These days, consumers shop for a car with a device in hand. Whether on the couch, in bed, or already at a dealership, they’re using mobile devices to research before buying. You may know this because you’ve observed it yourself at your own dealership, but the research also bears it out:
- J.D. Power found that 51% of shoppers use a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) to do research before buying a new vehicle.
- Facebook found that 71% of all respondents use mobile during the auto purchase process.
- Nearly 60% of the Facebook study respondents said that in the future, their smartphone will likely be the only device they use for vehicle research in the future.
- Car research is twice as high on mobile devices as desktops, which isn’t surprising given that mobile usage surpassed desktop usage in 2016.
Given the use of mobile devices in the auto purchase journey, why do so many dealers build their websites with mobile devices as an afterthought?
How Mobile Plays Into Auto Shopping
According to Facebook’s study, here’s how people use their mobile devices during their auto-shopping journey:
- Nearly ¼ have requested a quote via their mobile device
- Nearly ¾ do their vehicle research online and visit a dealer for the final transaction
- Almost half use it to contact a salesperson
Mobile first requires you to pay attention to the content on your website and think about it from a mobile user’s point of view. The space restrictions of smaller screens mean that the most critical elements should be most prominent – that’s what your users look for first.
The Problem with Non-Mobile Sites
If your website isn’t mobile-enabled, you’re simply driving customers away. Nothing makes a customer close a browser page faster than hitting a page that doesn’t fit onto their smartphone or tablet screen. In short, it’s a major no-no. (To check your site’s mobile friendliness, click here.)
But you can do better than just enabling your website for mobile devices. You can actually build your website for mobile first.
Mobile First Web Design
The web design movement called mobile first urges web designers to build websites for mobile devices, building responsiveness for desktop computers and tablets second. Introduced a decade ago or so, it’s been steadily gaining traction, basically flipping web design on its head.
When building a website, developers sometimes create page functionality for a desktop computer, with lots of animation, pop-up banners, widgets, clickable buttons, or other features. Then, they adapt the site for a mobile device, stripping out functionality and ensuring that pages can shrink down to a small screen.
But mobile first means that developers start by considering how a user might interact with the page using just a fingertip. That changes everything about how a website is built.
The Benefits of Mobile First
The result of mobile first websites? Fewer people driven away by bad website design. And more people engage with your site longer. That leads to more leads, visits, and sales.
And don’t forget, Google gives preference to mobile-optimized sites in search results. If your site and its pages are optimized, you stand a better chance of ranking higher on Google’s search results.
Not sure if your website is developed with mobile first best practices? AutoSweet can help. Our fully responsive dealership websites are beautifully designed around Google’s Mobile-First Index. We design strong, well-converting websites, no matter what type of device your customers are using.
Ready to see how AutoSweet can help get more traffic to your website and generate more leads that result in sales? Reach out to us today to schedule a 5-minute strategy session!
