Dealers last year missed out on providing loans, as well as selling cars, because their websites did not work properly for the range of devices used by people making searches.

 

James Tew, a director at iVendi, urges them to make the necessary changes.

“It’s important because someone may browse a dealer’s used car stock on a PC at work, a smartphone on the train home and an iPad when they get there,” he said.

Founded in 2009, iVendi develops e-commerce products designed to make the sale of vehicles and associated finance easier for dealers and their customers.

 

It has offices in Abergele, north Wales, and Manchester and says more than 600 dealers use its products.

Carfinancechecker.com (CFC), its latest venture, enables visitors interested in a vehicle on a dealer website to check their eligibility for finance. This, says iVendi, does not impair their credit rating.

Tew said CFC was being tested on a number of dealer sites and would be used more widely during 2013.

“We aim to find the finance deal that best fits a buyer’s credit profile and show ways they can increase their chances of being approved by lenders.”

CFC remained easily readable and usable on any device, he said, but if a dealer’s site did not work properly on  a device a customer might go elsewhere.

“The rapid growth in tablet and smartphone  adoption has completely changed the way customers interact with the internet,” he said.

“The arrival of 4G will help to speed this process as mobile devices start to deliver broadband-like speeds.”

Tew said the answer was responsive web design (RWD), which meant a site automatically reconfigured itself to the best design for each type of device.

 

Few dealers used it, he said.