and auto groups continue to look for the best ways to merchandise their vehicles online for their omnichannel sites, and a lot of dealers now simply want the opportunity to work with nonpreferred vendors that have new technologies and an expanded reach into other markets.” said Louis Norman, Director of Operations at Dealer Image Pro. “Dealer Image Pro has been effected by preferred vendors firsthand, as we’ve been forced into auto groups, but have also been ripped away from happy customers, so we wanted to understand what exactly pushes dealers to a preferred vendor and if it is based on successful results.”  

For more information on how to streamline your merchandising for an entire auto group or an individual dealership, like Dealer Image Pro, visit https://www.dealerimagepro.com/demo/ to request a demonstration of the company’s dealership merchandising solutions.