Skip to content
Chun Saw
All Case Studies
smartphoneiCarAsia (Carsome Group) · 2025

Dealer Mobile App

Mobile Product0 to 1Monetisation
Dealer Mobile App — iCarAsia (Carsome Group) case study
Ad upgrade purchases in first 3 months
6,500+
Markets launched from one build
3
Daily active dealers post-launch
~160

The Context

iCarSuite is where used car dealers manage inventory, leads and listing visibility. A mobile app existed, but web-first development had left it behind. Dealers work on the lot, not at a desk, yet anything that moved money or visibility sent them back to a computer.

The Challenge

Three at once. Stay familiar to web users without inheriting desktop complexity. Launch across Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, each with its own business model and currency. And lift adoption of the ad products the business earns from.

The Approach

One principle: keep the web patterns that worked, and change a workflow only where mobile changed the job. Discovery ran on dealership visits, not desk research.

Observation carried it. We watched a sales agent dig through old notes to rebuild a listing that already existed in the system. That produced listing duplication, a workaround dealers had stopped complaining about.

Dealer Mobile App — field research
Dealer Mobile App — How dealers read a card: staleness, rank, whether it is worth spending on.
How dealers read a card: staleness, rank, whether it is worth spending on.
Dealer Mobile App — The overview doubles as the upsell moment, because dealers open it out of habit.
The overview doubles as the upsell moment, because dealers open it out of habit.
Dealer Mobile App — Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia. Configuration, not three products.
Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia. Configuration, not three products.
Collaborator
“Dealers value control over automation.”
Yu QingSenior Product Designer, design lead on this projectRead Qing's design case study

Every product screen on this page is Qing's design work, reproduced here with credit.

The User Flows

Flow 01

Creating a listing

One long form became three short steps, saved as a draft from the first one.

Creating a listing — Vehicle details, ad specifics, photos.
Vehicle details, ad specifics, photos.
Creating a listing — One search fills five fields.
One search fills five fields.
Creating a listing — Same step, three markets.
Same step, three markets.
Flow 02

Working a lead

Reviewing an enquiry and answering it used to be two jobs.

Working a lead — Lead activity, two taps from the listing.
Lead activity, two taps from the listing.
Flow 03

Buying an ad upgrade

Upgrades were product names, sold where dealers never looked. Now they are goals, offered where performance is judged.

Buying an ad upgrade — Bump on every card. The dealer picks the duration.
Bump on every card. The dealer picks the duration.
Buying an ad upgrade — Page position on the card. Upgrades grouped by goal.
Page position on the card. Upgrades grouped by goal.
Buying an ad upgrade — Pricing differs per market. The flow does not.
Pricing differs per market. The flow does not.
Flow 04

Duplicating a listing

From one dealership visit. Nobody asked for it in an interview.

Duplicating a listing — Preview, confirm, edit a pre-filled draft.
Preview, confirm, edit a pre-filled draft.

The Outcome

The app stopped being a companion to the web platform and started earning on its own.

  • 6,500+ ad upgrade purchases in the first three months.
  • Three markets in four months from one configurable build.
  • Demand spread beyond Bump, the product dealers used to default to. They were finding what the old structure had hidden.
  • Mobile was funded as a revenue channel, not a companion surface.
Next Case StudyInventory Tracking App