AutoTrader.com, a major U.S. automotive marketplace, will expand its mobile shopping capabilities in March, offering easy access to AutoTrader.com’s Find a Car and Find a Dealer shopping features, as well as My AutoTrader functions like retrieval of past searches.   Find A Dealer is a handy feature for both consumer and dealer, as it not only provides dealer contact information and mapping for the shopper but also lets the dealer know the phone and e-mail address of the shopper.

“Our goal with a mobile auto shopping platform was to come out with the right experience at the right time,” said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry, in the announcement. “By studying the behavior of our site visitors, carefully reviewing the mobile shopping environment and consumer needs and taking a look at the expanded smart phone options out there, we believe now is the right time and this is the solution that will best meet our consumers’ needs.  This expansion builds on the success we’ve had with our iPhone optimized site, launched in 2008, and our AutoTrader Latino mobile offering, launched in 2009.”

AutoTrader.com is now generating about half-a-million unique monthly visitors via mobile devices, representing 2-3 percent of the site’s 15 million unique monthly visitors, the impetus behind the product expansion. As other mobile site owners have also noted, mobile traffic to AutoTrader.com was far stronger on weekends, with auto shoppers using their smart phones to find vehicles and dealership while they were out shopping, and to compare prices at alternative dealerships while they were on a dealer’s lot.

“What we see with our site traffic is that car shoppers research and compare vehicles, review inventory and specials and build their consideration set during the week from their home or work computer,” said Perry.  “Then, they use their mobile devices for quick checks and comparisons while they’re on a dealer lot.  By making access to the ‘My AutoTrader’ functionality a key component of our mobile environment, we give shoppers the ability to easily store their information on the cars they want while researching from a home or office computer and then shoppers can quickly access their searches via their mobile device while on the ground shopping.”