BigCommerce is a leading e-commerce platform that allows you to market and sell your products more successfully. BigCommerce costs a third of other major e-commerce packages, allowing you to spend your money on growing your business instead of website maintenance. Selling auto parts online presents special challenges. Here are the major benefits of BigCommerce for automotive e-commerce. 

Easy on the Wallet 

Because BigCommerce is a cloud-based e-commerce product, you won’t need to hire an in-house team of IT professionals or off-site contractors. You never have to buy and maintain servers or other hardware. BigCommerce takes care of your server maintenance and database storage. You will never be charged for the installation of updates, required bug fixes, or security patches. 

Many other e-commerce products charge by the hour to fix website issues, and the need for such services is unpredictable. If you are paying for every patch or bug fix, an unexpected security issue can wreak havoc on your bottom line. With BigCommerce, you can invest your money in your business rather than spending it on IT issues, personnel, and maintenance. Also, with BigCommerce, there is never a monthly licensing fee because you own all of your unique content. 

Excellent Customer Support 

If issues arise with your site, you need help right away. Many large e-commerce products work regular business hours and pass support on to outside partner agencies. This setup can leave you waiting for hours to have an issue resolved. BigCommerce provides 24/7 customer support. If you have a site issue, you are connected to high-level BigCommerce technical support until your issues are resolved. You never pay extra for technical assistance. 

Thanks to BigCommerce’s stellar customer support, you can expect stellar site reliability. BigCommerce customers enjoy an uptime of almost 100%. Your site is always functional and ready for customers. More uptime translates into more sales and higher profits. BigCommerce takes on the responsibility of keeping your site up and running even during busy sales events.  

BigCommerce support also provides site upgrades and bug fixes without disturbing your business online. BigCommerce support tests every website before they go live, ensuring that users have a great experience from the start. 

Easy to Customize with Stencil 

BigCommerce’s theming engine, Stencil, is powerful, flexible, and easy to use. Stencil’s wide variety of ready-to-use themes allows you to quickly set up your online auto parts store without the need for coding experience. The Parts Warehouse theme is particularly useful for auto part retailers.  

Store owners love the Parts Warehouse theme because it allows them to easily organize their inventory. Customers enjoy the intuitive navigation of Parts Warehouse. Thanks to Stencil’s simple customization, your retail website can be up and running quickly. 

Stencil also allows for customization of individual website attributes. Website changes are always made in a staging environment, allowing you to test your site before making it live. This process ensures that unforeseen issues are resolved before opening the website to customers. Your website is always fully functional and attractive to customers. Stencil also allows you to customize users’ shopping experience through the analysis of customer search and purchase data. This allows you to provide the optimum user experience for every customer. 

Security 

Security is incredibly important for online retailers. A security breach not only erodes customer trust but also threatens future profits. BigCommerce provides top-of-the-line protection against the hacking of consumer data. BigCommerce is PCI compliant and ISO/IEC 27001 certified. Third-party applications available through BigCommerce are thoroughly vetted to ensure that they are secure and do not pose a threat to client security. 

Built-In Payment and Inventory Management 

BigCommerce makes it easy for customers to purchase auto parts. BigCommerce accepts payment from multiple gateways, including PayPal, ApplePay, and Stripe. Unlike other e-commerce products, BigCommerce never charges a penalty for using non-standard forms of payment. 

BigCommerce controls your inventory from one central location. This central inventory management ensures that your stock numbers are accurate across all retail platforms. As your business grows, you have the option of using one of BigCommerce’s third-party applications to manage inventory data. 

Multi-Platform Selling 

BigCommerce has a multi-dimensional approach to online commerce. BigCommerce synchronizes your inventory across online channels, including Facebook, Pinterest, eBay, Instagram, and Amazon. This multi-platform approach increases product visibility and sales. No matter how they reach your site, customers will always have a seamless, high-quality experience. 

High-Value Apps for Automotive Parts Sales 

The greatest difficulty in buying auto parts online is finding the correct part for your needs. Customers don’t want to spend a lot of time digging through parts lists to find the one part they need to finish a project. BigCommerce includes apps that can make your auto parts store easier to navigate. An easy-to-navigate site will sell more auto parts and decrease the time spent answering customer questions. 

PartFinder is an advanced fitment app that enables your customers to quickly and easily find the part they need. PartFinder also provides valuable customer data. Data on customer searches, sales numbers, and trends allows you to modify your inventory to maximize profits. Improved search accuracy also ensures customer satisfaction and fewer returned orders.  

The Year Make Model Search by Capacity app helps customers find specific parts for their automobiles by inputting key information including the model year and car make. This app is easy to set up on your site and capable of searching large parts databases.  

The Yotpo Reviews app helps your business produce customer reviews, pictures, and more. This content can be used to increase sales by driving traffic to your site. The app includes integration across social networks, allowing customers to leave product reviews on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also incentivize customers to share reviews via online coupons or use sales data to upsell products to customers as they are searching on your site. With Yotpo, you can also add a section for questions and answers to your product pages. Yotpo is a great overall visual marketing tool that can help grow your business.  

Making automotive e-commerce a successful venture is challenging. Your website needs to be accurate, easy to navigate, and attractive to customers. With easy-to-use templates, low costs, world-class support, and high-value apps, BigCommerce has the tools you need to make your online business flourish.