Your Digital Frontline Matters More Than Ever in Automotive Merchandising

In today’s automotive market, your digital showroom matters as much as your physical one. Car shoppers spend hours researching online before ever stepping foot on your lot, if they do at all. Yet too many dealerships are still treating online merchandising as an afterthought.

In a competitive, margin-compressed market, this is a mistake you can’t afford to make. Your online merchandising strategy, what we call the digital frontline, is mission-critical to attracting, engaging, and converting today’s automotive buyer.

Online is where car sales begin:

• Up to 70% of a car shopper’s VDP dwell time is spent looking at photos and media
• Listings with interactive 360° views and videos see up to 60% more time on page (Edmunds)
• Shoppers interacting with 360° walk-arounds are up to 70% more likely to submit a lead (Cars.com)
• Consumers remember 80% of what they see and do compared to just 20% of what they read (SSRN)

Visual content sells cars. The more engaging your listings, the more likely shoppers are to convert. Yet thousands of VDPs are still published every day with blurry photos, bad lighting, cluttered backgrounds, or inconsistencies that erode trust and end in no sale.

Would you let your showroom floor be cluttered or messy? Of course not. Why allow your most valuable digital assets to underperform?

The New Frontline is Online

The pandemic accelerated a shift that’s been years in the making: car buyers are now making more decisions from behind their computer and mobile phone. According to Cox Automotive, more than 80% of car buyers want to handle much of the buying process digitally.

But here’s what dealers tend to miss: it’s not just about e-commerce. It’s about building trust and enabling the decision to visit your lot. If your online listings don’t immediately build confidence, you’ll lose shoppers to the next dealer down the road. Today’s buyer is visiting four dealership websites before making a decision where to buy. If you manage to get them to your VDP, you have a very short window to make your inventory stand out and earn their click, call, or visit.

What many dealerships haven’t realized is that digital merchandising is one of the most controllable, high-ROI levers you have. The dollars you spend to drive traffic to your website are only as effective as the experience you offer once people get there.

Basic photos of your inventory don’t cut it. In a market driven by quick decisions, interactive merchandising is the differentiator. Let’s break down what we mean by interactive. It’s not just about nice photos. It’s about delivering a consistent, immersive, high-converting experience that builds trust and drives action.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Smart Cropping & Background Removal 
• AI Image Upscaling
• 360° Interior and Exterior Spins
• WalkAround Videos
• Interactive Hotspots and Smart Overlays
• Dynamic Billboards

• Frontline Photos – Improve consistency, remove distractions, and elevate visual trust.
  
  
• Frontline Gallery – Add branded overlays, smart hotspots, and interactivity that drive action.
  
  
• Frontline Studio – Engage buyers with 360° tours and rich media content.
  
  
• Frontline Showcase – Combine the best of all worlds into your highest-converting VDP package.

Every click you pay for, every shopper who lands on your VDP, is a potential sale.

You’ve already done the hard part by bringing them to your inventory online. Don’t lose them because of poor photos or weak engagement. Your physical lot still matters, of course. But first impressions happen digitally.

Not a Cost. A Closing Tool.

Some GMs and sales managers look at their digital presence as an expense. But the most forward-thinking dealers know better: great photography and interactive merchandising are closing tools. In fact, it might be one of your best salespeople. It greets every shopper with the best visuals possible. It never forgets to highlight the key features. And it works around the clock, whenever your customer wants to shop and learn.

With the right mindset and tools, you can own your digital frontline and convert more shoppers into buyers. Whether you’re looking to optimize what you have or build a full-stack visual strategy, Frontline from Xcite gets you where you want to go.

Let us show you how you can easily turn every VDP into a high-converting, trust-building, lead-generating asset.

Get a Frontline Demo