Mobile Shopping is Impacting Online Parts Sales

For millions of people, shopping online has become the preferred method, especially over the past two years since the start of the pandemic.

However, just because things have begun to look more normal doesn’t mean people are giving up their shopping habits. The rise in online purchases across all retail industries has caused many retailers to pivot their strategy to a fully optimized buying experience. This pivot has not escaped the automotive industry as new franchised dealers turn to eCommerce to drive additional revenue. However, recent data also shows that if dealers want to maximize online efforts, they need to keep the mobile experience in mind.

Don’t Ignore The Data

A recent report from RevolutionParts that looked at the shopping behavior of over 100 million online parts shoppers showed that nearly 59% of consumers shopped for parts through a mobile device, marking a nearly 5% increase in mobile shoppers from 2020.

Mobile users spent an average of $168 in parts orders and made up a little over $204k in total revenue for dealers signed up with RevolutionParts in 2021. 

Not only were more shoppers searching for parts through mobile, but they were also purchasing more often, with 1.2k transactions made through mobile compared to 1.1k transactions made through desktop. 

Although in 2020, we saw more shoppers searching for parts using mobile. However, 2021 marked the first year more consumers completed their purchases through mobile devices.

What Does This Mean For the Parts Department?

The dealership’s online parts business needs to be mobile-friendly. This rise in mobile purchases means dealerships will have to include mobile shopping in their online parts strategy and understand their customer’s mobile shopping experience. 

Building an online parts business where the mobile experience is lacking will cost the parts department sales. Ignoring the data in the report mentioned above could lead to losing half of the department’s potential online sales.

To ensure customers have the best online shopping experience when shopping from their mobile device, you need to make sure that the mobile version of the parts web store meets specific criteria. Otherwise, when a customer lands on the parts website, they may not know how to navigate the site to find what they are looking for, or they may have difficulty inputting their information and checking out. A poorly made mobile version can also confuse mobile shoppers, especially if it is visually unappealing, the text is difficult to read, or links don’t work. When building an online parts business, there are certain qualities you want from the mobile version of the website: 

-       Easy to navigate 

-       Quick load time

-       Text is easy to read

-       Visually appealing on a small screen

-       Links are easily clickable

-       Forms are easy to fill out

Ensuring an online parts store is mobile-friendly is a must. A mobile-friendly parts site with these qualities is more likely to increase parts sales and deliver higher customer satisfaction. 

Mobile shopping isn’t the future of shopping; it’s already here and growing. If the parts department wants to build a successful online parts business and capture more sales, the data shows that implementing a mobile-friendly shopping experience is a must.

Get the Full 2022 eCommerce Shopper Behavior Report

The RevolutionParts 2022 eCommerce Shopper Behavior Report gives parts sellers insight into the behavior online auto parts customers, devices they shop from, how much they are spending, and demographics. To view the full report, visit: https://www.revolutionparts.com/