How Custom Mobile App Development Disrupts the Automotive Industry

Not that long ago, custom mobile app development was considered a means to optimize internal workflows within automotive companies. They embraced digital transformation to reach a new level of efficiency by ensuring faster communication between the source and supply chain, eliminating manual errors, automating workflows, and more. Also, their focus was totally on engineering capabilities, which resulted in reliable vehicles and great driving performance.

Undoubtedly, digital transformation with a focus on internal workflows was essential. Yet, these days, it's not enough. Times have changed. And modern problems require modern solutions.

What’s new is that customer expectations have expanded. That's what leading companies like IBM and McKinsey have admitted.

Buyers are now totally immersed in the digital realm. They find jobs online. Book restaurants online. Shop online. And they expect smooth digital experiences across different aspects of their lives, including purchasing, maintaining, and repairing a vehicle.

This idea is also supported by Google. According to its consumer insights, customers expect that the 100-old industry will revolutionize its buying experience. Buyers would like to have an opportunity to purchase vehicles in digital stores, including negotiations of the purchase, lease, or financial terms. This is proved by the upward online car shopping tendency. For instance, in 2018 only 1 out of 100 vehicles was purchased online. In a couple of years, the percentage of cars sold through digital channels increased by 10x. Meaning that in 2020, 1 out of 10 cars was sold through online platforms.

Here is more evidence about the emerging trend that involves the shift from retail to online in the automotive domain. In 2020, around 1,000 billion units were sold online. In 2025, that number is going to grow to 6,000 billion vehicles. At the same time, e-commerce car sales increased by 17.1$ in 2021, bringing in around $100 billion in total (new and aftermarket).

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Online presence for auto maintenance services is also essential because search is the first place people turn to when they need auto maintenance information quickly. That is why a car maintenance app is a tool that success-driven companies should not ignore.

Considering everything we mentioned above, the new battleground for tech-enabled companies should be about giving customers what they want. And, as numerous research materials say, they want a digital car shopping experience via their mobile phones, which can be unlikely delivered without custom mobile application development.

What Is Custom Automotive App Development?

When it comes to custom app building, it stands for unique digital tools designed to cope with the variety of challenges in the automotive industry. In contrast to off-the-rack applications, custom software is developed exclusively for a single company. Thus, it allows for gaining a competitive advantage in the market and provides exceptional functionality to meet the unique needs of the organization.

Apart from this, the custom-made application will consolidate all the tools the company will need to perform marketing and sales activities. With the best automotive apps, the customers feel that you hear them and care about their needs. Not only will they give your buyers a more convenient shopping experience, but will also help you implement a new business model that encourages recurring sales of services and products, not a one-off car purchase. It means that a custom application will let car owners purchase insurance, update their vehicles with extra power, buy digital services like AI or entertainment packages, book vehicle servicing, and more. Through custom software, your company will be able to run promotional campaigns making personalized offers your customers won't resist.

Types of Custom-Built Apps in The Automotive Sector

Auto apps may take different forms. You may get a car maintenance schedule app if you are into the vehicle maintenance business. In addition to it, you can build an automatic car diagnostic app or automotive scheduling app. For the car manufacturing business, a software development company will provide you with a platform for marketing all the car models to let customers shop online.

Moreover, automotive apps can differ depending on the platform. There are web, desktop, multi-channel, and custom mobile apps. Considering the focus on customer experience, automotive companies prefer mobile, web, and multi-platform apps. For instance, auto retail websites get their traffic from mobile phones. To be more specific, mobile traffic makes up 60.65%, so it's a core platform you should focus on.

Examples of Successful Adoption of Automotive Car Apps

Understanding what car buyers want and need is key to establishing meaningful communication that brings immediate and long-term benefits. That's what some of the automotive companies have already comprehended and made use of.

For example, Carvana, the fastest-growing online used car dealer in the United States, decided to create the vehicle buying experience customers enjoy and are eager to talk about. They strived to create excitement at every point the buyer interacts with their brand. So, they replaced a time-consuming dealership visit with a virtual experience. Their service relies on 360-degree photo technology that allows buyers to see every little detail of vehicles listed in their app. Then, they can buy the car and get it delivered to their home. So, Carvana did an amazing thing. It transformed a lengthy, painful process into one that happens from the comfort of home in minutes.

Tesla is another prominent example of a car dealer that gives its buyers a choice. They can either purchase a car in a showroom or via a website. The great thing is that customers can schedule a test drive, pick a car model, customize it, buy accessories, and get it delivered right to their homes.

Benefits of Custom App Development for Automotive

Develop a Customer-Centric Framework Built Around Buyers' Preferences

It's time to admit that the automotive market is transforming inevitably. Perspective vehicle buyers show a decreasing inclination to interact with car dealers face-to-face. This tendency is traced across all age groups and countries, covering even not digitally native customers.

Along with that, there is a growing interest in “at-home” and aftermarket services. Potential vehicle buyers lean towards getting a complete contactless purchasing experience. That is why they want to get the option of scheduling the car delivered right to their home avoiding a dealership visit for picking up the car.

A custom mobile application can become a sound response to buyers' shopping preferences. Software designed to meet the specific needs of your car dealership will help you deliver a smooth experience to everyone willing to purchase a vehicle or book a service online. So, customers are determined to interact with a smooth, superfast digital ecosystem that will entirely cover the full range of their vehicle-related needs. Which is achievable with a custom-made application.

Help Meet Customers' Expectations Toward Service Experience

Knowing your buyers' needs and preferences is half of success. So, it's interesting to know that buying experience is not as crucial as servicing the car.

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Those who already have a car, are looking for a digital way of scheduling maintenance services without awkward calls and long lists of expectations. That is why many manufacturers and vehicle maintenance service providers seriously consider offering automotive repair apps to their clients. These products significantly simplify the life of car owners, doing much more than arranging a servicing session with an engineer. Depending on the functionality the product owner adds, one can request picking up a car from the place of an accident for further repair, estimate the cost of the service, get a notification when the vehicle is ready for pick up, etc.

Support the Tendency of Connected Vehicles

The use of electronics in vehicles has seen a boom within a couple of years. As of 2021, there were around 237 million connected vehicles in operation in the world. By 2030, the number of new vehicles shipped with built-in connectivity will reach 96%.

Connected vehicles offer exciting new digital capabilities for their users. They change how people interact with their cars by connecting the car's system with external networks. Automotive mobile apps provided by the manufacturer will help set up communication between the driver and the vehicle. With an app, car owners will remotely monitor and control their cars.

Enable Flexible Ownership

Some people are not ready to invest in a four-wheeled friend or are willing to consider a short-term subscription model for leasing a vehicle or getting additional services. In particular, these are young drivers or urban dwellers who prefer to rent a car rather than get one. Automotive companies see great opportunities in satisfying this demand, making these services their main or additional source of income.

A custom mobile app will aid both service providers and customers. Companies will track the vehicle status, who owns it, what cars are available, collect subscription fees, and more. Users will easily book a particular service, compare subscription models, get in touch with a service provider, and do much more from their smartphones.

Pick Up the Emerging Mobility Services

Population growth, pollution issues, and the car component shortage push people to consider the limitations of vehicles available. Driven by these factors, consumer mobility behavior is changing and mobility usage is recovering. For instance, one out of ten cars sold in 2030 will potentially be a shared vehicle.

Nevertheless, customers do not want to give up access to vehicles, so automakers and dealers should think of digital offerings, like build a custom app, to satisfy the growing demand for mobility services. And this is quite an idea, considering that shared mobility brings recurring revenues and will soon become the second-largest source of income for dealers after one-time auto sales.