Don’t believe me? Just check out Carvana’s website and one of their VDPs. I know what you’re thinking: “We don’t need that!” But guess what? You are wrong. Many also offer 360 degree interactive photos. When you look at a product page (the parallel of our VDP), they provide the ability to zoom in on a picture to look at small details. What’s next? Well take a look at most high-end retailer’s websites.

Then video was introduced, beginning with stitched video and progressing to live video walkarounds.

Then progressive dealers started taking 40 or more pictures which quickly became the norm. It wasn’t too long ago that one or two pictures of a vehicle on a VDP or listing site was acceptable. Let’s take vehicle inventory marketing as an example. Think about the evolution of marketing in our industry. This has opened doors for tech start-ups to encroach on the market share of dealers who normally wouldn’t have much to worry about. They’re figuring out and solving problems that we’ve ignored for too long. Not necessarily for most dealers, but for the corporate Wall Street owned retailers who DO use the same technology that works in other retail sectors and apply it to the automotive industry. Wall Street finally took notice and, once Warren Buffett entered our industry, things started changing. While the auto industry has stubbornly clung to the old ways of doing business. Most other retail businesses are embracing technology and have a huge head start on catering to the wants and desires of today’s consumers. My point is this - as dealers we’ve been taking the blue pill for far too long.

The matrix red pill vs blue pill