Online auto parts and accessories sales is quickly accelerating and outpacing brick and mortar. There’s an estimated 70 million searches for auto parts every month, and aftermarket ecommerce is projected to grow by 15% in 2017 and 2018, according to Hedges & Company. Nearly half of that growth will come from mobile.

A webstore is usually the starting point for auto parts retailers looking to sell online. But buyers of auto parts are too passionate about their cars to trust random sellers. Those who invest in upgrades and accessories would want to see quality product images, testimonials and reviews. They want a secure and easy checkout system without having to register.

While there are many benefits to developing your own custom webstore, it takes a good amount of capital to hire professional web development services. If you’re low on budget, you may want to consider shopping cart solutions such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Volusion, or BigCommerce.

Each ecommerce platform has their own pros and cons. In this article, we look at the top qualities that make a great ecommerce website.

Qualities of a Great Auto Parts Website

Drive more traffic and conversions with these 8 proven strategies:

F-shaped navigation

Research shows that most Internet users follow an “F” pattern when looking at website, as most languages are read left to right, and top to bottom. As a result, good web navigation tends to have a left-hand side menu and a horizontal menu bar.

Obvious search bar, cart and contact info

Most Internet users have grown accustomed to look at the top right corner of a website for specific “help” or “settings” options. The header is a good place to have your search bar, cart, and customer service contact information.

Pay attention to structural optimization

There are many places where you can boost your site’s SEO, including HTML title tags, image alt tags, URLs, and internal linking. Make sure all your webpages have relevant tags and keyword-rich content.

Don’t forget the breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs not only help with SEO, but helps your customers find products easier, especially if you have many layers of categories.

Clear, Detailed Product Pages

Make sure that product images are clear and that you provide accurate fitment and technical specifications. If possible, have a section for customer reviews. 90% of shopping cart abandonment happens because users feel that they don’t have enough product information.

Responsive, mobile-first and fast site speed

Mobile now accounts for more than half of all web traffic, and Google is rolling out a mobile-first index. Similarly, most smartphone users expect a site to load in less than 4 seconds, and 40% of shoppers have turned to a competitor’s site for a better mobile experience.

Develop high quality content

Car enthusiasts are out there looking for the best ways to upgrade their vehicles. To reach these potential buyers, you can invest in content marketing strategies, such as blogging, how-to-guides, videos and infographics, which all help boost your search rankings.

Don’t forget the trust symbols

Logos from trusted brands and associations all help engender customer trust, which in turn, leads to conversions. Credit card logos, SSL certificates, and other seals of approval are trust symbols you can place on your website.

Delivering an Excellent Customer Experience

The goal of every ecommerce site is to make sales, but in order to do so, you’ll need to earn the buyer’s trust by delivering an excellent user experience. You’ll need to adopt a customer-first mindset, which not only involves having a great website and web presence, but also making sure your customers happy.

Ensuring customer satisfaction involves delivering accurate orders on time, maintaining optimal inventory levels, having a buyer-friendly returns policy, and providing great customer service. In other words, you’ll need to complement your frontend design with a robust backend operations. Not an easy feat!

Fortunately, there are tools you can use to make your life easier, such as shopping cart solutions or standalone inventory management systems. But why pay for multiple systems, when you can have it all in one?

Jazva is an integrated platform that can handle both your frontend and backend needs, at ⅓ the cost of custom ecommerce software. Let us help you build an amazing auto parts shopping experience that wins customers!