Selling Auto Parts Online

Updated for 2019

When people need auto parts, they want convenience. Selling auto parts online allows customers to get their phone, easily find the part they need and have it delivered to them quickly.

Selling auto parts online is growing fast. Making sure that customers can quickly find and easily purchase your products requires an understanding of the buying procedure for modern car parts.

Where to sell auto parts online

Selling auto parts online with Amazon

Automotive is a gated category. You must apply to Amazon and meet their requirements to sell auto parts.

Online sales of U.S. auto parts are growing at around 14% annually and Amazon’s growth rate is nearly double that.

Amazon auto parts seller requirements:

  • You must be on the professional selling plan.
  • You must have compliant product images that can be reviewed on either an independent website or an image hosting site.
  • All major brands must be listed with universal product codes (UPCs).
  • All certified refurbished Automotive & Powersports products must be warranted by the manufacturer or re-manufacturer.
  • You must have reviewed the Automotive & Powersports Part Finder and Fitment Data page in its entirety if you plan on selling fitment-specific products (products that only fit certain vehicles).

Sellers say that having a website set up is also an advantage. For most private label sellers, this isn’t essential to being accepted to sell on Amazon, but resellers tend to run into issues.

Businesses selling their own manufactured products tend to start out on the Amazon. Amazon is good for brand owners and white labellers because they own the brand, so whether they sell the item themselves or if it ends up getting stocked by Amazon, they’re making sales.

Third-party auto parts sellers can also be very successful on Amazon, but their margins are squeezed by competing with other sellers as well as with Amazon themselves. Sellers have to have a competitive pricing strategy and a strong supply chain in place to succeed. The buy box is everything on Amazon, and sellers can win it by selling at the lowest margin they can, only to sell out and lose the buy box.

Amazon automotive does not have a ‘Used’ category for automotive products. You can browse products in Automotive yourself and you will see that none have a ‘Used’ option. Some have ‘Refurbished’ options but even those must be warranted by the manufacturer or re-manufacturer.

Selling auto parts online with eBay

In the UK a car part is sold every second on eBay.

Useful Resources:

Auto parts is a strong category for eBay, and one they have focused a lot on improving recently. The introduction of parts diagrams for buyers in the US helps customers with little or no auto parts knowledge to buy with confidence, knowing that they have selected the correct item.

eBay catalog

The auto parts category has catalog listings which give a clear and easy overview of the offers available for an item.

Frooition eBay listing software allows sellers to list motor parts to eBay using the ePID or MPN and then lookup the parts in the eBay catalog using the eBay Product Based Shopping Experience.

If the product exists in the eBay catalog then the majority of the listing information will be pre-filled. Information that can be automatically completed by eBay:

  • Product Title
  • Description
  • Product images (Stock)
  • Category
  • Item Specifics
  • Weight & Dimensions
  • Parts compatibility

The eBay catalog is huge and growing fast, but if an item is not found in the eBay catalog, sellers can create the items and if accepted will benefit in search ranking.

When it comes to confidence in you as a seller, eBay customers will be looking for a good positive customer feedback score.

Further than that, eBay allows sellers to apply full branded design to individual listings. Professionally designed make it clear to customers that you are an established business and encourage trust. It also familiarises customers with your brand. Phone numbers and links are not allowed in listings, so if you have your own site, branding listings is the best way to encourage customers to search for your brand site.

Utilise video to show the fitment on a vehicle, show the bolt positions or electrical plugs, even though you are saying this will fit the vehicle, gear-heads want to make sure for themselves!

Frooition eBay listing design asserts your brand and increases conversion with cross-promotion in listings, product videos and dynamic categories.

Vehicle compatibility:

With Frooition, sellers can easily build lists of compatible vehicles that their parts fit, as they list.

You can build up huge tables of compatible vehicles with just a few clicks. Instead of selecting each individual vehicle make, model year and trim, you can select all trims with one click.

For example; for a 2013 BMW 3 Series there are 128 trim variations to choose from. Instead of 128 separate clicks, sellers only need to click once.

Parts fitment allows listings to show up in fitment searches, meaning that more buyers will find your listings. Fitment data also helps buyers to be sure that they are buying the correct part, reducing your returns rate and improving your feedback score.

Classified listings:

Classified listings on eBay incur a single listing fee and no final value fee. You pay to advertise your contact details to potential buyers. For auto parts sellers, eBay Classified listings are a valuable sales stream. Classified listings on eBay can be posted from a sellers Frooition software with full custom branding. Custom branding immediately differentiates your listings from competitors. It tells customers that you are an established business that they can trust.

The Frooition eBay listing software makes it easy for sellers to sell auto parts online.

Selling auto parts from your own site

Inventory organization and search functionality are the biggest challenges with auto parts sites. Frooition work with BigCommerce framework to build powerful auto parts sites which are simple for sellers to control, secure and fast for customers to buy from.

Buyers want to see large photos with high detail to ensure the products are correct. Often DIY buyers want to see every angle of a product to ensure it looks similar to the part they are replacing.

Frooition solve these issues by offering an extra detailed product gallery, a 1 or 2 column layout to maximize product photo size, videos in the image gallery and even 360-degree rotating product images*.

Frooition have partnered with vehicle fitment data specialists PartsConnect to build unique search functionality into websites.

Letting customers search by make and model gives even small auto parts businesses the same buyer experience as the largest auto part sites.

If a customer still has questions, a live chat plugin enables you to advise them in real time. Being able to instantly clarify questions and remove objections naturally increases conversion to sales.

Learn more about Selling auto parts online with Frooition.

Download a free guide for creating a successful auto parts ecommerce web store from PartsConnect.io.

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