How To Develop An Online Store For Selling Auto Parts

If you are still a brick-and-mortar auto parts retailer looking to enter the online space, you are on the right page. 

Gone are the days when people used to prefer offline shopping while online was buzzing around. Statista reported that in early 2023, about 43% of consumers in the US admitted to choosing online shopping rather than going in-store. 

How to start an auto parts business? Yes, we know you might also be seeking the same. Besides initiating, the way of onboarding is also crucial to beat the already ruling stores. We have got you covered, bringing everything you need to know to develop the best ecommerce platform for auto parts and stay ahead of the curve. 

Let’s explore more. 

What Is An Auto Parts eCommerce store?

Auto Parts eCommerce store or the automotive parts ecommerce website brings in customers and gives them information about automotive information, selling them a wider capacity in the online platform. It makes it easy and comfortable for both the customers and the sellers to purchase and sell the product within a few seconds, even in remote areas.

Latest Facts & Figures of the Auto Part Industry 

• A report says that by 2023, around 22% of all auto parts sales will be online. 
• About 62% of millennial car buyers in the US aged between 22 and 37 purchase auto parts online. 
• Globally, the auto parts retailing market online is likely to grow at a CAGR of 14% and more during the forecast period of 2020-2024.
• By 2023, the worldwide automotive aftermarket industry market will be valued at $741.84 million and speedy growth from $490.61 million reported in 2022.

Types Of Automotive eCommerce Websites

B2C Autoparts eCommerce Portal

It is the type of automotive commerce website that helps you with some specific business needs according to suitability with good performance in handling large orders at a time. It helps with the building of custom prices, discounts, catalogs of various vehicles and auto parts, and refined payment methods with the inclusion of shipping solutions and customizations.

B2B Autoparts eCommerce Website

This type of website usually surrounds itself with solutions for automotive business needs and future scaling. Product specification, advanced navigation techniques, speed optimization, with the simplified checkout process and good interpretation of analytics data with systematic buyer protection

Types of Autoparts You Want To Sell

Selling auto parts online requires you to decide what type of auto-parts you want to sell. Usually, there are three types of auto parts: OEM, OES, and aftermarket parts.

OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer

These auto parts are usually manufactured by the company, assemble the model according to the company’s requirement. The autoparts that are originally used by the company and produced by them themselves are known as OEM parts.

OES – Original Equipment Supplier

To produce specifications and productivity, companies usually hire other automobile companies to produce auto parts and replace them with OEM parts while repairing, which are therefore called OES parts.

Aftermarket Autoparts (Other Brands)

These types of autoparts are usually referred to as alternatives. This is because they serve as an alternative to the original part if the original parts are somewhat difficult to find. The parts from the aftermarket would be of another brand but would be the same as the original parts.

Other Monetization Opportunities For An Autoparts eCommerce Store

Featured Listings

A featured listing usually refers to promoting or putting an auto part at a popular sport for some time. The listings allow the feature of the auto parts with specific categorization in the automotive e-commerce store.

Advertisement Selling

Advertisement selling usually refers to promoting autoparts of an ecommerce store through various advertisements to create awareness about the autoparts or products.

Garage Integration

Garage integration stands for “Listing various workshops and garages within the autoparts ecommerce portal so that customers can locate nearby garages and book services. This feature will benefit both garages and customers as workshop owners will get more jobs, and customers can book services online.

Popular Autoparts eCommerce Websites

The automotive parts ecommerce website serves as the opportunity to allow sellers and customers to interact at the virtual platform for the purchase and sale of autoparts and greet them with detailed information about the autoparts. Some of the top ecommerce auto part websites are defined below.

Carid.com

CARiD.com is one of the most systematic and structured sites, which makes shopping easy for customers wishing to buy accessories and autoparts having a perfect categorization of products and useful illustrations of it.

Autozone.com

AutoZone is such a website that provides you with the main source for autoparts and accessories. It provides consultations and advice to the customer regarding the purchase of products.

Advanceautoparts.com

The provision and source of quality auto parts and accessories are all in a website known as the advance autoparts website performing multiple tasks while advising the customers.

Napaonline.com

Napa online usually provides access to the world’s largest ready-to-ship aftermarket parts, accessories, tools, and equipment,, providing benefits to large automotive industries.

Carparts.com

Carparts.com is an aftermarket auto parts provider in America that also provides engine, collision, accessories, and performance parts, including collision parts, engine parts, and performance parts.

Key Benefits Of Developing Best Ecommerce Platform For Auto Parts

Automotive e-commerce websites and applications favor manufacturers, retailers, and even customers. 

1. For Manufacturers

From the manufacturer’s outlook, an e-commerce solution arrives with endless benefits. They can meet the distinctive needs of every customer and build robust relationships between them. The direct-to-customer option can also help in having control over pricing and brand, removing the mediator. 

2. For Customers

Considering customers, e-commerce platforms bring engaging, personalized, and easy purchasing experience. Regardless of time or location, customers can shop seamlessly for whatever they want at a suitable price. 

Advantages of Automotive E-commerce Solutions

1. Expand Customer Base 

Becoming location-independent, e-commerce automotive applications facilitate sales in those places where it takes time to reach with traditional modes. Meeting customers’ needs in multiple languages and currencies regardless of location helps expand your automotive business into new segments and markets. 

2. Improve Customer Experience 

Digital channels provide consumers personalized purchase experiences, offering the attention they deserve. Based on their order history, you can provide your consumers with multiple payment modes and gateway options for omnichannel experiences. 

3. Automate Your Business 

As online stores offer 24*7 personalized self-service assistance, it cuts order processing costs by ten times. Also, automated business workflow helps you manage multiple sites from a single admin, centralize data, and eliminate risks and costs associated with manual data entry. 

General Features Of Autoparts Online Store

There are certain features an automotive parts ecommerce website should hold-

Social Login & Signup
In an automotive ecommerce website, the buyers usually need to fill in their information and some basic details known as the “sign up” process, whereas the login feature denotes that the buyer’s profile has been made and that by logging in, he can order the desired autopart or accessories.

Refine Search & Filters
The refined search and filters is another feature that helps the users to navigate the autoparts store and significantly increases conversion. It also helps in narrowing the results further for the customers, making it easier for them to select and purchase the autopart. The customers can refine their searches based on customization on the brand category of the autoparts.

Auto Parts Finder (Year/Make/Model Lookup)
The autoparts finder is a feature that directly helps you search for the specific autoparts you wish for and similar options available on the ecommerce website of autoparts. This makes it easier for the customer to search results for a particular vehicle and narrows down several autoparts and suggests those that fit the customer’s vehicle.

Wheel Search
This feature helps the customer to specify the sizing of wheels for his particular vehicle with both upsizing and downsizing options.

Tires Search
This feature is also similar to the wheels search feature as it helps the customer to specify the sizing of tires concerning the vehicles with both upsizing and downsizing options.

Verify Fitment
Sometimes, the customers may not have a pre-selected vehicle saved in the garage. This is when the verify fitment feature works, as it allows users to check if the item is compatible with the desired vehicle or not before ordering it.

Fitment Compatibility Table
This is the feature where a table or listing with data on vehicle fitment is placed for the perfect description on the product page, helping customers to be sure of their purchase.

Recommendations
Recommendations usually convince people to buy more. This feature generates some product or autopart recommendations to increase the order value by the customers giving them validation.

Informative Product page – Auto Part Details
The product page should be nothing less than informative. It should have detailed information about the autoparts and accessories available in the ecommerce store. The product page should contain a list of products, and when a customer clicks on a certain product, a piece of information should be presented to him. This helps the customer with all the necessary information and helps him order the product precisely.

Discounted Prices for Garages & Bulk Buyers
Discounted prices for bulk buyers help the sellers to earn profits by enabling the customers to order autoparts at a discounted range of price and letting them order in large bulk or units.

Shipping Calculation
This helps the customer automatically calculate the price and total cost of the product or autoparts including shipping costs, with precise shipping information.

Domestic & International Payment Gateway
After the order has been added to the cart or the garage, during the time of transaction, there is the feature of efficient payment and checkout pages that helps customers to purchase the product and immediately have a payment confirmation on them. There are also customized modules for domestic and international payment gateways to speed up the transaction process with more options to pay.

Upsell & Cross-Sell
Cross-selling is the feature where the customers are offered compliments or supplements about the purchases they’ve already made. Upselling is the feature that occurs when there is an increase in a customer’s value by encouraging them to add on services or purchase a more expensive model.

Reports & Analytics
Reports and analytics are features of the e-commerce store that allow the company to understand trends and shifts in customers’ purchasing behavior.  Reporting and analytics tools help to gain a detailed report about the record of sales and purchases eCommerce site.

Informative blogs
An informative blog on the website of an automotive ecommerce store helps to gain insight into the store and its specializations to the customers. The informative blogs help provide detailed information about certain subject matter and products that serve as an add-on to a rich amount of sales and are a fundamental feature in successful web marketing and utilized by most ecommerce stores.

Advanced Features Of Online Autoparts Store

There are also some Advanced Features in an autoparts ecommerce store

ChatBot Integration
E-Commerce chatbots serves as a powerful helping hand to ecommerce sellers. Using intelligent prompts and message replies, they engage customers as well as passive visitors to solve their queries and questions related to a particular product just by chatting on the ecommerce website store.

Smart Search Integration
The Smart Chart integration is a feature that allows the provision of perfect labeling of products with relevance to charts, reducing confusion and making it easier for the buyers to easily search their desired products.

Multi Channel Integration

ERP Integration
This multi-channel integration process serves as the foundation for running an automotive ecommerce business. It helps in managing items that the sellers wish to sell with customer-specific pricing, managing inventory, and availability in sales and order processing.

CRM Integration
This multi-channel integration process helps in providing an understanding of channel management as it helps translate value-adding interactions with customers with pre-sales communication, sales interaction, post-sale service, and support with the customer.

POS Integration
POS integration is a multi-channel feature that is a streamlined connection between a POS software and an autoparts accounting and operations platform which can pull detailed data directly in real-time.

RMA Reporting and Flow
A return merchandise authorization (RMA) is a multi-channel integration feature that deals with returning an autoparts after it has been purchased due to some difficulty or other reasons. It helps the customers to receive a refund, replacement, or repair during the auto parts warranty period.

Characteristics Of A Successful Online Autopart eCommerce Store

Fast Shipping
An online autopart store provides fast shipping in regard to details such as zip code, which helps decide whether fast shipping is available or not. Generally, fast shipping serves as a great factor in the sales of autoparts.

Friendly Return Policy
This is another aspect where an autopart ecommerce store should have a friendly return policy and refunds without any complications to avoid client complaints. The return policy should always be as complex, transparent, and accurate as possible in automotive ecommerce stores.

Security Provisioning
Secure Device Provisioning is a characteristic that ensures secrets regarding autoparts or other products purchased by the customer cannot be exposed or manipulated. The security provision also implies secured manufacturing with innovative code protection and Whitebox technology, where the secrets remain protected for the rest of the device’s use and disposal.

Super Fast Load Speeds
Super Fast Load Speeds helps in using the latest technology with definite website standards that allow the customers to find their specific parts and witness a fast checkout.

Mobile Responsive
The ecommerce sites of autoparts should be mobile responsive. They should have a perfectly designed mobile site so that it becomes easier for the customers to shop directly from their smartphones or Androids.

Product Photographs
Usually, in an ecommerce store of autoparts the customers would like to see the products before they buy. Therefore, a perfect professional photograph of the autopart will influence the customer to access the auto parts store online and buy it.

Approaches To Develop An Autopart eCommerce Store

Develop from the Scratch
An autopart ecommerce store developed from scratch is usually custom-based and designed with a hand-coded website. So developing a website from scratch means that the site is constructed as per the client’s needs and their specific business requirements for autopart store.

Self-hosted Store Using Opensource ecommerce platform
A self-hosted store using an opensource ecommerce platform helps acquire and install into the server of choice of the company such that the company manages and runs the resultant tools. This usually helps in unlimited flexibility in the hands of the company regarding website handling, especially considering, that it is an open-source system.

Hosted eCommerce platform
A hosted ecommerce platform is a type of software that services and acts as a host to online stores. These kinds of hosted platforms offer convenience, with an ideal autoparts ecommerce development experience.

Just google about “what is a hosted ecommerce platform,” OR we will give you the understanding.

Factors to Consider While You Develop an E-commerce Automotive Store

Backend

From here, the development of an automotive e-commerce software, website, or app starts, which will decide the structure of your automotive e-commerce web application or website. 

Let’s check what factors fall in this part:

1. Product and Customer Details

Whatever you develop, an application or website, it needs to have a comprehensive database holding the present and future information of products and customers. 

The product module will showcase high-quality pictures and videos, technical details, descriptions of each, questions and answers, etc. 

On the other edge, the customer module will include their zip code and other details. While searching, when the customers input their information, including zip code, the shipping cost will be calculated accordingly and shown. 

2. Price & Discount Information

One more database will help you facilitate users with the current discounts and price details you offer. Here, split sections will save you to separate product-based discounts and order-based discounts. 

Also, the dynamic modular development will aid in creating real-time product page updates and displaying the discounted cost for the customers. This will boost conversions, saving their time. 

3. Orders/Import History and Shipping Details

A dynamic database will help you keep a well-maintained record of all orders and the import details done by users with precise shipping details. Users can seamlessly access this for ready reference. 

4. Save Credit Card and Password

Backend developers must encrypt users’ sensitive details, like credit card details and passwords. 

Auto Parts Store App/Web

This is the first glimpse that customers witness and get details of what they fetched in the backend. So, it needs to be user-friendly, easy to use, and engaging. The factors coming under this section are:

1. Categorized Parts

This factor will reveal the product details that you want to sell, including its name, year of manufacturing, etc. Enable search filtering for your customers to improve their search experience. 

2. Discount Banner and Merchandize Banner

Visual banners revealing discounts or featured products can instantly catch the eyes of visitors. Keep it less wordy so that it can direct your message straight. 

3. Customer Support

The use of a customer support automation module will meet every customer service requirement while ensuring 24*7 support with no involvement of human agents. 

Product Page

It demands nothing less than accurate and in-detail information. The below factors play an essential role here:

1. Auto Part Details

Clicking this page must provide all the product details. Provide complete and genuine information about the products you display. 

2. Q&A

Include a FAQ section where the customers can get resolutions to their basic queries. 

3. Reviews

Encourage users to leave feedback about your products and services. It will help build customer trust and, thereby, reputation. 

4. Return Policy

While you build ecommerce automotive solutions, you need to be accurate and transparent in this section. Outline everything relevant to what you want in your return policies, and be sure you follow that to attract no complaints from customers. 

5. Payment Page

Understand the purchasing behavior of your customers and act on them immediately. Integrate payment and checkout pages in your automotive e-commerce applications or websites that are scalable, flexible, and offer advanced support. 

How To Develop An Online Store For Selling Auto Parts

However you need an e-commerce automotive app development company for your project, but before that, you need to make some decisions. So, here are the steps you need to know: 

1. Decide the Types of Auto Parts You Want to Sell

You may sell certain types of auto parts you want to sell and then start with the process of developing an online auto parts-selling store. 

2. Choose a Platform 

Next, the development steps will depend on which platform you want to deploy your e-commerce automotive app. 

3. Image & Description Work

Click engaging and clear images of the parts you want to sell with a complete description. 

4. Develop Your Website or App

Build your e-commerce automotive website to list your products and start selling. First, choose an engaging design with easy navigation to boost customer experience. 

Team Structure Required To Develop An Autoparts eCommerce Store

To develop an autoparts software or ecommerce portal, one needs a set team that is structured and aids in the development of the specific autopart ecommerce website store. For that, we should clearly define the business needs by hiring the right kind of people who would be fir for developing a website. Then, we should design an efficient boarding process and give a definite explanation of the workflow of the employees. Then, we should define roles in executive management and stress-efficient product management to build a perfect autoparts ecommerce store. From the structure of executives and assisting people with certain tasks such as handling payments and orders, keeping records of payments, etc, the team structure is necessary for a better autoparts ecommerce store.

• Project Manager
• Backend Developers
• Front-End Developer
• Data Specialists

How Much Does It Cost To Develop An Autoparts eCommerce Store?

Usually, eCommerce website development prices can range from $10,000 to $500,000 or more, which relates to the complexity of autopart stores’ platform selection such as Shopify, WordPress, Magento, etc., for many sellers and business companies of autoparts selling over the Internet can be alluring and complex at the same time. However, ecommerce stores carry their own set of complications, so success and profits will rely on the right combination of tools and strategies used for development. But nowadays, starting an online store to sell automotive parts is much less expensive. Companies can set up ecommerce stores or develop them with the provision of a free ecommerce website in a matter of hours. eCommerce software, such as X-Cart, makes developing websites easy by just selecting a template designed for autoparts with active support, with provisions for only one-time licensing fees.