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?
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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
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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.
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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
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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!
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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!
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