Due to the shift of automobile consumers to online markets during the past few decades, the automotive sector has seen tremendous upheaval. Going into 2021 and 2022, this trend became even more obvious, and the market for automotive eCommerce surged as most prospective automobile buyers discovered they had no other choice. 32% of consumers said they would be likely to buy a car online before 2020. By 2021, this share had almost doubled, rising to a little over 60%.
To sell cars and auto parts, eCommerce can be allocated with other channels. Along with sales from brick-and-mortar, transactions can be made online and increase a client base. One of the ways to sell from various touchpoints is omnichannel commerce, which suits perfectly automotive eCommerce businesses.
For this reason, it is suggested to run an automotive eCommerce company using open-source platforms as they enable merchants to have a scalable solution that fits any business requirements. In addition, there are examples of successful automotive businesses that prefer automotive open-source eCommerce platforms like nopCommerce.
To help automotive businesses effectively build their eCommerce solutions without losing money, this article explains the main benefits of open-source software for online stores. Moreover, 5 great examples of auto and moto web stores, which are built on an eCommerce platform with a source code.
Advantages of open-source eCommerce platforms for automotive businesses
Like most businesses, the automobile sector and its distributors have been obliged to make swift adjustments as more and more consumers make online purchases. Whether or not they were willing to, automotive companies that had desired to stay with the practice of face-to-face sales were forced to alter their strategies.
This is a beneficial development for businesses because open-source software for automotive eCommerce sites offers significant advantages to both customers and automotive companies, as well as the potential to boost revenue along the whole value chain.
Here are 6 main advantages of setting up an automotive online store based on open-source eCommerce platforms:
1. Flexible solution due to high customization
It is fair to say that eCommerce open-source platforms offer a great deal of control over the purchasing experience because they are very configurable. It means that they are excellent for firms with very specialized, niche demands, like automotive, since powerful features may be developed by overriding source code.
Given that enterprises in this specialized market aim to offer cutting-edge technology like virtual vehicle showrooms and intelligent YMM searches, open-source platforms are an alluring choice. This type of technology brings even more value since a customized storefront that reflects brand values can be developed creating an outstanding experience for your customers.
Using some popular software that is feature-rich can eliminate a need for developers' skills or additional finances. In case an automotive business requires assistance from a programmer, it is easier and more efficient to find one for an open-source eCommerce platform that is based on a popular and powerful framework, like ASP.NET (News - Alert).
2. Personalized customer experience
By adopting an eCommerce platform that is available with a source code, automotive companies can have more tools to create their client experiences in an individual way that is close to the one in an offline store with sales assistance.
The shopping experience can even be enhanced by creating an eCommerce solution that has a customized storefront with smart product suggestions that can be located and displayed anywhere. In addition, businesses can assist in finding the new car or automotive parts they need by creating and showing attributions that customers find important.
With open-source eCommerce platforms, automotive companies can create virtual showrooms and help customers visually compare vehicle characteristics. Moreover, the most suitable customer journey can be developed without hesitation enabling buyers to not only browse product pages with information and pictures but even reorder auto parts for a car that was bought from you.
3. Customer base expansion
With an eCommerce website built on an open-source platform, there is essentially no limit to how much or what you may sell. You can begin at any size and continue to develop. This is particularly beneficial for websites serving the auto aftermarket, which can include thousands or even millions of products.
Furthermore, an open-source platform enables sales expansion across many regions and lowers restrictive geographic constraints. Considering the emerging quantity of online services for large payments and logistics, eCommerce software with pluggable architecture and a source code enables car and parts sellers to use an appropriate solution and sell their products anywhere in the world.
Therefore, it enables automotive companies to enter new markets and market segments, making it simpler than ever for a wider audience to shop and make purchases from any location. Actually, as a business gains a stable customer base, with a powerful open-source eCommerce platform an automotive firm can expand by engaging other vendors and affiliate marketing.
4. Lower costs and well-organized operations
Automotive firms have experienced a tremendous shift in resource and supply chain effectiveness as a result of open-source eCommerce platforms by providing all necessary features for inventory, order, and customer management. All business operations can run smoothly without the need to transfer any data manually.
Unlike open-source eCommerce software, SaaS (News - Alert) eCommerce can require fees from sales and have a limit for the number of SKUs allowed without extra payments. It restricts an automobile vendor's capacity to publish as many cars and parts as possible. It may serve as a reminder of the traditional physical store where expanding firms must pay for more real estate space.
As a result, open-source software enables businesses to reduce excessive growth expenses. The customer has a wider range of purchasing possibilities as a result.
5. Easier integration of omnichannel commerce
Due to recent global events, almost all businesses have experienced a resurgence thanks to eCommerce with the help of the omnichannel sales strategy. The automotive sector is no exception.
For the automotive industry, the omnichannel strategy mainly works as an effective connection between classic offline sales and eCommerce channels using mutual resources. Showing your products online may get customers interested in your assortment, which can result in coming to a physical shop or scheduling a test drive before making a purchase.
Compared to SaaS, open-source platforms make it much easier and faster to integrate and configure omnichannel commerce. The rationale is that an automotive business can select any software and simply integrate it into an online store for each online and offline selling channel.
Top 5 automotive eCommerce stores built on open-source software
To see how the mentioned advantages help automotive eCommerce businesses create effective solutions, here are success stories of 5 auto and moto online shops that are based on the nopCommerce open-source eCommerce platform:
1. Autoplicity — increasing traffic and sales 20 times with an open-source eCommerce platform
The large auto parts eCommerce store, Autoplicity, aspired to present the largest assortment with effortless sorting by any client, without losing its website performance and improving search function. Furthermore, this automotive company needed a superior customer experience with capabilities like advanced order and inventory management, location-based product shipment optimization, omnichannel integration, and several additional adjustments.
Since Autoplicity has its eCommerce solution based on an open-source platform, with the help of professionals they have implemented the required functionality. Many customizations were effortlessly implemented due to pluggable and flexible architecture.
Here is the list of main features that Autoplicity added:
- making it possible to host over 10M items without losing loading speed;
- added plugins for effective product search and filters;
- customized OMS (order management system);
- many payment methods, like PayPal (News - Alert);
- order and shipping tracking for suppliers;
- customized shipping quote service;
- machine learning-powered inventory and pricing updating system;
- vehicle compatibility functionality;
- mobile-friendly storefront.
Autoplicity was able to scale swiftly as a company with a growth of over 20 times mostly based on the advancements gained from above. Robust solutions that mainly relied on automation to power the order lifecycle on the backend were developed to help this aftermarket parts company succeed. Thanks to all the automation and advancements it has made, Autoplicity needs to use fewer resources when operating.
2. Gas Gas — an eCommerce solution with increased performance and improved user experience
Gas Gas is a Spanish off-road motorcycle manufacturer specifically for trials and endurance events. They needed the creation of new features and thorough shopping experience enhancements for their motorcycle eCommerce store. Having the Gas Gas website on an open-source platform helped implement the required functionality without development issues.
As the enhancement process finished, this motorcycle company gained a service for product search, which is a complex module with auto-completion. Also, parts and bike finder functionality were added providing saving and visualization. To make an order process convenient, Gas Gas set up an estimated delivery function, as well as a reliable shipping method. Finally, the motorcycle eCommerce store became more user-friendly with high performance.
Gas Gas enhanced its website by seamlessly implementing and developing new features without moving to another platform. Although there were deep and complex customizations, this motorcycle eCommerce business was able to keep working the same way.
3. xDalys — scaling aftermarket parts store to 14 million products in the database
The leading provider of secondhand car components in Lithuania, xDalys, sells original products that are purchased from Polish, Lithuanian, and suppliers from several other countries. The company has always had its website on an open-source eCommerce platform. In the beginning, apart from out-of-the-box functionality they only used an additional search plugin.
However, to increase the number of products from 8 million items in its database xDalys required a more convenient and optimized data management infrastructure. The Lithuanian auto parts supplier also wanted to localize its online store and specifically products to more languages without losing its website performance. The last request was to create a seamless user experience for two kinds of sales, B2B and B2C, with different payment methods for each type of customer.
The solution did not require migrating to other eCommerce software. The only thing that was needed for the xDalys website to keep performance when scaling was a more optimized product search solution, which was also seamlessly compatible with 4 languages. This automotive company also developed the store’s visibility with the SEO page builder and improved its shopping experience with a multi-store feature that was built into an eCommerce platform.
As a result of the store upgrade and customization, xDalys was able to increase its database. Their catalog was extended to 14 mln products instead of 8 mln; 3 more languages were added and localization for products was done.
xDalys was able to expand its database as a result of the store upgrading and customization from 8 million to 14 million products; three new languages were introduced; and product localization was completed.
4. Sun State International — improved user experience that resulted in a 13% sales increase
The family-run Sun State International Trucks is a dealer for International's premium truck line that used to have the majority of sales formerly made in an old-school way, over the phone or by email. To create a user-friendly storefront and increase its customer base, this automotive Enterprise company made the decision to enhance its eCommerce solution.
The Sun State International Trucks’ request was primarily around the optimization of business processes, as well as the enhancement of the eCommerce environment. The international truck dealer has implemented features, such as auto input of orders into the parts management system, third-party integration with Sun State’s ERP, and current stock status on the website.
The Sun State’s website was launched in the summer of 2021, and in October of the following year, the client reported exceeding $1 million in sales for the calendar year. Today, Sun State has reported a 13% increase in retail sales overall since the launch of the website.
The Sun State's eCommerce store went live in the period of II – III Qs of 2021, and they recorded more than $1 million in revenues in a year. Since the website's launch, Sun State had an overall 13% sales growth.
5. Moto Mader AG — an online motorcycle store with enhanced website efficiency and UX
The eCommerce store from Switzerland, Moto Mader, which sells aftermarket motorcycles, parts, and apparel desired to have high-quality customer service and experience throughout many countries within Europe. Based on a robust eCommerce platform, this motorcycle business was required to improve the online store’s design and to integrate new eCommerce functionality.
After a broad website analysis, Moto Mader AG composed a list of functionalities and enhancements that could help improve user experience. As it was for the Gas Gas motorcycle website, Moto Mader implemented the same motorbike and moto parts finder features, as well as customized inventory accounting characteristics followed by client needs, effortless order and tax management, and buyer authorization.
As Moto Mader's website gained more visibility in search engine results, the company's customer base began to grow. This motorcycle eCommerce store's product search is easier to use and displays the item that buyers look for. For its customers, Moto Mader included a search story, which may increase retention and engagement.
Conclusion
The automotive eCommerce sector goes by leaps and bounds as it can be seen from statistics and real-life cases. It happened as consumers increasingly turned to online markets for purchasing cars and auto parts. Also, technologies have been a great driver of this growth.
The shift towards online sales has forced automotive companies to adapt their strategies and embrace open-source platforms to stay competitive in the market. As it can be identified from this article, open-source eCommerce platforms offer several advantages. Moreover, this type of software perfectly fits the automotive industry’s requirements and specifications.
By leveraging open-source eCommerce platforms, automotive companies can create scalable and feature-rich online stores that cater to specialized demands, offer personalized shopping experiences, and seamlessly integrate with multiple sales channels. These platforms offer the adaptability and resources required to flourish in the constantly shifting automotive eCommerce environment, ensuring a competitive advantage and long-term success in the industry.
Author bio: Olesya Zagorodnova is a Digital Marketing Manager at nopCommerce, an open-source ecommerce platform with built-in B2B functionality. With 8+ years of experience in internet marketing, she’s been working with both B2C and B2B products.
