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Smartphones and tablets are rapidly growing in used car buying searches

During 2014 there were over 45 million visits to the AAA AUTO website including access from mobile devices. No other manner of searching for a used car on the Internet is growing as quickly as browsing with smartphones and tablets. Over the past year, AAA AUTO has seen an enormous increase in these types of searches.

“Of the 45 million visits to our website last year, 1.2 million visits were made through mobile phones, which represents an increase of fifty five percent in this type of search compared to 2013. We also had 940,000 visits through tablets, which is 70% more than year before,” said CEO of AAA AUTO Karolína Topolová.

The AAA AUTO mobile application, which was launched by the largest Central European car dealer exactly one year ago, has already been downloaded by 70,000 people using smartphones running on the Android and iOS operating systems. “The monthly growth in number of downloads is currently about 10%,” continued Karolína Topolová. Statistics and related telephone research among our customers shows that people interested in buying a car always download the app right when they are in the process of finding a new vehicle. “Customers often download our application when they are visiting our car center to see our complete inventory, or when looking at the cars when visiting a competitor to compare prices, the assortment of vehicles offered, or the financing terms,” said Karolína Topolová.

The cars most frequently reserved through the website and mobile app were the Škoda Octavia, Škoda Fabia, Ford Focus and VW Passat. “Compared to 2013, there was a 50 % increase in demand for the Hyundai i30, with similar growth seen for the Renault Traffic and Škoda Yeti. Higher reservation numbers were also recorded for the Hyundai i 20 (up 55 %) and the Fiat Doblo, which saw an increase of 69 %,” added Karolína Topolová.

A record number of people visited the web page explaining the changes in the transfer of used cars which went into effect on Jan. 1st following the amendment of Act 56/2001 Coll. “The website provides a detailed explanation of the new conditions and you can even download a power of attorney form for the transfer of a vehicle, which as of the new year must have the notarized signature of the car owner. Thanks to this information, customers are coming in prepared and the waiting time for buying or selling has not changed for us,” concluded Karolína Topolová.