vAuto announces the incorporation of SnapLot 360, a visually captivating 360-degree spin image capturing application that equips dealerships to take photos and videos of a vehicle’s interior and exterior, creating dynamic listing content for online car buyers. With this dynamic merchandising tool located within vAuto Conquest and Provision, dealerships are driving online engagement and potential sales by delivering a more immersive shopping experience for customers as they increasingly rely on new online shopping tools and services to research and compare vehicles. 

According to Cox Automotive’s 2021 Car Buyer Journey Study, 74% of franchise dealers say their customers have used digital retailing tools more since COVID-19 — indicating that advanced digital merchandising tools and enhanced visualization will be must-haves for dealerships in the year ahead. To increase consumer satisfaction and help drive profit, dealerships can use SnapLot 360 in vAuto Conquest and Provision, providing a new, easier way to merchandise inventory without any additional inventory management platform. Retailers simply need a smartphone and the SnapLot 360 app and they can capture exterior shots in seconds with a single walkaround, creating a 360-degree shopper-controlled and self-guided tour of the vehicle — all in order to increase the visibility of their inventories by leaps and bounds.

In a 2019 study, 73% of car shoppers who bought or leased a vehicle rated 360 displays as extremely helpful in the shopping process, underscoring the importance of this offering for all dealerships. (Source: HomeNet 360 Consumer Study 2019) SnapLot 360 is the perfect integrated application to provide potential customers with a highly visual and virtual experience that closely mimics the real-life experiences when purchasing a car, including visual aspects and live insights at the click of a button. 

“SnapLot 360 gives dealerships a digital edge within vAuto, allowing them to use one system for inventory management and merchandising,” said Nathan Fox, senior director of business development for vAuto leading all merchandising initiatives. “The dynamic, interactive images of a vehicle’s interior and exterior create the transparency demanded by shoppers as they complete more of the car buying process digitally.”

SnapLot 360 incorporates several innovative features that support a dealership’s goal to create a more immersive shopping experience for customers, including:

• Exterior 360 Capture: With a quick walk around the vehicle, capture high-resolution, exterior 360 spin images in seconds, using your Android or iOS device. 
• Interior 360 Capture: Create compelling interior panoramic views that bring the customer inside the cabin. 
• Hot Spot Tagging: Uses stencils that guide dealerships to specific features in the photos and automatically tags them as hot spots providing a more visual and informative vehicle detail page. 
• 360 Syndication: Dealerships can take images and syndicate those photos to top car shopping sites and website providers in the industry, including Autotrader and Dealer.com. 
• Automatic Photo Extraction and Upload: After capturing the 360 spin images, automatically extract photos and upload them to vAuto Provision or Conquest via wireless, reducing the manual work required by dealers in order to save time and increase efficiency.

“Since using SnapLot 360, we’ve been able to differentiate ourselves from the competitors and engage more customers. It’s simple to use and creates a unique, standout experience for shoppers,” said Robert Velez, internet manager, Liberty Auto City. “We’ve seen measurable results with great engagement without adding more work to our plate with SnapLot 360.” 

“Matching supply to demand is going to be a big challenge for our industry in 2021. Connecting advanced marketing and merchandising capabilities, like Snaplot 360, directly to the marketplaces where consumers instinctively go to look for vehicles establishes a new level of value for dealerships,” added Paul Whitworth, senior vice president inventory solutions at Cox Automotive. “This is just one of the many ways we are reimagining the vast array of solutions across Cox Automotive to solve business problems for our clients.”

For more information on vAuto SnapLot 360, visit vAuto.com/snaplot360 For information on all of Cox Automotive’s 2021 new offerings, visit www.coxautoinc.com/experience.