Nowadays a staggering
9 out of 10 New Zealanders have access to the internet, with the time we spend online doubling since 2005. And
59% of New Zealanders using the internet are over 35 – its a myth that it is
just gen Y surfing the net!
More and more people are searching the internet and shopping
online, particularly on their smartphones.
In 2013, 50% of online traffic will come from mobile devices –
smartphones like the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows mobile, Palm Pre).
The use of these devices is sky-rocketing with 60% of Kiwis are expected to
have a smartphone by the end of this year. Soon enough, all mobile phones will
be smartphones. More people than ever
will use their smartphones rather than computers for surfing the internet and
shopping. The ‘second screen’ is commonplace in many Kiwi households – people
are looking at their smartphones and iPads whilst watching telly, or eating
tea.
It is essential to keep up with the technology that your
customers are using. Look at a normal website on a smartphone – the majority look woeful. Most of them look
teeny tiny and really hard to navigate - you need to pinch the screen to enlarge
everything, and the pages take ages to load! A recently survey showed that 40%
of users have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad experience trying to
search an un-optimized website on a smartphone.
If you have website,
optimizing it for mobile use is imperative.
People who are shopping on their mobiles have different needs and
expectations than those who are shopping online on their lap top or PC. They need easier to read pages, and for pages
to appear quickly. They are searching for specific items, the information
accessed on their on mobile needs to be easily searched and accessed. They are
looking for specific makes and models, information on the makes and models that
dealership has for sale, as well as dealer contact details. If your dealership
does not have a mobile website, you are missing out on potential leads and
sales.
As well as when people are at work or out of their office or
homes, dealer mobile website use increases at weekends, when people are out and
about doing the rounds of yards on a weekend. These shoppers are far along the
car buying process, they will have a make, model, year and budget in mind. The easier it is to access information about
your stock on a smartphone, the more likely you will get leads and walk-ins.
People’s attention spans these days are short! If someone is searching for a
specific vehicle on a website that isn't mobilized it is harder to see and
access and the consumer is likely to just give up and move on to another
dealer’s website that is mobile and easily accessible.
Functionality that your Mobile Website needs
1. Good search
options
The more search criteria on mobile websites, the better,
i.e. Body style, make & model, price, mileage, transmission cc-rating etc.
2. Vehicle
Features and Description
Easy access to your vehicle’s features and your description
and information about the vehicle is vital.
3. How to find
you
Address details, contact details and a map are key for
mobile websites, so your buyers can easily find you!
4. Easy dealer
contact
The ability to find your phone number or contact you by
email is important. Another valuable feature is automatic dialing when a
person can click on the salesperson’s number and have the phone ring it
automatically making your dealership easily accessible.
We began to build mobile websites for our clients last year,
and we have found a huge increase in leads and enquiries coming directly from
dealer’s mobile websites
Mobilising your website will make it easier for customers to
search your stock, find your yard and make contact.
If you have a dealer website – you should
have that website made ‘mobile’. People also generally prefer mobile websites
to Apps, as mobile websites are easier to find – if someone clicks on your
website URL on a mobile phone and you are mobile optimized, the mobile site
will load automatically.
The good news is that it is not too difficult to
optimize your website for mobile. Many
local businesses provide mobile website builds, so ensure you don’t get left
behind.