Automotive
6 minute read - Jun 29, 2020

How Bring a Trailer sold a used Honda Civic for $50,000 all online

How Bring a Trailer sold a used Honda Civic for $50,000 and lessons for traditional auto dealers on how to sell cars all-online.
Darren Blench
Enterprise Partnerships

COVID-19 is transforming the way that people buy cars, and many dealerships are shifting gears from selling in-person to selling cars all-online. Rhett Ricart, CEO of Ricart Automotive Group, predicts that 80%-90% of car dealers will have full-eCommerce buying options by the end of the year. But some car companies are ahead of the curve and have already figured out the trick to selling cars online. Bring a Trailer, a company focusing on auctions for vintage cars, has been selling cars all-online for years and recently sold a used Honda Civic for $50,000.

Images courtesy of bringatrailer.com/

Having rare collectible cars definitely helps attract car-buyers online, but equally important is having a solid marketing and merchandising strategy. Part of what makes Bring a Trailer so successful at selling cars online is their commitment to transparency and a strong focus on using images to promote their vehicles. This has helped Bring a Trailer successfully sell cars from coast to coast and to customers from all 50 states.

Professional photography and a simple but comprehensive car gallery are critical components in Bring a Trailer’s merchandising strategy. Each car has over 100 high-quality photos for buyers to look at, showcasing all possible angles and important features. Images are also well integrated in the vehicle descriptions and all images are in high resolution, and without any glare, so buyers can see exact details including imperfections.

“We represent each car honestly with objectively-written listings and comprehensive photo galleries. [And] each seller is provided with an auction specialist, a dedicated point of contact during the drafting and live auction process.” - bringatralier.com

And Bring a Trailer’s focuses on using images to promote other vehicles, ensuring buyers always have something beautiful and interesting to look at and creating an addictive loop of looking at one car after another. Investing in high-quality professional photography has helped Bring a Trailer to create a better online experience and eliminates the need to view cars in person, helping the company sell cars all-online.

High-quality photography is proven to improve the performance of car galleries. A study by COX automotive showed that custom high-quality photos improve car detail page views by 349% compared to using stock photos! And studies have also shown that viewing car photos is the most important information for people buying a car and was 3.55x more important than reading car descriptions or details.

The best way to get professional high-quality car photos is to use Snappr. With the largest network of professional photographers Snappr can photograph a car anywhere, on-demand, and with as little as 2 hours advance notice. And all Snappr shoots are professionally edited to improve consistency and quality, ensuring stunningly beautiful car photos such as these.

Ready to take your photography to the next level and make a real impact on your bottom line? Contact Snappr’s Enterprise Team to learn how we can provide automotive photos that are second to none.

About the author

Darren Blench
Enterprise Partnerships

Darren Blench leads partnerships for enterprise Automotive clients at Snappr. He has helped dozens of major players in the industry with their content strategy. He is available for a no-obligation consultation about your Automotive photography needs.

Email me

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