10:18 am, January 21, 2012
NEW research of smartphone users has resulted in one firm urging dealers to be mobile ready.
Recent research on the use of smartphones in the UK by Our Mobile Planet shows that nearly 50 per cent of smartphone users go online multiple times a day.
And of those users looking at local information, over a third called and a third visited a local business.
The penetration of smartphones is growing rapidly in the UK and now stands at 46 per cent, and more consumers than ever before are surfing the web via tablet computers.
Automotive website designers AutoExposure is urging dealers to respond to this growing trend as failure to make websites responsive and adaptable to all screen sizes – from an iPhone, new Nokia or a mini tablet such as Samsung – could result in losing customers’ interests.
Wolverhampton Mazda has recently launched a fully responsive website which was created by AutoExposure. Richard Blenheim, sales manager at Wolverhampton Mazda said: ‘We were aware that increasing numbers of our web visitors were looking at our site via mobiles devices and that they were not getting a good experience.
‘Our site was not optimised for mobile, so visitors could not access some of the site and it was very difficult to navigate the pages.
‘So we decided to call in some specialists – AutoExposure, who built us a new responsive site. Now our web visitors have a good experience on our site – whether they are accessing it from their iPad or smartphones. It’s still early days but we have seen an uplift in traffic from mobile devices and we are delighted with the results.’
Paul Weighand, lead designer at AutoExposure, said: ‘It is vital that dealers ensure their websites can be accesses from a range of mobile devices. As the stats show, consumers are increasingly visiting websites from their smartphones and iPads and they expect the content and functionality to be as good as if they were visiting the website from their PC. If they have a bad experience, they are unlikely to return.’
