It’s no secret that eBay has been pushing a significant mobile strategy of late, and today the company is rolling out a new app in its mobile family—an eBay Motors iPhone app.
eBay said it made sense to launch a dedicated app for the Motors vertical (one of the company’s strongest auction place verticals) , which sells cars, parts and accessories, because the volume of purchases made via eBay’s main mobile apps. Currently, 90,000 parts and accessories and 2,000 cars are purchased per week globally from eBay’s general mobile apps.
The free app allows users to search for, bid on or buy anything from parts to accessories to cars from the app. Via a “My Garage” feature, users can add favorite cars and parts to a wish list. Using Red Laser’s barcode scanning technology (which eBay acquired last year), users can scan any Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to automatically add car details including year, make and model to My Garage. From My Garage, car owners can shop the eBay Motors inventory to find matching parts and accessories for their specific vehicles in My Garage.
The app allows you to access vehicle history information with free Experian AutoCheck Vehicle History Reports, save searches for vehicles, ask sellers questions from the app, and share listings with Facebook, Twitter or email.
eBay expects the additional functionality in the mobile app to continue to buoy sales of cars via the marketplace. For eBay, motors is a vertical that is growing in terms of sales. The total amount of vehicles sold via mobile in the first quarter of 2011 increased more than 160% compared to first quarter of 2010. And globally, the total number of parts and accessories sold in the first quarter of 2011 was nearly 250% higher than the first quarter of 2010.