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.
SHINDARY Product Page
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.
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).
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’ addresses, and since mid-, the company removed numbers from customers’ details. Some merchants used customers’ data to execute promotional campaigns ( 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.
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
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 $2,000 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 reaches 50,000 product variants, the merchant can only create 1,000 new variants per day. If the shop is on the Shopify Plus plan, these limits do not apply.
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
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 $5,000 a year. The average price is around $120 a year for hosting and $15 for domain registration.
Recommended hosting options for WooCommerce include:
Bluehost
The company is the world’s best online automotive parts supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
SiteGround
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
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.
The company offers CMS that includes hosting and basic features required of auto parts stores. Inventory management, website integration, 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.
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.
Building an online auto parts store can seem like an intimidating project. While you might excel at selling auto parts, website design and development may not be your strength.
The good news is that you don’t have to be a developer to create an automotive website. With new technology and great ecommerce platforms (like Volusion) available, it’s easier than ever to get your online auto parts store up and running.
Create a Strategy for Your Site
Before you start building your website, you need to determine its purpose and how you want your customers to interact with it.
First, determine if you want customers to be able to order directly from the website or if it’s more of a brochure just showing what products you have. If you are going to sell products through the website, then you also need to think about how often you will update the parts and if you will integrate with a shipping partner to send the purchased parts.
Once you determine your goal, you can get into the nitty gritty of building it.
Gather Information and Assets
The next step is gathering essential information and assets you will need to get started on your website.
Some assets you’ll need are:
Choose an Ecommerce Platform
One of your most important decisions is which ecommerce platform to partner with. This choice is crucial because it determines how easy it will be to build your website. Of course, finding the most straightforward solution that requires the least heavy lifting from you is essential!
Volusion is one of the easiest-to-use and most robust ecommerce platforms. Its professional and responsive designs will make your website stand out to customers.
Start Building Your Website
After selecting your ecommerce platform, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start building your online auto parts websites.
Pick a Theme
The first step is to select your theme. You want to pick a theme that reflects your brand, looks good, and will attract customers. Volusion offers three themes specifically designed for automotive companies:
Build the Core Pages
Once you have a theme in place, you need to determine what pages you want on your online auto parts store. Typically, you will want a home page, an About Us page, a Contact page, and a Product page. You should also consider adding a testimonials or reviews page and a blog.
Determine what types of content you want on each page and start building them out. Ideally, your ecommerce platform has easy-to-use modules to make adding and creating content a breeze. Volusion offers easy-to-use blocks to build website sections. There is no limit to how many blocks you can use, allowing you to customize the site to fit your needs.
Create Product Pages
The bulk of your site will be the product pages. Having these pages set up correctly and with the right tools is essential to make purchases easy and accurate.
Key Elements
Numerous elements should be added to each page. Some recommended elements – which are all available in Volusion’s ecommerce platform – include:
Volusion’s platform also provides custom fields and custom filters you can use to make your auto products stand out.
Must-Have Functionality
In addition to adding vital elements to product pages, you also need to ensure essential functionality is in place. Some capabilities your pages should have are:
Purchasing Tools
The goal of your online auto parts store is to sell products. You must make it easy for them to complete a purchase.
Volusion offers a “Sticky Add to Cart” feature. This keeps the “Add to Cart” button right in front of users as they scroll around the page and learn more about the product. This reduces the risk of them getting distracted and forgetting to add the product to their cart.
While creating these pages, you must also account for purchasing and shipping capabilities to ensure you can complete a sale and deliver the products.
Attract Visitors
Once your site is running, you must ensure potential customers can find your online auto parts store. A key way to do this is to make sure your website follows search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, which will help it show up in online searches.
One top way to do this is to use keywords throughout your site and product pages. You should also ensure the keywords are used in the metadata on your site pages, in headings, page titles, and more.
Getting customer reviews and writing blogs on your website are also ways to boost your SEO. At Volusion, our blocks are built on a modern tech stack, making it easy to add integrations like a WordPress blog, MailChimp, TrustSpot, Yotpo, and SearchSprings to your website.
Volusion’s templates include SEO best practices. We take it very seriously and follow industry best practices to help you attract more customers to your automotive website.
Let Us Help You Build an Online Automotive Store
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit geely spare parts.