General Motors is making big and very niche moves in the car-retail ecosystem with the ability to prepay gas at Shell stations.
So this is kind of cool—General Motors has managed to find a way to make some money in the connected car market. One leg of the Big Three tripod has just given the car-retail environment a shot in the arm with the ability to prepay gas purchases through its Marketplace application.
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The Right Connection
Forbes is reporting that GM customers can take advantage of this feature at Shell stations around the country, bringing more inter-connectivity to the car-retail market space. General Motors quietly launched its Marketplace last December and people are now seeing the benefits of having that nifty feature uploaded.
The application connects the car's information, like location and fuel range, with applications from outside companies. Want an iced coffee from Dunkin or Starbucks? You can just tap a couple buttons and it's ready for pickup when you get there. GM is turning a profit by getting a sliver of the proceeds and everyone's happy.
Getting People To Use It
With the prepay gas application, drivers are being prompted to get more interactive than they would regularly be enticed to. Think about it, gas is available everywhere and people generally go for the cheapest, let's face it. Plus, having an additional application on your device eats up memory.
But the GM app is a streamlined approach to app use with little memory used and no jumping around from device to device. What's more, the Marketplace application in the car-retail system can offer discounted gas and just makes it easier to locate gas locations.
You Do You, GM
No swiping, no punching in zip codes, no saying yes or no for receipt; just beep, boop, boop and you're one step closer to pumping and going. It's convenient and can be talked down as an additive to a gazillion applications, but for those looking for a little more ease—and we can all use more ease when driving—GM's Marketplace could very well be cutting out its own corner in the connected car market, putting itself light years of competition.
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