Analysis of traffic through the iVendi Platform last month shows that 64% of all visits were by smartphone or tablet. This compares to 37% using a laptop or desktop PC - and has increased from a 60%/40% mix at the start of this year.
James Tew, CEO, said: “The move towards mobile has been rapid and dramatic. Our figures show that mobile access first exceeded PCs for visits to dealer web sites in January of 2015. Since then, the trend has shown no sign of abating.
“It underlines something that we have been saying for some time, that dealers and used car portals need to consider mobile first when designing their web sites. Something that doesn’t work well on a phone won’t be as productive.
“This could be as simple as not using gimmicky functionality within the web site, the type of thing which may be highly effective on a laptop of desktop PC but next to impossible to use on a smartphone.”
James added that within mobile device access, there was a clear preference towards Apple products.
“The core device for motor finance web designers is the iPhone, something that we do not see changing in the foreseeable future. Around twice as many used car web visits take place on iPhones and iPads as on Android smartphones or tablets.”