AutoTrader Rolls Out iPad Shopper App

ATLANTA — AutoTrader.com rolled out a new iPad app company officials say addresses the 67 percent of the site’s users who haven’t identified a specific model and the 58 percent of site shoppers who haven’t identified a specific brand of car they’re interested in buying. 

“We designed this app around the concept of discovery. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for car shoppers to find and learn about vehicles they have not even considered,” said Jose Puente, AutoTrader’s director of mobile products and strategy. “With this new experience, you can start out with a very vague idea of what you want and the app does the work for you.”

Users of the new AutoTrader.com iPad app will have the ability to access the site’s more than three million new and used vehicles listed for sale from dealers and private sellers. Users can shop based on price, style, location, make and model. They can then narrow their results by dozens of additional filters, including color, features/options, fuel economy, mileage and more. Reviews and shopping tips from AutoTrader.com editors are also integrated directly into each listing, giving consumers instant access to expert advice about the specific vehicles they’re interested in.

Users can also save their search results once they create an AutoTrader.com account. Saved listings are then immediately available across all of AutoTrader.com’s experiences — including the AutoTrader.com website, iPhone and Android apps. Once a shopper is ready to see a car in person, the iPad app, which takes advantage of iPad’s mapping features, will show them exactly where a dealer is located and provides contact information and directions. Shoppers can also communicate directly with dealers via e-mail from the app.

Consumers are using mobile devices as part of the car shopping process more frequently: Mobile traffic to AutoTrader.com has experienced double-digit growth since January and hit record levels in August (up more than 60 percent year over year). Use of tablets specifically is also on the rise, particularly among younger shoppers. According to a recent AutoTrader.com study, 28 percent of Millennials and a quarter of Generation X car shoppers use a tablet during the car shopping process.