Selling auto parts on e-commerce platforms is the future of the car parts industry. More people are turning to online communities before making a purchase. People find it very convenient to shop car parts online if they know for sure that the parts they’re getting will definitely fit their cars.
However, managing an online car parts store isn’t so easy. It is completely different from running a physical brick and mortar store and if you do not have the right software, things can get out of control quickly. Fortunately, there are a few trusted tools and established sales channels that you could look into.
Top Online Sales Channels for Auto Parts
It is important to choose the right sales channels to help you with your e-commerce store. These platforms often have well-established traffic, making it easier to help car parts sellers to jumpstart their online business.
Shopify
Shopify is a platform specifically designed to help businesses, especially small-to-medium ones, to start their journey selling on an ecommerce platform. Shopify allows the users to create their own storefront and publish it independently, offering an even greater degree of customization as compared to the other two giants.
Shopify is a great choice for car parts sellers for various reasons. First, it offers a vast number of free resources that will help you start a better ecommerce business, allowing you to get one step ahead of your competitors. Shopify is also scalable, and powers some of the world's largest brands online.
Furthermore, their platform’s theme design tool is incredibly user-friendly. With a drag-and-drop design, even non-professionals can use it to make a professional-looking ecommerce site.
Shopify's support team is also highly proactive, and they will provide the assistance you need when you get a support ticket. The team will reach out to you through phone, email and other means at their earliest convenience.
Shopify is also an SEO-friendly platform, allowing you to increase traffic towards your site and improve overall sales. With Shopify, reaching a wide audience becomes a lot easier with your online business.
eBay
eBay requires very little introduction, as its ubiquity in the field of e-commerce is already well-established.
It is very easy to sell car parts on eBay now, thanks to the eBay Motors site. This site focuses on selling motor parts as well as accessories, and there is a dedicated team that will help you with the set-up, making it a great choice for all car parts sellers.
One of the best features of eBay is the fact that you can add part fitment data to the listings. This means that the seller can list out all the vehicles that the parts will fit, allowing the customers to make easier purchase decisions. You can also put these listings on online ads to increase exposure to your brand, thereby increasing your profits.
Because eBay is an established platform with millions of users all over the world, selling your parts on this platform allows you to gain access to a vast sea of potential customers. Even better, eBay provides seller protection for sellers on their platform, ensuring that you can confidently enter a dispute with customers without being treated unfairly by the platform.
Amazon
Amazon is another big name in the field of e-commerce and there are good reasons for that. Amazon offers a wide selection of car parts, so wide that you can find practically any part that you might need there.
The platform also includes a very good parts finder that will help customers find the parts they need more effectively. However, Amazon seems to favor the sale of car accessories over major car parts and you won’t be able to sell second hand car parts.
Compared to eBay, Amazon is a bit of a latecomer, but they have made many great strides in the recent years, such that they have become a serious competitor against eBay. However, there is a lower barrier to entry for eBay as Amazon requires a lot more information from their sellers.
Auto Parts Software
Online car parts sellers do not have to manage their storefront by themselves. There are plenty of auto parts inventory software out there that will help you to simplify and automate the tasks, increasing the efficiency of your online car part store in the long run.
PartsPal
PartsPal is a rising star in the field. Boasting seamless integration with systems such as Shopify, eBay and Amazon, PartsPal helps car parts sellers manage their online inventories without needing to add a single line of code. With PartsPal, customers can easily find the parts they need using the system’s car parts finder.
PartsPal will connect your online car parts store to an industry-standard database, which makes updating your inventory a walk in the park. This leaves you with plenty of time to take care of the other matters of your business that are more urgent.
PartsPal also features a smart control hub that allows you to control every aspect of the management process with ease. Through it, making bulk changes and managing your online businesses becomes significantly easier.
Other Options
There are a few alternatives to PartsPal but usually not dedicated to spare parts sales. A good example is Fishbowl, which is a popular inventory management system developed by American developers. It also offers solutions to both online inventory management and offline management.
For online inventory management, the software uses cloud-based technology to help you manage inventories from remote locations. It has a control panel that will help navigate the software easily, allowing users to also make bulk changes and manage large stock easier.
This software also allows car parts sellers to automate many processes. For example, they can use the software to automate the reordering process, which makes it easier for returning customers to make new purchases. The system also allows sellers to track orders and shipping statuses with ease.
But the downside of this software is the fact that it does not specialise in car parts. This means that their support team is not well-versed in the industry, which limits their capacity to support online car parts sellers. These software also do not support vehicle part compatibility data which is the foundation of a good online parts business.
Sortly is another good inventory management system that focuses on collaborative management. The system allows you to delegate permission levels to team members, allowing them to collaborate on the e-commerce website management. The system also features a tracker that lets owners know whenever changes are made, ensuring that no important data will be accidentally deleted.
Like Fishbowl, Sortly covers a vast range of industries, but does not support integrated vehicle compatibility data and functions that are unique to selling auto parts online.
Setting up your shop for online sales channels is going to be quite difficult at first, no matter which channel you choose. However, there are always tools out there that will help you to get on your feet and simplify the management process. With tools like PartsPal, managing a storefront becomes so much easier.
