Internet commerce is in great demand today - this applies equally to both buyers and sales companies. One of the most popular groups of goods today can rightfully be called auto parts. Millions of dollars worth of purchases are made on the auto parts market literally every day, so by developing your own Internet business in this sector, you can count on stable profits and prosperity.

To count on the positive results of the online store, you need to carefully approach its creation, content and promotion. Within the framework of this article, we will pay attention to step-by-step instructions on how to open an online auto parts store.

Demand for spare parts in the market

To open your own website that will specialize in the sale of auto parts, first you should carefully study and analyze the niche - having determined its features, you need to correctly develop a business plan and implement it. There is a rapid increase in cars on the roads of the post-Soviet countries today - some people buy them in their own country, others import them from abroad. Statistics show that the number of used cars purchased today significantly exceeds the sales of new cars. For example, in December 2018, only 22,000 used cars were imported to Ukraine from other countries. This trend continued in 2019.

Such a large number of used cars explains the growing demand for spare parts for them. The specificity of the market lies in the fact that the car owner who buys an already used car is emotionally ready for the fact that it will be necessary to repair it. Today auto parts are sold both in stationary stores and via the Internet. If you doubt whether this niche will be in demand, you can go to the auto parts market and see how many people literally buy large amounts of goods every day.

Working in the auto parts sector, you can count on positive results for the following reasons:

1. There is always demand.
2. Quite a large selection of suppliers.
3. You can sell auto parts for various categories of cars: for foreign cars, for trucks, cars, etc.

Target audience for auto parts IM

As you can see from the above diagram, the sale of auto parts belongs to the leaders of online trade. The reasons for this are quite predictable. As the vehicle is used, its components and parts wear out and therefore need to be replaced. Of course, at first glance, it may seem that the target audience for an online store specializing in the sale of auto parts is all car owners. However, in order to achieve the best promotion and sales results, it is recommended to narrow or divide the target audience into narrower groups of buyers. For example, the target audience can be:

• People who bought a car for the first time.
• Companies with several or even many cars in their fleet.
• Sports car owners.
• People / organizations that work with trucks or vans.

In determining the target audience, it is worth remembering the following rule: the narrower it is, the more opportunities to make the offer interesting for a potential buyer. A lot depends on the definition of the target audience for an online store: a suitable website design, assortment, content, promotion method and much more. The main task of business owners is to make the offer of their online store as interesting as possible for buyers.

Naturally, theoretically, absolutely everyone with a car can become a client of an online store selling auto parts: both an 18-year-old student and a retired grandmother to whom the children presented a car. But, practice shows that most often it is men who choose and purchase auto parts - this should be taken into account when working with their target audience.

Correct USP

USP is a unique selling proposition. The purpose of the USP is to show how your offer is beneficial for the buyer and why it is worth choosing this particular commodity item. In order for the USP to achieve its goal, it is good that it combines visual images and a text message. Do not use only slogans - try to back them up with facts. Let's look at a few examples:

• Instead of saying "We offer quality auto parts", it is better to write "Original auto parts from the manufacturer."

• Instead of saying "Auto parts for most car brands," list which manufacturers you work with or use a picture with their logos.

• When offering specific engine oils, do not just use a list of them, but help the client to make the right choice. Again, this can be done thanks to a well-thought-out USP.

How to organize warehouse and delivery

One of the primary tasks of an online store selling auto parts is to guarantee the fastest possible order fulfillment. Servicing orders should be as fast as possible, in the case of car parts - this is especially important. For the most part, buyers order spare parts from the online store in the event that their car breaks down and out of order. Taking this into account, it is necessary to develop such a scheme of interaction with clients, in which the maximum operational work can be achieved. The experience of dozens of successful online stores specializing in the sale of auto parts shows that two work schemes can be used in this matter:

• Independent business.
• Franchise work.

Having made the decision to work independently, you will need to carefully plan the issue of accepting orders and delivering goods. One of the options is the presence of a warehouse or even several warehouses in different cities of the country. In this case, having accepted the order from the client, you can promptly send him the order. In other cases, online stores do not have their own warehouse - they transfer a ready-made order to the supplier, and he is engaged in its registration and dispatch.

Franchise is another common form of work. At its core, a franchise is a rental business. With this approach to work, you only need your own website. By signing a franchise with a major auto parts company, you will be able to use all of its tools. Depending on the terms of the contract, with a franchise, it is not required to have your own sales department, warehouse and delivery service, but to use the capacities of a partner company. Of course, you have to pay for such services - as a rule, the franchise condition is a certain percentage of turnover and profit from sales.

How to choose suppliers

The question of choosing suppliers for an online store is of paramount importance. The quality of goods, pricing policy and other benefits that you can offer your customers directly depend on who you will cooperate with. Thus, in order to count on the prosperity of an online store, it is critical to find reliable suppliers of auto parts that will offer the most favorable terms of cooperation. The most popular options for resolving this issue are: cooperation with wholesale suppliers or official dealers. Each of the options has its own characteristics and nuances, let's pay attention to some of them:

• Wholesale suppliers. The advantage of working with them is the presence in one place of most of the demanded headings of auto parts and accessories, as well as their low cost. This allows the owners of the online store to make a good markup, while offering their customers favorable prices. When working with wholesale suppliers of auto parts, you need to be especially careful about their quality, because today there are many low-quality fakes on the market. And if you offer your customers low quality parts, you can immediately gain a bad reputation, which will have a very negative impact on business development.
• Official dealers. Working with authorized dealers, you will not be able to offer customers such favorable prices as in the case of wholesale suppliers. But the unconditional advantage of original auto parts is their high quality. Taking into account that today there are many very expensive cars (which are also prone to breakdowns), their owners do not save on auto parts, but tend to buy high-quality and original ones.

Employee recruitment

In some cases, as we mentioned above, an online store can work without employees at all - then orders are redirected to another company. But, for the most part, professional staff will be required for the full-fledged operation of an online store. The most demanded and important specialties for work in Internet marketing are the following:

1. Programmers.
2. Sales consultants.
3. Purchasing managers.
4. Movers.

Naturally, the labor of workers without appropriate knowledge and experience is paid lower. But it is hardly possible to save money on low-skilled personnel. The point is that it takes experience and skills to run and flourish for an online store. Therefore, when choosing employees, it will be correct to think not so much about saving as about whether this applicant will be able to fully cope with the obligations assigned to him, and also whether the person has enough knowledge and experience to perform certain duties.

Stages of creating an online spare parts store

Thinking about how to open an online auto parts store from scratch, a person or a company is faced with the need to develop a turnkey website for an online store. Step-by-step instructions on how to create a website from scratch may contain the following points:

• Create the correct site structure.
• Choose a suitable platform for your own resource.
• What functionality to place in the online store.
• How to organize the promotion of your own website.

Drawing up the structure

The creation of an online store of spare parts should start with thinking over the correct structure of the site together with the developers-programmers. The structure is necessary in order for each of the elements of the site to be in place. In addition to the home page, the structure of the online store should include the following sections:

• Catalog. Auto parts can be divided into categories: body, chassis, transmission, engine, etc. To make it easy for customers to find the spare part they need, divide them in the catalog by the appropriate categories.
• Filter. Filtration of goods works very well - think over the filters in such a way as to help the buyer find the necessary spare part for a domestic or foreign car.
• Search. In the case of the sale of auto parts, a VIN code search works well. Thanks to him, the visitor can find the desired product as quickly as possible.
• Service pages. The structure of the site must contain pages that perform a service role. These pages include: "About us", Delivery and payment "," Contacts "," Blog ", etc.

Advantages of a CMS for a spare parts store

Today, sites for online stores are created on various platforms, including constructors and self-written sites. However, the experience of thousands of online store owners shows that a properly selected CMS opens up the maximum opportunities for work and website promotion.

More than 1000 online stores are already working on Okay CMS, a ready-made website on our platform has many advantages:

• Easy installation. To install Okay CMS, you do not need to have any special knowledge and skills. The whole process is automated as much as possible, goes quickly and effortlessly.
• Convenient management. Okay CMS is designed specifically for online stores, so it provides all the necessary functionality for full-fledged comfortable work.
• Full promotion. Okay CMS provides a whole set of tools for organizing effective SEO promotion - this guarantees attracting a large flow of customers to your site.
• User comfort and convenience. Thanks to the ability to choose the appropriate design and implement the necessary functionality, site visitors will be comfortable performing targeted actions.

The main elements of an online store

In order for an online store to fully fulfill its purpose, it must necessarily contain a set of basic elements, let's pay attention to the main ones:

• A personal account is a powerful tool for interacting with customers. Thanks to the presence of the buyer's personal account on the website, it will be much easier for you to interact with your customers. Using the capabilities of your personal account, you can analyze the demand and needs of your customers separately, which will allow you to offer them individual promotions. In addition, having a personal account on the site, the buyer will trust the online store more and this may encourage him to order goods from you.
• Product Recommendations - Their job is to help customers make their choices. Product recommendations should be viewed not just as content, but as an opportunity to provide truly professional advice.
• Design - you cannot contact personally with site visitors; instead, it is designed. Try to make the site look credible. For example, if you offer branded parts, try to make the site design echo with the manufacturer's site design.
• Content is one of the key elements of the site. Content refers to text, videos and illustrations. For the content to work as efficiently as possible, it must be: unique, expert, SEO-optimized.
• Feedback form - designed to help the site visitor to solve possible difficulties and place an order. There are various options for implementing a feedback form on the site: chat, e-mail, Telegram, Viber, etc. Try to implement the maximum choice of feedback options on the site in order to make contact with you as simple as possible for visitors.
• Reviews - their main purpose is to inspire confidence in your company, so be sure to provide reviews on the site. How to get them - it's worth encouraging your customers to leave reviews. For example, you can offer a small discount for a review. Remember that reviews may not always be positive, so it would be good to use moderation before publishing them.

Promotion and further development

You should be realistic and understand that just having a high-quality online store does not guarantee that you will have many visitors and customers. For a person to become a buyer, he must find your site among thousands of competitors on the Internet. To achieve this, there are various methods of online promotion.

Being realistic, it should be said that promoting a new site is a rather laborious process that requires effort, knowledge and investment. There are different promotion tools - in order to achieve the most positive results, you should use an integrated approach that combines different approaches to promotion Let's discuss some of the ways to bring a site to the TOP, namely:

• SEO promotion.
• Contextual, banner, targeted advertising.
• Advertising from bloggers.
• Own blog.
• New chips.

According to Internet marketing experts, it is SEO site promotion that allows you to count on the maximum lasting effect and the minimum price for one client. SEO includes a set of activities designed to make the site user-friendly and correct from the point of view of search engines. For a CEO to bring results, investments are needed, professionals and time should be involved in the work - it may take from 2 to 6 months to reach the TOP.

Another promotion option is advertising. There are different types of it. Contextual advertising allows you to reach the target audience as quickly as possible, as it is displayed depending on the client's search queries. Banner advertising is an opportunity to draw attention to its advantages, but for it to be effective, high-quality work of a designer and placement of banners on sites with high traffic is required, which is also quite expensive. Targeted advertising has a flexible customization system and is quite inexpensive, but its disadvantage is that such advertising reaches only a limited number of users of a particular social network.

Many people today love to read blogs - this is a great opportunity to advertise on them. There are many car bloggers in Runet: you can negotiate with them about advertising your online store. But, if you look ahead and work for the future, now you should start creating and filling your own blog - by posting useful thematic content in it, you can attract customers and gain their trust.

The best promotion methods today include video. Filming useful videos and posting them on popular video hosting sites. Videos can be placed both on your own channel and you can buy ads from popular video bloggers. Advertising on thematic channels works especially effectively. For example, you can find channels dedicated to car repair and negotiate cooperation with their owners.

findings

It can be argued unequivocally that the sale of auto parts on the Internet is a promising business. To count on positive results, you must:

• Thoroughly analyze the niche and choose the optimal direction of development.
• Solve issues with the assortment of spare parts, suppliers, form of work and personnel.
• Create and fill the site.
• Choose effective promotion methods and implement them.