A Comprehensive Guide to Selling Auto Parts Online - Fitment, Compatibility & More

There has been tremendous growth in the number of online stores and platforms selling auto parts and accessories online in the past few years. More traditional retailers are joining the online space after seeing how lucrative the industry is.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic had a great and positive impact on the auto parts industry, pushing businesses to adopt internet sales. Research done by Statista indicates that this trend is going to grow even further to a point of the entire industry tripling by the end of 2027.

Fortunately, this is coming at a time when more consumers are starting to embrace online shopping. Today, people have adopted innovative solutions and want to be able to place orders from wherever they are and have their goods delivered to them.

Despite all this growth and the adoption of online shopping by consumers, most players in the online auto parts industry are not yet ready to reap these benefits. This is because they do not know what to do or where to start. In this article, we are going to provide you with a comprehensive guide to selling auto parts online.

Understand Your Auto Parts - What Are You Selling

This might look like one of the simplest things for you, but you need to understand your auto parts and why you choose to deal with those particular parts. For instance, do you want to sell every single auto part, or would it be better for you to specialize in certain parts?

If you understand the auto parts you would like to deal with, then you will find it easy to structure your store or online platform. You will also be able to provide your customers with a well-structured and seamless platform that promotes a good user experience (UX).

You need a good user experience to increase conversations and increase sales for your auto parts. Some auto parts you can choose to sell online include;

Suspension and Wheels: Struts, Shocks, Hubcaps, and Tires, among others

Suspension and wheels can also be classified as external auto parts, although it takes a lot of work to install them compared to other externals.

Most of your customers for these auto parts might be other businesses, so you need to make sure that your online platform meets all the requirements of a B2B eCommerce platform.

Externals: Side Mirrors, Grills, and Bumpers, among others

These are among the best auto parts you can deal with. If you look at other sites such as AliExpress, you will realize that they are among the fastest-moving auto parts. One of the reasons behind this is the fact that they are easy to install compared to suspensions and wheels for example.

If you decide to deal with these external parts, you can choose either aftermarket upgrades or OEM replacements. Fitment for these parts is easy to determine, meaning that you will find these parts easy to deal with.

Tools: Wrenches and Jacks

You can also choose to specialize in dealing with heavy and/or light tools such as wrenches and jacks. The good news is that you can sell these parts to other businesses and individual customers as well.

Internals: Cylinders, Transmission, and Spark Plugs, among others

Even though selling internal auto parts online does not have a large market compared to the external parts market, the market is still big enough to make your business successful.

Just like the suspensions and wheels above, most of your customers will seek the help of mechanics when installing the internal auto parts. In addition, these parts are fragile and might require specialized packaging when being delivered.

If you decide to specialize in selling internal auto parts, then make sure that you have done enough research on the best shipping companies and wrapping materials to use.

Understand the Importance of Fitment or Compatibility

No matter the auto part products you are selling online, fitments or compatibility is one of the most important things you need to include in all your listings. Fitment and compatibility are the same things.

They are used to referring to the year of the vehicle, model, make, engine, and other details that the auto parts you sell online fit. You can also include details about trimming or sub-modeling and motor, among other things.

Some of the most established platforms such as eBay and AliExpress are very strict when it comes to fitments or compatibility. This explains the reason why you should add eBay fitment data or any other platform that you choose to use. It is also required even when you are building your eCommerce website.

In addition, some of these established online platforms are very competitive when it comes to selling auto parts online. You need to ensure that your auto parts are optimized - using the fitment data and filters - for them to be discoverable when a customer conducts a search.

When looking for an auto part online, the biggest concern among most customers is whether the part they have found online will fit into their car or not. This means that apart from optimizing your products to ensure that they are discoverable, you also need to ensure that your customers can find the exact auto part that they are looking for.

There is no way to do this apart from providing fitment data for your auto parts. When a customer searches for a product with specific filters, your auto parts will appear on their search results. This improves customer experience and leads to a higher conversion rate.

Best Practices for Selling Auto Parts Online

High-Quality Auto Part Photos

You need to make sure that your auto parts look trustworthy and professional to convince a customer to buy from you. If you decide to sell your auto parts from a platform such as AliExpress, then make sure that you are taking the right product photos.

When taking auto-part photos, you need to get the right filters and lighting. This does not mean that you should hire a professional photographer to take the photos for you. Using a modern smartphone and basic photography skills, you can get photos that stand out from those of your competitors.

Optimized Product Descriptions and Headlines

Apart from high-quality photos for your products, you also need to convince your customers that they are on the right platform and buying from the right supplier. You can do this through optimized and attractive product descriptions and headlines.

Optimizing your product descriptions and headlines is vital in ensuring that your products get a fair ranking on search engine results, as well as the platform that you choose to use. Always make sure that you are using the right keywords in descriptions and headlines.

Competitive Pricing

Whether you are using AliExpress or your own eCommerce website, you should make sure that you have set the best and most competitive prices for your products. This is because most customers will always go for the right or best deals when searching for auto parts online.

One or two dollars might be the difference between your struggling auto parts online store and a very successful one. To achieve success with competitive pricing, you need to study the pricing structures of your competitors and then find a way of beating them at their own game.

Complete and Accurate Fitment Data

As discussed above, fitment or compatibility data plays a crucial role in the success of an online auto parts business. Without complete and accurate fitment data, you will disrupt the shopping experience of your customers. This leads to increased bounce rates and lower conversion rates.

Selling auto parts online is going to be a very lucrative business in the next few years. However, business owners need to follow the right procedures and best practices when setting up their auto parts online businesses for them to be successful.

If you follow the comprehensive guide discussed above, you will stand a chance of beating your competitors, no matter how established they might be.