Zero to e-commerce Hero — How to start an online auto parts store in 7 steps
E-commerce is on the rise with no intention to stop. Last year, the coronavirus pandemic instigated a mandated closure of brick-and-mortar stores. Even industries that were traditionally slower to adopt technology took a plunge into e-commerce. A decade ago, it was too costly to do so, or the technology wasn’t there to launch an efficient online auto parts shop. But, things have since changed.
In this article, we guide you through this process. If you are a repair shop owner, automotive enthusiast, or seasoned expert and have decided to start an online venture, we hope this guide will ease the journey for you.
STEPS:
1. Decide on brands and the type of products you want to sell
2. Choose your distributor
3. Choose a platform to sell on
4. Choose what your website will look like
5. Consider your need for automation software
6. Get an auto parts fitment search
7. Attract customers
1. DECIDE ON BRANDS AND THE TYPE OF PRODUCTS YOU WANT TO SELL
Finding an automotive niche increases the chances of a successful e-commerce business and has several benefits.
1) Marketing a website that sells parts only to truck owners or PowerSports enthusiasts is more manageable than selling everything to anyone. Indeed, some merchants do make a profit by selling diverse parts and brands. But, more often, it is more fulfilling and beneficial to build a store around a specific idea.
2) If the store specializes in one thing, merchants know where to center their attention and efforts. They don’t jump from one idea to another.
Online auto parts stores can be focused around:
- Specific types of vehicle enthusiasts (e.g., sports cars, sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks, etc.)
- Automotive brands
- Type of spare parts (e.g., wheels, tires, engines, suspension, etc.)
- Vehicle models
3) Many vendors focus on the niche where they already have the expertise or personal interest. Clients have more trust in those merchants who show their in-depth knowledge in a particular area.
Also, in recent years, the number of customers who choose small, unique, or local brands has increased. According to a survey conducted by Red Egg Marketing, 82% of shoppers are willing to support small businesses and buy products from both offline and online stores.
2. CHOOSE YOUR DISTRIBUTOR
Every store starts from the product it sells. Finding a supplier is one of the first steps one takes to launch an e-commerce store. The owners of garage services, repair shops, or brick-and-mortar stores probably already have this issue ticked from their list, as they usually know and have distributors to buy parts at wholesale prices. So, the following information will be most helpful to automotive enthusiasts who are still looking for their suppliers.
What’s the difference between the supplier, distributor, and wholesaler? Suppliers are the ones who produce the auto parts themselves but usually don’t have a direct retail channel. So, they sell their products to distributors who have a well-functioning sale system. The distributors then sell those products to wholesalers, who then sell them to the retailer.
There are several standard models of supplier selection:
1) Merchants have long-held preferences and established cooperation with several brands and, in addition, get parts from a wholesale distributor.
2) The store owner works with several suppliers to get auto parts for sale.
3) Some vendors manufacture parts and sell them with the auto parts they get from suppliers.
Common requirements to dealers among distributors:
- The business is focused on the automotive industry.
- The merchant must follow the Minimum Advertised Price policy.
DISTRIBUTORS BY SPECIALIZATION:
· Performance parts: Torqued Distribution, Premier Performance Products, Turn 14, Motor State Distributing
· Power Sports parts: KURYAKYN, Western Power Sports, Automatic Distributors, Parts Unlimited
· Both general and niche auto parts: Keystone, Meyer Distributing, Parts Authority
Required to have a brick-and-mortar store: KURYAKYN, Parts Unlimited
Offers drop-shipping services: Keystone, Meyer Distributing, Motor State Distributing, Parts Authority, Western Power Sports, Turn 14
Popular auto parts distributors
* KURYAKYN requires your shop to be dedicated to motorcycles and motorcycle-related products only.
**Motor State Distributing requires customers to purchase at least $5,000 (USD) in products annually. The dealer can connect the company’s API to the website and see accurate inventory in real-time, make an order, and get product information. It also offers a PriceGuidePro (PGP) dealer portal that helps with pricing and maintaining your business within a budget.
3. CHOOSE A PLATFORM TO SELL ON
Some merchants don’t want to bother with creating their own websites and start selling on marketplaces — most often on Amazon or eBay. Considering both marketplaces have high traffic, this is a valid option. Both companies also offer marketing tools that allow you to promote your products. Amazon and eBay have extensions to manage fitment data as well.
EBAY
eBay allows you to list up to 250 SKUs for free a month, but if you want to list more parts, you’ll be required to pay $0.35 per listing. Also, eBay charges you a percentage of an item’s total sale price. The final value fee is between 8% to 12.55% for most categories, plus a $0.30 transaction fee, and the final costs depend on your account type. You should also keep in mind that eBay doesn’t provide services such as warehousing, shipping, packaging, and distribution services — those challenges still have to be handled by the merchant.
AMAZON
If you want to be an auto parts vendor on Amazon, you need a Professional Seller account. This plan costs $39.99 monthly and allows one to sell an unlimited number of SKUs. In addition, you need Amazon’s approval to become an auto parts seller. Requirements for the approval include product images and information standards, fitment data, right universal product codes, etc. Amazon charges a 12% fee for automotive parts (but only 10% for tires & wheels).
PROS AND CONS OF SELLING ON MARKETPLACES
Amazon and eBay have a high reach which is hard to match. People use these platforms to browse and shop easily and efficiently. Selling on marketplaces is beneficial even if shoppers’ initial intention wasn’t to buy auto parts, as there is an increased chance of discovering and purchasing these products.
The barrier to entry to begin selling on marketplaces is low. Amazon or eBay sellers don’t have to spend money or time developing website design and interfaces or looking for ways to increase or generate traffic. Marketplaces cover these components, as well as aspects such as cybersecurity and shipping.
From April 8th, Amazon sellers don’t have access to any customers’ information. Only those sellers who fulfill their orders themselves have customers’ details. But most sellers use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and do not obtain any information on their clients. Amazon never provides sellers with users’ e-mail addresses, and since mid-2016, the company removed phone numbers from customers’ details. Some merchants used customers’ data to execute promotional campaigns (e-mail marketing, retargeting on Facebook, etc.) and increase sales. However, now they cannot.
Also, Amazon and eBay sellers don’t receive much recognition, which negatively affects repeat purchases. Even though customers purchase the product from a particular seller, in most cases, they are led to believe that they bought it directly from Amazon or eBay.
YOUR E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
Owning an e-commerce store allows merchants to avoid sharing profits with any platform, fully control customers’ experience, and be fully in charge of listings and the way they promote their store.
In the last two decades, e-commerce platforms have advanced, become cheaper, and more flexible. The budget and technical knowledge required to start an online auto parts shop also decreased.
Several e-commerce builders are well-suited for a “from scratch” auto parts shop:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
Automotive industry-specific builders:
- Web Shop Manager
- Revolution Parts
- DCi eStore Websites
AUTO PARTS STORE ON SHOPIFY
Shopify is a great platform to start selling auto parts. It is straightforward to use and doesn’t require you to be tech-savvy. The platform has several perks:
· It has pre-built product and order management features.
· There is a vast number of apps and themes available for free or at an affordable price. With hundreds of professional themes and apps to choose from, you will be able to customize your store as you please. Premium themes range in price from $160-$180.
· Shopify has different sales extensions and its own point of sale (POS) system.
How much does the merchant pay?
Shopify charges a monthly plan fee, processing fee, and transaction fee. If the merchants use Shopify Payments, they are not charged extra per payment. But if one decides to use PayPal or Authorize.net instead, Shopify will charge an extra 0.5%-2.0% transaction fee. Also, directly through Shopify, one can register a unique domain name for $14 for a one-year registration.
Basic Shopify — $29 per month + 2.9% + 30¢ USD
Shopify — $79 per month + 2.6% + 30¢ USD
Advanced Shopify — $299 per month + 2.4% + 30¢ USD
Enterprise plan — Shopify Plus — costs around $2000 per month, but you need to contact Shopify to receive a quote.
Beware: For the number of SKUs, the official pricing states that the number of products is unlimited, but that is not entirely true. Once the store has 50 000 product variants, the merchant cannot create more than 1000 new variants per day. If the shop is on the Shopify Plus plan, these limits do not exist.
AUTO PARTS STORE ON BIGCOMMERCE
BigCommerce offers product and order management features as well. There are fewer theme designs available on the market, but still enough to choose from. Twelve free themes are available on the official marketplace, and the paid themes cost around $145-$250 for one store.
BigCommerce also has all sorts of sales channel connectors and its POS systems.
How much does the merchant pay?
BigCommerce offers three plans:
Standard — $29.95 per month
Plus — $79.95 per month
Pro — $299.95 per month
Enterprise — pricing varies depending on your store needs
Number of SKUs: unlimited
Some limitations might require the store owner to upgrade to a more expensive plan. The annual sales limit for the Standard plan is $50,000, $180,000 for the Plus plan, and $400,000 for Pro. On the Pro plan, you can increase the sales limit by $200k for an extra $150 per month.
The default payment processing system for BigCommerce is Paypal. The transaction fee for Standard plan is 2.9% + 30¢ USD, 2.5% + 30¢ USD for the Plus plan, and 2.2% + 30¢ USD for the Pro.
General store limitations:
· Maximum brands per store — 30 000
· Maximum categories per store — 16 000
· Maximum product filtering facets per page — 12
AUTO PARTS STORE ON WOOCOMMERCE
WooCommerce is built from the WordPress website. So, it will be beneficial for the website owner to be accustomed to WordPress and any of its builders. Otherwise, it will take some time to learn the processes and develop the website. The e-commerce website builders mentioned above are a more convenient option for beginners compared to WooCommerce. If WooCommerce is selected as the platform, the merchant will need to acquire the skills and have the time to manage the store or hire a person to do it. The website management includes creating the content page, security, plug-in updates, website security, development, and maintenance.
As WooCommerce doesn’t provide hosting like the other builders, you’ll need to choose a hosting source. The price can vary from $3.95 per month to $5000 a year. The average price is around $120 a year for hosting and $15 for domain registration.
Recommended hosting options for WooCommerce include:
- Bluehost
- SiteGround
- GoDaddy
- Pressable
- Nexcess
There are thousands of themes available for free since the platform is based on WordPress. The price for paid themes ranges from $5 to $100.
WooCommerce Payments system has no setup charge and no monthly fees. The merchant pays 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction made with U.S.-issued credit or debit cards. For cards issued outside the U.S., there’s an additional 1% fee.
And you will need several plug-ins for Order/Customer CSV Export, creating product bundles and add-ons, UPS shipping method implementation, etc. Each of these plug-ins come with a price.
Number of SKUs: unlimited
AUTO PARTS STORE ON WEB SHOP MANAGER
Web Shop Manager is one of the oldest e-commerce CMS providers for the auto parts industry. Among the features provided by the platform are CRM, faceted search, inventory management, multi-store, management of SEO, promotions, returns, and reviews. There are no free trials. Pricing starts from $299 but plans scale with the store’s sales, and they have many limitations that make sellers pay extra or choose higher plans.
AUTO PARTS STORE ON REVOLUTION PARTS
The company offers CMS that includes hosting and basic features required of auto parts stores. Inventory management, website integration, email marketing, live order tracking, and buyer management are among the features. It also helps eBay and Amazon listings.
There is no free or trial version of the service. Clients receive a quote for the services, pay a one-time setup fee and a regular monthly fee. Revolution Parts works with dozens of OEM brands like GM, Ford, Honda, etc.
AUTO PARTS STORE ON DCI
DCi offers a turnkey e-commerce solution that allows the merchant to create a simple auto parts store. The solution includes search functionality, promotional and review modules, and allows the merchant to manage taxes and fulfillment and edit the content of the pages. DCi cataloged and enhanced product data for hundreds of automotive brands.
4. CHOOSE WHAT YOUR WEBSITE WILL LOOK LIKE
Website design often becomes a time-consuming and overwhelming task for sellers, especially if they never dealt with the design before. Therefore, we think the best option for starting an auto parts store is a website theme. A template typically already has standard solutions for website layout and features like mobile optimization, infinite scroll, promotion, and suggestion sections pre-implemented.
Shopify and WooCommerce do not have official auto parts themes. Official BigCommerce store offers 15 auto parts themes.
Themeforest offers 38 Shopify and 5 BigCommerce templates with a price range of $29–99. On Templatemonster, 17 auto parts themes exist for WooCommerce, 30 for Shopify, and 1 for BigCommerce. They cost from $39 to $129.
Convermax has a selection of auto parts themes. All templates in the selection are designed to fit the automotive industry spirit and create a great shopping experience for your future customers. The pre-built navigation and features of the theme satisfy auto parts e-commerce requirements. Check them out.
5. CONSIDER YOUR NEED IN THE AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
Most e-commerce builders have the ability to import products with a CSV file or create products manually. If some product information is missing, such as product pictures, sellers can upload it themselves. This option is manageable when you sell few products, but what happens when there are hundreds or thousands of them? The larger quantity of parts sold on the e-commerce website, the more difficult it is to keep product data up-to-date.
As each auto part has unique fitment data, it’s even more difficult to manage. When it comes to selling auto parts online, vehicle data is critical and influences customers’ buying decisions. So, many auto parts merchants use data automation services to edit part fitment notes, vehicle compatibility, part numbers, and fitment positions. For example, data automation ensures that the next time sellers import new product data or synchronize information from dealer websites, the previous edits to vehicle data won’t disappear.
Another automation service that is popular among auto parts sellers is order processing software. The system allows sellers to send orders straight to the warehouse without needing to rekey the order. As a result, products are shipped faster, and customers’ shipping confirmations and tracking information is updated in real-time.
The software auto parts merchants typically use at some stage of their store’s maturity include:
· Data Automation Software
· Inventory Management Software
· Order Processing Software
· All-in-one solution (Data, inventory, and order management).
Automation software can help with many things that are required to be tracked and optimized — inventory management, order processing issues, database creation, problems with payments, product data updates, marketing issues, etc.
AUTOMATION COMPANIES SPECIALIZED IN AUTO PARTS
The company has experience working with dozens of auto parts stores. It offers data automatization, price monitoring and updating, supplier stock changes, and integration of your products to other sales channels (like Amazon and eBay). The solution integrates to a variety of e-commerce platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc.). The company gets information from 12 suppliers and auto parts data providers, covering a large number of automotive brands.
Data-Here-To-There charges $99 per month for the Standard plan and $149 per month for the Enhanced plan.
Spark Shipping automates uploading products, updating inventory, sending orders, and receiving tracking updates. Their solution also integrates with all major e-commerce platforms. The auto parts data is integrated from 16 automotive and Powersports brands.
The company offers three plans ranging from the number of orders and number of SKUs: The Professional plan is available for $249 per month, Premium for $499 per month, and Premium Plus for $999 per month.
6. GET AN AUTO PARTS FITMENT SEARCH
Online auto parts stores need a tool that distinguishes parts by vehicle year, make, and model and delivers appropriate search results to the shopper.
The right fitment search works in sync with advanced site searches so that shoppers can browse the website the way they want. Every user searches for auto parts differently, so it is important the shop can accommodate various shopping methods.
1) Customers start their journey by selecting their vehicle in the Year-Make-Model lookup. After that, regardless of whether they browse by category or use the on-site search, they will only see products compatible with their car.
2) Shoppers want to search by entering a part number into a search box. They do so and see search results for the specific part number. Afterward, they might want to make sure that the product is compatible with their vehicle, so they can use the year-make-model lookup on the search results page or directly on the product page. If the product page has a vehicle compatibility table, they can also check that.
3) User can start by entering a keyword into the search box (e.g., exhaust muffler). After seeing the search results, the customer tries to figure out exactly what part they need.
4) Other customers can start by selecting a category in the menu. Then they will browse through products and maybe narrow results by applying filters.
Auto parts fitment search includes several features, but the Year-Make-Model parts finder is the most well-known. It has other variations, such as tires search and wheels search, which have other dropdown options.
CASES WHEN AUTO PARTS STORES DON’T NEED A YEAR-MAKE-MODEL SEARCH:
- If the online store sells for a particular car brand or type.
For example, Stage3Mototrsports specializes in performance parts for Ford vehicles such as the Mustang, Bronco, Ranger, F150, Super Duty, and for Toyota vehicles such as the Tacoma, Tundra, or 4-Runner. So, the company created a detailed navigation menu with a field for every vehicle type. It became a good alternative to the Year-Make-Model lookup as an advanced filtering interface strengthened it.
- If the auto parts store has few products.
Some auto parts vendors produce 20–30 niche products themselves, so they sell few items in the store. In that case, the Year-Make-Model widget is not a necessity; users can find compatible products without it.
WHICH STORES NEED A YEAR-MAKE-MODEL SEARCH?
Stores that sell thousands of products require an auto parts fitment search.
The Year-Make-Model search is something online shoppers are used to as they grew accustomed to such navigation while shopping on CARiD and other e-commerce giants.
HAVING IT IMPLEMENTED IN THE STORE BRINGS SEVERAL BENEFITS TO AUTO PARTS VENDORS:
· It ensures that your customers find the correct auto parts, saving you from costly returns and call center overload.
· Your store follows best practices customers are already used to at bigger stores.
THE COMPLETE LIST OF AUTO PARTS SEARCH FEATURES INCLUDES:
· Year-Make-Model lookup
· Garage
· Verify Fitment
· Fitment Compatibility Table
· Brands Line Up page
· Universal Parts
· Mini-Stores
· YMM-based Recommendations
· Filtered Navigation
· Year-Make-Model Search for wheels
· Year-Make-Model Search for tires
Not every store needs all of the features. It depends on what the merchant sells and what shopping experience they want to create for their customers. You can learn more about each feature here.
7. ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
Sometimes vendors got very immersed in developing their website, perfecting product selection, and every other detail. Then, when the online store is finally launched, they either have a preconceived notion that the traffic will organically grow, or they know it won’t but realize they don’t have the budget left for promotion. We recommend saving part of the budget for marketing purposes and plan how you will attract customers to your store.
Merchants can test different instruments to promote their stores. Marketing strategies after launching the store include:
- SEO optimization
Search Engine Optimization is a dynamically changing field. Depending on their background, online store owners can try to optimize pages and apply tags of page titles and meta descriptions or hire professionals to do the optimization.
- Pay per click (PPC) advertising on Google
PPC ads allow you to generate traffic and attract shoppers who already want to buy auto parts to your e-commerce store. According to Google, 25% of all automotive searches are parts-related, and attracting those who search for them should be on the seller’s agenda.
- Targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram
Thanks to targeting advertising, the store doesn’t need an active social media account to promote its products. Facebook allows you to create detailed target ads for auto parts enthusiasts who might be interested in your product.
Some vendors delegate marketing activities to companies that specialize in the field. Here few agencies that have helped several auto parts vendors promote their online shops:
- Jamersan
- Inspire
Once the store has a constant influx of clients for a few months, merchants can return to polishing their website look, product line, or anything else they think will be beneficial.
Resources to get a bigger picture on how to promote your store:
- Auto parts marketing ideas — get inspired!
- 4 Creative Auto Parts Online Marketing Ideas
- How to Market Your Auto Parts Store Online
GET THINGS DONE
Following these 7 steps will help you launch your first online auto parts store. We hope the guide was helpful and insightful. If you have questions regarding auto parts search or design templates, feel free to email our CEO at alex@convermax.com or schedule a call.
Originally published at https://convermax.com on September 27, 2021.
