Having Fewer Photos on Used Car Sites Prevents “Image Fatigue” Says Study
Have you ever browsed a website for details on a used car and gotten quickly burnt out by the sheer multitude of repetitive photographs to sift through?
CarStory thinks you have–you and numerous other online shoppers, too. That’s one of the interesting points made in the organization’s latest report, “How to Convert Used-Car Shoppers to Buyers.” The crowd-sourced data analytics provider for used vehicle marketing claimed consumers can suffer from “image fatigue” if more than the optimal number of photographs are posted on a sales listing.
Prevent “Image Fatigue” for Online Used Car Shoppers
To avoid causing “image fatigue,” CarStory recommended posting nine images of the vehicle being sold. According to its research, postings with nine images generated 50% more leads than posts without images, 56% more than those with 20 images, and 71% more than those with 30 images. Any more than 30, and the lead volume drops drastically. The statistics were gathered by CarStory’s parent company, Vast–a data applications provider for the automotive industry–based on surveys and searches performed over the past 60 days.
The supposed cause of image fatigue? According to CarStory chief marketing officer Chad Bockius, most photographs begin with the exterior of the vehicle, while consumers are more interested in the interior and available features. “If you have to scroll through 10 to 15 images to get there, you end up with image fatigue and lose interest,” Bockius stated. “The data was pretty overwhelming. It wasn’t just a blip. The more images you have, the less leads we saw for those vehicles.”
The study also found that vehicle condition was the top factor for consumers looking at purchasing a used vehicle–which isn’t a surprise.
Next time you try to sell your car online and are tempted to post tons of pictures, stick to nine. It’ll help you in the long run.
News Source: CarStory (subscription required) via AutoNews
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