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Why as a dealer do I need a mobile app?

In retail, mobile apps that incorporate transactions with rewards are the winners, but dealerships don't have but a few transactions a year with an individual customer.

What makes sense to me are OEM apps that customers can tailor to include their dealer(s). OEMs can then work with national brands to create loyalty and engagement and reward customers at their local dealership and beyond.
 
What makes sense to me are OEM apps that customers can tailor to include their dealer(s). OEMs can then work with national brands to create loyalty and engagement and reward customers at their local dealership and beyond.

I hear you Ryan, and I like the idea but it's only likely to work in a perfect world. Mobile apps serve up a huge advantage on the service / fixed-ops side and with so many dealers (even of the same make) using different products and services, it would be a tall order.
 
Here's a big stat for you SEO peeps ... "40% of (mobile?) searches now return app indexing results in the top five results." - full article

@Greg_Gifford any comment around that?

Here's another one on the SEO front ... "Google began allowing iOS developers to implement App Indexing so signed-in users can open content surfaced from mobile apps directly in Google Search" - full article
 
there could be a killer app play if a dealership was willing to create something people would use.

Like the folks mentioned above automatic is pretty sweet. There are already apps using their rest api like ifttt and nest. So you could essentially do thinks like have your thermostat adjust based on your location on your home commute.

I think if a dealer wants to do an app it needs to be in this lifestyle realm and actually provide some type of service that is alien to them. But it will cost real money with no guarantee of return.

I would love to see more dealers band together and invest in tech rather than allowing tech to stiff arm the auto industry.
 
I would love to see more dealers band together and invest in tech rather than allowing tech to stiff arm the auto industry.

Same here. Problem is this industry is too competitive, plus who ultimately profits? If the majority of franchise dealers just pooled their inventory feeds alone we could have the foundation of a very worthwhile shopping portal. That could have happened in the late 90's before any of the other portals got established. I think the OEM's could start something if they pooled together but I'm doubtful.