Digital Car Dealership Software with AI and 360 Image Viewer

Car dealerships struggle with continuously trying to represent their vehicles engagingly and straightforwardly so that potential buyers will appreciate and be encouraged to pursue. Traditional methods of taking photos of the vehicles by clicking photos in any random manner/posting the photos on their website haven't always accurately represented the visual condition of their cars, and some of the cars appealed to a buyer's emotional response. 

• Photo Quality & Consistency: Getting quality photos that are consistent to represent cars is hard work and does take human effort all the time, which keeps the representation from being the same.
• No Interactivity: Buyers who are looking at static images were not able to truly understand the actual condition and details, as well as what the entire look of the car is all about. This minimal engagement, or immersive experience, adversely impacted buyer confidence and stalled decision-making. Without a 360 image viewer, customers could not explore cars thoroughly, which limited engagement. 
• Manual Processing Bottlenecks: Manual processing of raw images into presentable formats (while also placing images into a carousel format, such as 360 images) required too much manual processing, which increased turnaround time.
• Scalability & Data Management Issues: As the number of dealers expanded, the growing volume of high-def car images created large issues around data management, storage, and processing. Corporate teams and individual dealers needed a centralized place for streamlined access, management of media assets.

The client had a vision to build a next-generation media platform with AI-driven automation, real-time processing, and a centralized database that would work for dealerships as well as for corporate teams to help create the future of the digital car dealership experience with the most advanced car dealer software and dealership management software capabilities.

Seaflux designed and delivered a scalable, cloud-native solution powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to transform how dealerships capture, process, and present vehicle images. The solution offered end-to-end automation and AI-driven capabilities:

• Real-Time Processing to Store Images: Seaflux utilized AWS cloud services to enable the real-time ingestion and processing of high-definition vehicle images. The infrastructure was built using Kubernetes-based clustering for optimal performance and scalability, regardless of the required throughput or demand, providing a reliable architectural framework for automated processing, and no matter how many or how much is submitted.
• Media Generation with AI: standard still images were altered into interactive 360 hugging cars using AI models based on TensorFlow, no ripping and no manual editing, producing a consistent, high-quality finish. In addition, Seaflux created a version with Google ARCore, allowing customers to look at the cars in augmented reality (AR) using their own device in their own context… for instance, seeing the car in their garage. 
• Sleek Application for Dealers: Built a highly responsive web application with React + Next.js, which enabled server-side rendering and was easy to implement for dealers on their websites. Plus, the portal allowed dealers to configure the UI segments so dealers could configure the platform's 360 image viewer with the brand and experience their customers needed for effective vehicle merchandising.
• Unified API Framework: Seaflux developed APIs to connect both corporate and dealer websites. These APIs simplified data exchange, ensured secure image storage, and maintained smooth media pipelines across multiple platforms, reducing dependency on manual management.
• Centralized Dashboard & Access Control: A robust management dashboard was developed for the corporate client to track dealer activities, monitor dealer performance, and manage the assets. From their respective dashboards, dealers had role-based access control enabling them to upload, edit, and manage images of their vehicles independently, allowing them both independence and central governance. This functionality positioned the platform not just as media automation, but also as a powerful dealership management software solution supporting modern automotive retail operations.

The solution redefined the digital presentation of vehicles for dealerships and delivered measurable business impact:

• Enhanced Sales Conversion: With immersive, AI-driven 360 image viewer experiences, the platform gave customers an option to experience all vehicles in depth, leading to an 18% increase in platform-driven sales from the previous year.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: The inclusion of interactive 360-degree HD renders and AR preview capabilities provided buyers with the ability to evaluate a car digitally as if they were standing in front of the car, and it provided a level of trust, engagement, and confidence in the decision-making process when buying the vehicle.
• Substantial Adoption: The user-friendliness of the platform and the many levels of automation led to an incredible level of adoption in over 300 dealers in the U.S. and Canada, and was the fully recommended solution for the digitally savvy dealer. This further positioned the platform as a market-leading car dealer software trusted across North America, and a highly valued solution for the automotive retail sector.
• Operational Efficiency: Replacing manual processes with AI-enabled automation in real-time led to a 92% reduction in image processing times and publishing of images that allowed dealers to update inventory and time-to-market faster than ever before.
• Scalability & Centralized Management: An AWS-based infrastructure provided the scalability to manage larger volumes of media, while a centralized dashboard offered ease of data management among parties in the system, thereby reducing the administrative duty for corporate teams and dealers overall.