Why do auto parts e-commerce sites fail?

The barrier to entry in the e-commerce space has dropped significantly in recent years. But the data shows that more than one-fifth of e-commerce businesses fail in their first year. 

Our team doesn't like that statistic. So, we created a list of things retailers need to consider to prevent their auto parts stores from failing.

1. Poor product data

Product data can be overwhelming because it is vast and multi-layered. Typical product data for a part includes the brand name, part number, dimensions, type, price, and range of vehicles it fits. It may also include trim, engine size, transmission, etc. But that doesn't mean your business needs all of this to function properly.

Fitment data is critical to auto parts e-commerce. It's so important that your year-make-model search is as good as your fitment data. Yet, statistically, not all parts manufacturers have detailed information on which vehicles their products fit. 30% of products may have no fitment data at all.

In addition, different data providers deliver product information of varying quality. Some provide only product information without fitments, while others have fitments. Some have images and category trees, while others do not.

The good news is that merchants can still make the data work for their businesses.

First, the simpler a merchant's niche is, the better the chances of creating fitment data that works.

Second, if merchants have the time and resources to invest, they can clean up the product and fitment data. It also helps if they add new product lines and brands slowly, so they can correct data for a small number of products at a time.

Third, add a fitment verification option to order details. Store managers can double-check vehicle details for each customer and prevent costly returns of parts that don't fit customers' vehicles.

2. No marketing plan

Great UX, thoughtful product selection, and beautiful website design do not guarantee that customers will come and buy auto parts. Dealers shouldn't forget to market their websites properly. The process of developing a sales strategy should be done simultaneously or even before building a website. We used to have clients who spent a fortune on website design and UX and forgot to budget for marketing.

Since most online sales start from search, not only should the on-site search be optimized (we help with that), but the SEO game needs to be strong as well.

3. Junk website traffic

Don't kill your site with bot traffic. We have seen examples of shops where a certain page got a lot of traffic, but after visiting this page, users did not go anywhere. There is a high probability that these users were not real people, but robots.

The other pattern that indicates a spike in non-human traffic to the site is the hourly breakdown of users.

This is what organic traffic looks like:

Up during the day, down at night.

Some stores only sell to corporate customers. In this case, we see that traffic increases on weekdays and slows down on weekends.    

Bot traffic looks like this:

The numbers are pretty much the same throughout the day.

When merchants outsource marketing and advertising, they need to check the quality of the services they are paying for. Dishonest agencies and freelancers sometimes use bot traffic to meet their KPIs on time.

4. Perfectionism

Perfectionism hurts. Many merchants struggle to make their data as good as possible, try to create the best design, or migrate from one platform to another in search of the ideal one... And sometimes it results in thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours spent polishing the data or design without the site ever going live. The auto parts store never goes live.

The first version of your website may not be as good as you expect, and that's okay.

The e-commerce platform is not the reason auto parts websites fail.

During the demo call, we often asked a question: "What platform do you recommend? The answer is that all platforms are essentially the same. 

We have had clients migrate from one platform to another, but platform migration alone is never the reason for increased sales. Some companies try 3-4 platforms and end up closing. Others stay on one platform for years and thrive.

The e-commerce platform is not a critical success factor. The store can thrive on any platform.