Month: April 2016

Whenever I hear sellers say they are currently redesigning their website, it makes me feel like if they bragged about purchasing a new fax machine. Over again we see signs that in a few years or even months merchants’ websites will become obsolete as online shopping is increasingly being confined to mobile apps.

A few stats that confirm this trend :

• in March 2016 online sales grew by 11% while mobile sales grew by 101%
• mobile is how customers learn about your product even if they end up buying from their computers – 40% of desktop transactions in the fourth quarter of 2015 took place after a customer visited the retailer’s app or mobile site
• buyers find it easier to shop from their mobile phones than from desktop – mobile phones have ever bigger screens allowing to make an informed purchasing decision and it takes less time to switch them on than it does for a computer
• buyers’ shopping behaviours are evolving as they move to “snacking” – making small purchases whenever they have some spare time – in their bed, while waiting at the dentist’s or even in their bathroom
• when “snacking” on their mobile phones buyers are highly dependant on the mobile apps of the few biggest online marketplaces – eBay and Amazon alone constituted 27% of North American online retail sales in 2015

What you can do :

• there is clearly no point in building your own mobile app especially if you are selling niche products – mobile phone users become increasingly less likely to install new apps and once they have installed them – to allow notifications. We have to get used to the idea that mcommerce of the future will be split among two, three dominant apps
• open a marketplace store – if you haven’t yet done so, do it now! there is an overwhelming choice of marketplaces which have an advantage over you as buyers trust them and know them – eBay and Amazon are household names and even small marketplaces have more money to invest in marketing than you do
• make sure your website is mobile optimised – the less content you have on it, the better! Think about eBay’s recent decision to  change their sellers’ listings so that they can be easily viewed on a small screen – product descriptions have to contain up to 800 characters and cannot include any active content (JavaScript, Flash)
• offer payments with PayPal / Amazon payments – if a mobile buyer has to fill in a lengthy form in order to complete the purchase, the odds are high she will give up before completing the checkout. Allowing your buyers to log in with PayPal or Amazon in order to make a payment makes it easier for them to pay without leaving the mobile device. It also helps instill trust as PayPal and Amazon offer buyers protection from fraud.
• do it quickly! – mcommerce still accounts for less sales than ecommerce but if the current growth rates continue, this will change soon! You don’t want to wake up in a few months next to a brand new fax machine only to realise there is no one left to send a fax to as they have all switched to email
• don’t forget that at WebInterpret we can create a mobile-optimised version of your website in various languages AND help you promoting it abroad.

Going online is not an obvious choice for many car parts sellers. Car parts tend to be heavy and bulky (just think about tyres!) and you may consider there aren’t so many buyers out there willing to purchase them online. 

Yet, buying a spare part for your car online is a much more obvious choice than touring the local shops – the selection online is definitely wider, thanks to bigger competition buyers are more likely to get a better deal and they don’t need to touch and feel the part before buying it, the way they may want to try out new clothes. As a consequence, car parts sellers not only easily get rid of some parts that have been waiting on their shelves for ages once they start selling online but also have an easier job than online sellers of other types of products – less returns, less complaints, less hassle.

With all this in mind, you will agree that online may be the best channel for car parts sales, both for buyers and for sellers. What else do you need to know?

1. eBay is the right place for you

   • with their recent purchase of Cargigi eBay showed that they really want to focus on eBay motors, their cars and car parts section
   • Motors is actually the fastest growing part of eBay (or, the only growing part of eBay) so definitely they will keep investing in it and promoting it
   • with their separate eBay Motors site and a sophisticated car parts-specific search engine eBay is a better fit for selling car parts than other marketplaces

2. Don’t limit yourself to your domestic market

   • it may sound counterintuitive to sell car parts abroad but at WebInterpret we have seen too many success stories not to believe it makes sense to do so
   • as a UK seller, make sure you sell at least to Germany and France, as a German seller, select France and the UK. eBay.it and eBay.es are not as strong but growing very fast!
   • it will especially make sense for you to sell to continental Europe if you’re selling parts compatible with European brands – unsurprisingly German car parts sell well in Germany, French car parts in France. Knowing the European currency is now pretty strong compared to the British Pound or US Dollar, you may actually end up being more competitive in terms of pricing than the local sellers.

3. Make sure you know when to sell

   • car parts sales are highly seasonal – make sure you know when to list to reap the highest reward
   • in the UK we see strong sales of car parts in January, then from March till June (with a peak in May) and then again in November
   • in Germany the best months are January, March and from May till July
   • Germans change Summer tyres to Winter tyres from October and then Winter tyres to Summer tyres in March – make sure you have some of these online and that you allow delivery to Germany and you’ll be amazed at how many buyers are willing to shop for tyres abroad

4. Use car parts compatibility tables

   • eBay make it really easy for buyers to find the exact part they are looking for with their sophisticated car parts search engine
   • this search engine is so successful that it has recently been extended to motorcycle and scooter parts
   • make sure to use it as WebInterpret sellers saw their sales grow by 50% once their listings became searchable using this tool!

5. Remember different brands sell on different markets

   • as mentioned above, German and French buyers are more likely to look for German and French car parts than for Japanese car parts
   • also, some brands have different names depending on the location – did you know that the car you refer to as Vauxhall is known as Opel in Germany?

If you follow the above guidelines, you will be amazed at how fast your business can grow once you start selling your products online and abroad. Make sure to get your listings ready before the sales peak in May!

Last-minute promo from eBay.co.uk yesterday took buyers and sellers by a surprise and numerous buyers reported issues with making their purchases at 20% off.

Still, our data shows that international sellers selling in the UK via WebInterpret noticed an important increase in sales.

It seems that eBay’s decision to spend their marketing money this way rather than on a Super Bowl commercial paid off!