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Cobalt Newsroom - In the News
Dealership Web Sites Shrink to Fit On Phones
Source: Automotive News
March 16, 2009
Consumers want to ditch laptops when they shop
Have your dealership's online shoppers viewed a video of a used car in your inventory or calculated their potential loan payments lately - on their phones?
If they're shopping on the weekend, they're probably trying to do so.
Web site designers are offering auto dealerships Web sites that function well on the small screens of Apple iPhone, T-Mobile G1 and other smart phones. They are responding to the proliferation of such phones and changing consumer online habits, especially on weekends when consumers don't want to be chained to computers.
"Now people are like, 'I don't have to open up my laptop: I can just go to my phone and get the information I'm looking for really easily,'" says Dean Evans, chief marketing officer at Dealer.com.
Dealer.com launched its MobileSites for dealerships at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in New Orleans in January. About 100 dealerships have signed up for the service.
Cars.com has modified its site for smart-phone users, and Cobalt Group will launch its mobile Web sites for dealers next month.
Web sites for smart-phone users
Here's why dealers urge Web site designers to build sites for smart phones.
- Apple's iPhone has re-energized the smart-phone market.
- Customers want access to dealership Web sites from their smart phones.
- Customers don't want to be chained to their desktop computers on the weekend.
Source: Dealer.com, Cobalt, Cars.com
More usable
Instead of throwing the entire contents of a dealership Web site at smart-phone users, these Web sites present information frequently sought by consumers. When a consumer on a smart phone calls up a dealership Web site, that user is channeled automatically to the smart-phone version of the site.
Cobalt studies show that 66 percent of consumers visiting its dealership Web sites move to mobile devices over the weekend, says Paul Nagy, Cobalt vice president of core products.
Another 12 percent are going to the iPod touch and 11 percent to T-Mobile G1, he says.
"What that means: Almost 90 percent of the traffic of our current dealer sites is moving to these mobile devices on the weekends," Nagy says. Cobalt, of Seattle, has 10,000 dealership customers.
These consumers want to use smart phones to get dealership hours and directions, browse vehicles in the dealership's inventory and call the dealership without keying in the number, he says.
Dealer.com, of Burlington, Vt., developed MobileSites because the iPhone has re-energized the smart-phone market, Evans says.
Auto video
On Dealer.com's MobileSites, a consumer will find a simple screen to navigate new and used inventory, directions, specials, parts, service and a call-us function. When the consumer clicks on a particular vehicle, a video automatically plays.
Mobile-device users, "especially iPhone users, are getting used to a rich media experience," Evans says.
"Our studies show that video of new or used inventory is what people on mobile phones utilize the most when they have that option."
Consumers who use the Cars.com mobile site can search new- and used-car listings, find dealers, locate them on a map, get driving directions, calculate loan payments and look up new-car prices and specifications.
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