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Santa Monica-based Edmunds.com has acquired CarCode SMS, a mobile service that allows car shoppers and dealers to communicate through text messages. The deal constitutes Edmunds’ first acquisition.
The cloud-based SMS texting platform will outfit Edmunds-partnered dealerships with a phone number for mobile shoppers to text and an application that allows staff to respond and manage conversations. Dealers will receive text message leads from Edmunds and have the option to add a "Text Us" button on their mobile websites.
"We are laser-focused on streamlining the car shopping experience and this acquisition is just one example of the investment we are making in mobile technology to achieve our goal," said Edmunds.com President Seth Berkowitz in a statement. "We think CarCode provides a very relevant service that ties directly to the growing trend in mobile showrooming and shopping."
In concert with the acquisition, CarCode co-founder Nick Gorton has been appointed Executive Director of Product Management for Edmunds.
Gorton, along with co-founders Steve Schwartz and Prabode Weebadde, earned $20,000 in February after winning Edmunds’ second annual Hackomotive challenge, an event designed to encourage digital tech companies to improve the car-shopping experience. Subsequently, Edmunds fostered the Seattle-based startup through its three-month Fastlane Accelerator program.
"We developed CarCodeSMS after realizing customers weren't able to communicate with dealerships the way a growing number of them actually preferred, via text messaging," said Gorton.
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The acquisition follows a 39 percent increase in mobile usage for Edmunds.com. The company is investing heavily in mobile applications; in October, 2014, it released the Lot Buddy, an app feature that reveals special offers to car shoppers as they arrive at participating dealerships.
CarCode SMS, which will be renamed Edmunds CarCode, will be available for free to all of Edmunds’ franchise partners.
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