Auto parts online selling is among the most profitable eCommerce industries right now. With more and more merchants wanting to capitalize on this opportunity, they are faced with the choice of selling auto parts on established platforms like Amazon or Etsy, or building their own stores online.
Building your online store for auto parts can be tricky as too many store-building platforms are available. This article will simplify the process by providing valuable guidance to help you choose a reliable e-commerce platform to meet the requirements of your auto parts online store.
Contents
Top 3 Criteria Choosing The Best Ecommerce Platform For Auto Parts Online Store
Price
This is the main factor determining the best eCommerce platform for auto parts. Take a look at your business financial situation, thereby assessing the reasonable amount to spend on building a website.
Customer support
No matter how smoothly the website building process goes, there is a possibility of problems. These issues can impact revenue and profits. Therefore, the best auto parts ecommerce site is the one that is capable of providing fast and dedicated customer care services to solve those troubles immediately.
Design and features
Appearance is what shows your brand personality. Therefore, it needs to be attractive and should be relevant. Only then can customers remember your brand to make the next purchase. On the other hand, the variety of features also plays a critical role. They are what support you in your business process. Therefore, find a platform with features that meet as many of your business requirements as possible.
Top 10 Best Ecommerce Platform For Auto Parts Online Store
If you choose to build your own stores instead of leveraging well-known platforms where you can sell auto parts, here is the list for you:
#1 nopCommerce
As one of the most scalable and functionality-rich platforms, nopCommerce is a great auto parts eCommerce platform. It is free and provides limitless customization opportunities due to its open-source nature. Hence, nopCommerce is a suitable automotive solution for Enterprise businesses, as well as for growing SMEs.
Pros of nopCommerce:
- Advanced auto parts search ー Bounce rate of an eCommerce store is lower customers find necessary products quickly. Therefore, nopCommerce offers various ways of product filtering and search, such as YMM, VIN, Manufacturer filter, etc.
- Seamless integration with popular services ー Many business operations require specific software (PIM, WMS, ERP, POS, etc.) that can be integrated into the nopCommerce platform.
- Managing an infinite number of SKUs ー Automotive companies deal with thousands of products. nopCommerce enables merchants to import, store, edit, and manage a huge number of SKUs. It is only limited by a chosen hosting capability.
Cons of nopCommerce:
- A need in finding a hosting provider ー nopCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform, that’s why hosting is a matter for each store owner.
- Installation skills required ー To install a nopCommerce instance, technical skills are needed. However, you may download the pre-installed version which is much simpler.
#2 Magento
Many Magento users claim that this is the best platform for auto parts. It has two editions – Open Source and Commerce. Magento Open Source edition is one is among the top open source ecommerce platforms. Thus, the platform receives a massive investment with great resources and world-leading technologies from this company. Although this free version has fewer features than the Commerce ones, it still exceeds SME owners’ expectations.
Pros of Magento:
- Limitless customizable – This freedom is what makes Magento so popular. You can tweak almost any element in the platform to suit your needs. Of course, this requires quite a bit of technical knowledge.
- Open-source – Worried that you will not be suitable for Magento? It does not matter! Since Magento is open-source, you can quickly move and store your site data on any platform.
- Packed with great features – Magento has tons of great features for marketing, administration, finance, etc. In particular, Magento has an outstanding ability to contain and classify products. This is especially useful for auto parts entrepreneurs, as they will be selling many products simultaneously.
Cons of Magento:
- Technical skill needed – If you don’t have a deep understanding of website building, you won’t be able to build your store through Magento. Often the website owners will outsource.
- Hosting dependence – Since Magento is open-source, you have to find hosting yourself. This causes your web performance to vary depending on your web host.
Before you make the decision to migrate, check out our guide to Magento auto parts. That will ensure you choose the best option for your needs, which we won’t cover here.
#3 Shopify
In contrast to Magento, Shopify is a multifunctional platform that is relatively easy to use. However, it is not open-source. Hence you have to pay a monthly fee to use it. Currently, Shopify is aiming to become an all-in-one. It tries to provide all merchants’ needs right on the platform so they won’t have to look elsewhere. For additional information about this platform, check out our articles on famous Shopify auto parts websites. Click the link for more details.
Pros of Shopify:
- Straightforward build – Shopify aims to be the most user-friendly platform. Therefore, its eStore development process is optimized so that you only need to spend about two to three days to build a standard website successfully.
- Various prices – There are three monthly pricing plans – $29, $79, and $299. You may have to pay some additional fees during use.
- Solopreneur-friendly – Shopify will help you lower the workload of business operations.
Cons of Shopify:
- Less outstanding features – Since Shopify is designed to be an easy-to-use platform, it can’t contain many powerful features like Magento.
- Limited customization – Some of Shopify’s functions cannot be changed according to merchants’ wishes. This makes creating a unique store more challenging.
- Hard to migrate – Since Shopify is closed-source, data migration to another web builder will be more difficult and expensive.
- Few functions for starter pack – Shopify’s cheap service plans have minimal features and support. You can only get what you need if you spend $79-$299 per month.
#4 Big Commerce
Big Commerce is a close-source platform like Shopify but with fewer users. However, the number of its functions is quite large, so many auto parts online sellers still trust this platform.
Pros of BigCommerce
- Various ready-made themes – BigCommerce has an extensive library of free and paid themes. They are all equipped with the latest functions.
- Simple setup – Like Shopify and other closed-source platforms, BigCommerce is also easy to use. Users can quickly build their websites with its support.
- Unique features – BigCommerce assists users with various out-of-the-box features, such as abandoned carts saving, loyalty rewards programs, and the like.
Cons of BigCommerce
- Plan-tier-based features – Most of BigCommerce’s powerful functions are only available to users on the advanced service plan.
- Limited customization – Although BigCommerce provides various themes, you cannot change them much. In short, you can’t do as you want on your website.
- Plan sales limits – This is the biggest weakness of BigCommerce. You have a specific annual revenue limit. When you reach this number, you must upgrade the plan to a higher one.
#5 WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin designed to work with WordPress – an open-source platform. WordPress is the web builder of almost 40% of all websites on the internet. This brings it a considerable advantage in terms of popularity.
Pros of WooCommerce
- Free to use – As mentioned, WordPress is open-source, so WooCommerce is also completely free. However, you have to search and pay for an additional hosting cost like Magento.
- Customizable – You can completely build your website to your liking. The platform is quite flexible. Especially with the help of Visual Composer, you can easily customize your site with the drag-and-drop tool.
- SEO-friendly – WooCommerce has a considerable SEO advantage since WordPress has excellent CMS and various SEO extensions.
Cons of WooCommerce
- More DIY setup – You have to integrate the payment gateways or shipping method yourself. These aren’t built-in features.
- Additional plugin fees – This eCommerce platform is famous for its variety of add-ons. However, many of them are paid ones. Therefore, you need to prepare an extra budget for hiring extensions to ensure your eStore works well.
#6 SquareSpace
SquareSpace is a drag-and-drop website builder. You don’t need any knowledge of web programming languages if you use this platform. That’s why many of its previous users believe this is the best ecommerce platform for auto parts.
Pros of Squarespace:
- Drag-and-drop setup – With the help of the WYSIWYG editor, Squarespace is capable of helping anyone build their website quickly and easily.
- Rich features – This company is quite generous when integrating many functions for every service plan. For example, its basic package includes CSS/JavaScript customizability, promotional banners & pop-ups, and analytics tools.
- Hundred of ready-made templates – You can use more than 100 different templates from this company. All of them have beautiful and mobile-optimized interfaces.
Cons of Squarespace:
- Limited payment processors – This platform only accepts Stripe or PayPal, which can be a significant hindrance if these two gateways do not support your market.
- Unoptimized performance – Squarespace’s fastest loading speed is usually between 3 and 5 seconds. This number of Magento is only 1 to 3 seconds.
- Customization is a bit limited – SquareSpace uses a “content block” architecture to build your website. Although it can help you design your storefront simple and easy, you might face some trouble getting your website content exactly where you want it to be.
#7 Wix
Wix’s operating principle is similar to Squarespace and Shopify. It also aims for an all-in-one platform capable of building, hosting, and running a website in general and an eCommerce store in particular. It’s also pretty easy to use with drag-and-drop, you don’t need much website knowledge to build your site.
Pros of Wix:
- Beginner-friendly – Since drag-and-drop is available on Wix, anyone can build their website using this platform.
- Tons of payment options – Unlike Squarespace, Wix works with quite a few payment gateways, such as Stripe, PayPal, Square, and up to 50+ other payment processors. This is a great help if you want to sell auto parts internationally.
- Free version & money-back guarantee – You can use Wix completely for free. However, you will have to pay a monthly fee to purchase a service plan to own your domain name. However, Wix offers a 14-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with its service.
Cons of Wix:
- Storage limits – While all of the above names offer unlimited storage, Wix set up a 20GB limit for its cheapest Business Basic package and 50 GB for its Business VIP package. You need to upgrade your plan for more storage.
- Limited inventory management – Since Wix isn’t a platform focused on assisting eCommerce sites, it doesn’t have an optimized inventory management system. Therefore, the management of Wix users’ goods and product catalogs is more complicated than Magento or Shopify merchants.
#8 3Dcart
3Dcart is also one of the most reputable website building support platforms. They offer cloud-based eCommerce services with over 200 built-in outstanding features, such as SEO optimization, drop-shipping optimization, and abandoned cart saver tools.
Pros of 3Dcart:
- Reasonable price – 3Dcart is one of the most affordable web development platforms. You only have to pay $19 per month to own your auto parts store. In particular, you don’t need to pay for any of the more common additional fees (transaction fees, setup fees, etc.).
- Plenty of features – As mentioned above, 3Dcart allows you to use many different features (up to 200).
Cons of 3Dcart:
- Theme design – Theme is not a strong point of 3Dcart. This platform doesn’t have many themes, and its themes are not beautiful. In addition, you need knowledge of HTML and CSS to use these themes. Therefore, rebuilding the website from scratch will be more convenient for 3Dcart users.
- Usability – 3Dcart has too much functionality in most service plans, yet its dashboard isn’t clear enough, so it takes beginners a lot of time to get used to the platform.
#9 X-Cart
X-Cart is also an open-source website builder. Therefore, it is also equipped with more advanced features than most names on the list, and you can edit almost anything you want with this platform. However, it is quite tricky for newbies websites to use.
Pros of X-Cart:
- For everyone – X-Cart has many outstanding features & services for businesses of all sizes and industries.
- Seamless integrations – This platform also owns quite a few effective extensions. They are all designed to optimize performance on the X-Cart. Therefore, you only need one click away to enable them.
- Well-organized code – X-Cart uses the Smarty template engine. Thanks to it, the debugging process of X-Cart is much less complex.
Cons of X-Cart:
- Technical support – Often, technical support is included in service packs. However, you will have to pay an extra fee to use this X-Cart’s customer service.
- Manual coding requires – If you use the self-hosted X-Cart version, you will have to do the coding yourself. This is a big obstacle for those who do not have knowledge and web code.
#10 Volusion
Volusion is rated by many as the best eCommerce platform for auto parts. This company focuses on providing a toolkit for its users to create their own optimal products. In particular, Volusion has amazing yet complicated selling features. This sometimes brings benefits and sometimes creates some obstacles in using Volusion.
Pros of Volusion:
- Security – This is one of Voluisons’ top priorities. It invests quite a bit of effort to bring you more control over your security and checkout. On the other hand, it also regularly offers support to ensure your protection is always set correctly.
- Intuitive dashboard – Usually, you will get confused every time you switch web-building platforms. However, you won’t have this problem if you change to Volusion. It possesses an intuitive interface and thoughtful navigation.
Cons of Volusion:
- Product limit – You cannot sell digital products through this platform. Drop-shipping products are also not optimized with Volusion.
- Third-party support – Admittedly, Volusion does not have many extensions. Unlike Shopify, it also doesn’t own a dedicated plugin store, leading to a limited third-party add-ons list.
Bottom Line
Nowadays, there are many great ecommerce platforms, and each one has different strengths and weaknesses. So finding the best eCommerce platform for auto parts is not easy. In addition, during the search process, you also need to base on your business’s current situation to select the most suitable one.
Above is all the information we can provide you. Hopefully, after reading this, you have found your companion. Thanks for reading!
