The Rise of Mobile In Automotive Shopping

[JessicaRuth]

Stop what you're doing right now and take a look around your store. Who's on their phone? The people waiting for service? Duh, they're crushing some serious Candy Crush levels.

Ok, maybe they're sitting in your popcorn and coffee filled waiting area and looking up trade values on a site that is NOT yours.

23 percent of auto shoppers use a mobile device in the shopping process AND 44 percent are using them at the dealership.

Want more?

Check out, The Rise of Mobile in Automotive Shopping, article that is full of useful and shocking statistics that will take you from "maybe we should look at mobile marketing" to "holy crap we need an action plan today".

Questions:

What percentage of customers at your store are active on mobile devices?
How has the connected generation affected your marketing strategy?

 

[Stefan]

The Mobile Playbook, 2nd Edition ? Think Insights ? Google this answered many of my questions about mobile

 

[Sachin Raja]

Mobile is obviously going to be huge. The question is, who creates the best mobile sites for dealers? So far I haven't come across anything fantastic. I almost feel it would be better to send my customers to my regular website lol.

mobile site: iphone.autodome.ca (Autotrader.ca/Dealer.com)

 

[Kelly Wilson]

I hate the disconnect of a "mobile site" - not an adaptive or responsive one - where links related to desktop sites don't work. If I link to my Chrysler site's events page, or even directions, on a facebook post or an email - I am privileged enough to have the link clicked - I want them to land on the right page (why you use a link right?) with the content they expect. However, if the customer is on a smartphone, they land on the iphone.homepage unless I build the link to force the launch of the full html site. This does not serve a growing segment of our customers well.
Have you tried to use your links from a variety of devices?
I hope OEMs, vendors and dealers together begin to think "mobile first" and provide consumers the information the consumer wants in the format the consumers chooses.

 

[JessicaRuth]

Mobile is obviously going to be huge. The question is, who creates the best mobile sites for dealers? So far I haven't come across anything fantastic. I almost feel it would be better to send my customers to my regular website lol.

mobile site: iphone.autodome.ca (Autotrader.ca/Dealer.com)

You're right to be thinking about how to make their mobile shopping experience the best you can. You're not going to want to send mobile shoppers to your regular website on a mobile device - Google doesn't like that.

Check your analytics to see how much of your traffic is mobile and research new avenues to capture that traffic...responsive websites, mobile marketing, etc.

 

[joe.pistell]

Mobile is obviously going to be huge. The question is, who creates the best mobile sites for dealers? So far I haven't come across anything fantastic. I almost feel it would be better to send my customers to my regular website lol.

mobile site: iphone.autodome.ca (Autotrader.ca/Dealer.com)

Sachin, Kelly, Stefan, or any other Dealer.com client,

Our new mobile is just coming out of the test labs. Private Msg me if you want to switch to the new design.

 

[Sachin Raja]

You're right to be thinking about how to make their mobile shopping experience the best you can. You're not going to want to send mobile shoppers to your regular website on a mobile device - Google doesn't like that.

Check your analytics to see how much of your traffic is mobile and research new avenues to capture that traffic...responsive websites, mobile marketing, etc.

I agree that looking at analytics to see the mobile traffic would be ideal. Unfortunately, Autotrader.ca/Dealer.com directly sends the mobile traffic to the iphone.autodome.ca subdomain. I've been waiting on implementation of my Google Analytics code on the mobile site with no answer. Makes tracking things a bit difficult. I have no idea what engagement, bounce rate etc. are for the mobile site.

Tablets fall in that grey area, on new tablets people are directed to the mobile site.

Ideally a responsive site is best I think, but Autotrader.ca/Dealer.com do not have that option as of now (as far as I know).

 

[Sachin Raja]

Sachin, Kelly, Stefan, or any other Dealer.com client,

Our new mobile is just coming out of the test labs. Private Msg me if you want to switch to the new design.

Joe to the rescue! You've got a PM.

 

[GrantG]

Sachin, Kelly, Stefan, or any other Dealer.com client,

Our new mobile is just coming out of the test labs. Private Msg me if you want to switch to the new design.

Joe, clear out space in your mailbox so I can send you a message.

 

[joe.pistell]

Grant,

All set!, let 'er rip!