TrueCar says more than half of its web traffic now is mobile

As technology plays a more pivotal role in the vehicle-shopping process, mobile shoppers, for the first time, have begun to make up the majority of TrueCar’s web traffic.

So far this month, mobile shoppers have driven 51 percent of traffic, the online car shopping site said Tuesday.

That’s up from 44 percent a year earlier. For the full calendar year 2014, the average for mobile device usage also was 44 percent , a TrueCar spokeswoman said.

The majority of the vehicle shopping website’s visitors accessed the website through a smartphone or tablet so far this month, rather than a desktop or laptop computer. Access via iOS devices made up nearly a third of total traffic. “The future of car buying is mobile, and we intend to lead this transformation in a way that works for all players in the automotive eco-system” John Krafcik, TrueCar president, said in a statement.

Nearly one-third of all new car shoppers use a smartphone when shopping, Automotive News reported in October. One-third use a tablet, and 96 percent of shoppers use a desktop or laptop for automotive research, according to J.D. Power’s 2014 automotive mobile site study. The study was based on 11,451 evaluations of automotive mobile websites from car shoppers who want to purchase or lease a vehicle in the next two years. The survey was conducted in July and August 2014.

TrueCar is improving its mobile products to appeal to millennial consumers, Krafcik said.

“Millennials are entering the auto market in ever greater numbers and they expect mobile devices to be part of the process,” he said.

Krafcik plans to discuss TrueCar’s vision for mobile’s role in automotive retail, the effect of millennial consumers and the power of third-party shopping sites during the Automotive News Retail Forum and NADA Convention and Expo Thursday. He will join a panel of executives from Del Grande Dealer Group, LotLinx, Edmunds and Cars.com.

TrueCar CEO Scott Painter at the Automotive News World Congress last week showed an early version of a new mobile app that will be launched later this year. The app, aimed at millennial consumers, will collect data that will help automakers target customers by profile, activity and location.

TrueCar will invest $150 million in developing new products this year. The company also plans to spend $100 million on consumer advertising this year to endorse the app and its brand, Automotive News reported last week.TrueCar has 5 million unique visitors monthly. It reports that sales through its channels, including affinity partners, amount to 4 percent of all new-vehicle sales in the U.S. TrueCar expects to expand its dealer network to 10,000 within the coming weeks.

TrueCar went public in May, reporting $56.8 million in revenue for the third quarter.