5:12 am, June 29, 2012
VEHICLE purchases on eBay via a smartphone are booming with tech savvy shoppers spending upwards of £40k on exclusive cars.
Vehicles including a Porsche 911 Carrera and Land Rover Evoque – both of which were sold for around £40k – rate amongst the most expensive purchases ever made on eBay via mobile and demonstrate growing confidence in vehicle purchases through smartphones.
Nearly 45,000 vehicles were bought on eBay via a smartphone in the first three months of this year alone, which equates to almost a fifth of all eBay vehicle sales.
In fact, vehicle purchases made via a smartphone on eBay increased more than 120 per cent between 2010 and 2011, and are on track to increase again this year.
Motors is one of the most popular categories on eBay UK, and the most popular car brands purchased via a smartphone include Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, BMW and Peugeot. More than 19,000 Ford cars were purchased on eBay UK between January and March 2012 – that’s one every four minutes.
Between January and March 2012 car was sold on eBay UK every 57 seconds, a car part was sold on eBay UK every 2 seconds and wheels, tyres and trims were sold every 48 seconds.
NEW APP
In recognition of this trend for shopping for cars via a smartphone, eBay this week launched its new dedicated Motors app for iPhone which will make buying cars and parts and accessories via eBay on a mobile quicker, easier and more customisable.
Petra Jung, head of mobile shopping at eBay UK, said: ‘Brits are in poll position when it comes to shopping on mobile devices, snapping up an item every second via eBay’s mobile platforms.
‘In particular, we’ve seen a huge acceleration in vehicle sales on eBay UK with almost £70 million worth of vehicle purchases made via smartphones in the first three months of 2012.
‘The new eBay Motors app will make shopping for cars, parts and accessories through smartphones even faster and more convenient, and the new Vehicle Finder helps car buyers snap and search for their dream car the moment it catches their eye.’
The app features cutting edge image recognition technology to make searching for vehicles faster and more interactive. The eBay Motors app Vehicle Finder allows shoppers to snap a picture of the back of a car, and the app will do the hard work by searching eBay Motors listings and matching the photo to similar vehicles available on the site.
The Motors app also features a fully customisable home screen gallery of live listings and an interactive garage. The garage allows shoppers to save profiles of their favourite cars, and dream cars they long to own, and sharing features encourage users to email, tweet or share listings on Facebook for family and friends to see.
