Kia Motors America has redesigned its Web site with responsive design to create an improved experience for its customers on mobile and desktop.

Kia partnered with Publicis Groupe's Denuo to roll out the new site. The updated Kia.com has better quality images, video and animation, social media features and enhanced search.

?We understand that all devices are equally important, yet play different roles,? said Dave Schoonover, national manager of CRM and digital marketing at Kia Motors America, Irvine, CA. ?We know mobile is huge ? that?s old news. Now the question is how do consumers use mobile?

?We find that they are hyper-taskers, looking for specific information and quick results,? he said. ?At the same time, mobile consumers want the ability to access deep, rich content if they choose. The mobile design has to recognize and deliver on those expectations.?

Site upgrade
Kia decided to improve its site to enrich its online shopping experience with advanced technology that caters to all devices. To do so, Denuo leveraged responsive design.

The site incorporates video and animation to build the brand with storytelling and better demonstrate the cars? features.

The site also integrates social media to let consumers share directly from the site.

Kia additionally improved the search feature on the site with a vehicle inventory module that lets consumers find available vehicles.

Besides responsive design, the site is tailored to device by the content that is highlighted.

On mobile, kia.com focuses on providing information quickly and easily. On tablet it supplies an enhanced vehicle experience with richer, interactive content.

Responsive design
Responsive design has become a very popular choice for marketers, especially for those with commerce sites.

Travelocity, for example, rolled out a responsive site in June and saw iOS bookings increase six percent and Android reservations spike eight percent (see story).

Corner Bakery Cafe also launched a responsive site recently to create a seamless ordering experience across devices (see story).

However, not all marketers have seen positive results from responsive design.

Tria Beauty saw its conversion rates drop 50 percent after switching to responsive design since a lot of its desktop features did not translate well with the technology (see story).

With 25 percent of Kia?s traffic coming from mobile and 15 percent from tablet, the marketer realizes that a Web site needs to cater to these experiences.

?We redesigned the site in order to expand content, unify the platform and empower our enterprise,? Mr. Schoonover said.

?Five years from now every laptop will likely have an integrated tablet and/or touchscreen, and so we are thinking that far ahead with the infrastructure we are building now,? he said. ?Also, we want to expand our digital presence into places like experiential events and Kia retailers. The new Kia.com is the foundation that enables us to do much more.? 

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York