By George Arison, Shift CEO
In 2011, I tried to buyout a lease on my lovely Saab. What should have been an easy task turned into a runaround between my dealer and my bank. The painful process helped me realize what now seems obvious: almost every step of buying or selling a car asks the customer to work around the process. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
This question represented the founding spirit of Shift. We launched Shift as a website, but knew early on that to be the more convenient and friendly option, we would have to make Shift work everywhere our customers are. That’s why today, Shift is pleased to announce the Shift app for iOS.
Stay up to date on cars you’re looking for
We based a lot of this app on what we learned from you. Our customers spend an average of three months researching a car before they decide to buy. In that time, there are a LOT of searches Googled, cars compared, and reviews read. A major portion of that happens on phones and tablets. We looked at our own service and saw this to true: more than 40% of Shift activity happens on mobile. This was a clear opportunity for us to better fit the buying experience to you.
Just turn your search criteria into an alert and the app will keep you notified of matching cars in your area. More than half of the cars listed on Shift have more than eight interested parties by the time they sell. By letting the search come to you, jump the line and be the first to request a test drive.
Request a test drive right from your phone
Set a filter to get the earliest access to cars that might interest you. When you find one you like, let us bring the test drive to you. You no longer have to do calendar gymnastics just to test drive a car. Just request a test drive from the app, and we’ll work within your schedule to deliver it to your home or work.
Initiate your car sale with a simple VIN scan
Many of our customers told us they bought a new car to sell their old one. If you’re interested in selling or are just wondering “what’s my car worth?”, simply scan your car’s VIN and we’ll get you an estimate instantly.
Our innovative pricing goes beyond one-size-fits-all pricing guides to look at actual listings and past completed sales in your local market. If you like what you see, we’ll take care of the entire sales process for you so you’ll get a price that beats the dealer with none of the considerable work to sell on Craigslist.
A preview of what’s to come
We’re excited about the potential the Shift iPhone app lends to the Shift service. It allows us to consider mobile’s unique benefits to the products we’re building. It’s an important step towards the more customer-centric car buying and selling that led us to start Shift. We’re taking that path to rethink car ownership entirely. Stay tuned.