Ecommerce Software Integration in Automotive Business

Software integration is a fundamental aspect of the automotive industry, enabling enhanced vehicle functionality, improved maintenance, efficient supply chain management, and seamless customer interactions. When combined with ecommerce, it allows automotive companies to expand their reach, streamline sales and distribution, and offer a more connected and convenient experience to customers. 

Automotive ecommerce, also known as automotive electronic commerce, involves the online purchase and sale of automobiles, automotive parts, and services. The growing use of these terms is a clear indication that there has been a tremendous trend for the automotive industry to shift its gear toward ecommerce. This blog throws light on the automotive industry’s increasing affinity towards automotive ecommerce, software integration, digital transformation, and digital retailing as a whole.

Digitization and technological advancements have completely changed the way industries operate today. Some have been more agile with their adoption of technology while some have been slow on the uptake.

The automotive industry has shown tremendous acceptance of digitization in recent years, optimizing the way it operates. Its enthusiastic integration of ecommerce in its retail operations has allowed it to connect with its audience more authentically.

On the other hand, its ability to leverage technology to its advantage is evident in the following statistics: It’s estimated that the global automotive software and electronics industry will achieve a market value of $462 billion by the year 2030.

The fact that this industry has not only adopted new technologies but has been acing them, can be seen in every facet of how an automotive company operates:

Ecommerce has emerged as a major booster for automotive companies as it provides them with the opportunity to transcend physical barriers and connect with their audience. There are many e-commerce development service providers that offer custom-made e-commerce solutions for vehicle dealers and manufacturers.

Let’s take a look at how automotive e-commerce software integration helps businesses establish their online presence and serve customers better.

Automotive E-commerce Software Integration - How It Helps

1. 1. Display your offerings with an e-commerce platform

The customer can choose the inventory or warehouse of choice based on their geographical location or convenience. This reduces the influx of information on the customer and allows them to choose wisely. Also, it enables them to display multiple inventories and warehouses.

The ERP and your ecommerce platform work as one to update inventory information on the platform in real time to let the customer see what's available to them at that moment. This helps you avoid confusion regarding ordering and availability of items.

Make your web store customized and personalized

Here are a few tips to make your automotive e-commerce web store personalized and helpful to your customers:

Personalize it for every individual customer — Present specific pricing to every customer based on their needs, purchase history, and the specifications they provide. Allow them to personalize with spare part assortment, shipping addresses, and documentation.

Offer 3-dimensional views — Let customers view the items they're looking for in enhanced detail. This is done with the options of zooming in and out, rotating parts, and taking items apart and putting them back together.

Specification filters — Automotive and their parts can be an overwhelming category to sift through. Provide specification filters such as make, model, year, and registration plate to make it easier for the customers to find the specific item they're looking for.

Group similar products — Put similar products together so that the customers can find everything they're looking for in a single phase. This includes products that are alternatives or complementary to one another.

Empower customers — Give your customers access to documentation and instructive videos to help them broaden their understanding of the automotive industry. This helps some choose products for themselves wisely.

2. Provide comprehensive customer care

Having an e-commerce platform empowers you to provide efficient and comprehensive customer care to your patrons. This involves everything from taking care of delivery formalities to helping customers enhance their knowledge of the industry to choose better.

Without an automotive e-commerce platform, you are forced to go through purchase-related formalities manually. This is what it would look like:

This is the information they’ll use whenever they wish to enquire about the delivery of their product. This is because there is no way for you to inform them about the delivery-related updates other than manually messaging them, which is simply not feasible for every single order.

You’ve to dedicate a team to receiving calls solely about delivery information.

This process is time-consuming, clunky, and prone to human errors at multiple stages. Now, with an ecommerce platform, the same process becomes smooth and swift:

a. The customer picks the product of their choice from an assortment of items on your ecommerce website. They have the luxury of choosing from a much bigger and varied catalog than they would have in a shop setting.

b. Once they pick the most suitable product for them, they will process the transaction by checking out your web store.

c. Once again, they’ll have a much wider array of payment options to choose from that they might not necessarily get in a shop.

d. The platform will automatically generate an electronic receipt of their purchase transaction that contains all the necessary information.

e. They will be sent automatically generated emails and phone messages about delivery updates. This will save the customer time and hassle as they'll not have to enquire about their product's delivery.

f. Your customer care department will not have to dedicate a part of itself to answering calls, messages, and emails about delivery information as it will be fully handled by your e-commerce platform.

Customer care through an e-commerce platform is seamless, easy, and puts the convenience of the customer front and center. It allows you to serve your customers better and provide them with quality service.

This enhances their individual experience with you. They're more likely to engage with you in the future and recommend your business to other people. By providing top-notch customer care, you stand to increase your goodwill among your target audience.

3. Connect with your customers

Engaging content

Put up your most impressive products, features, services, and accomplishments on top to create a stunning impression. Invite the user to learn more about automotive and its parts with learning content such as videos, blogs, guides, etc.

Chatbots

Engage them further with chatbots. These plugins strike up a conversation with the user right away so that they stay on the site longer and are able to find what they're looking for with ease. They also provide a space for the customer to give you valuable feedback.

Contact details

Provide clear contact details on your web store to make it easy for the user to reach you with questions and queries. They also serve as opportunities to indulge in longer conversations that give you valuable intel on what the customer is looking for.

Display your excellence

Having an elite web store provides you with ample opportunities to display your excellence in the automotive industry as well as establish your digital presence. Make sure to display the awards, accolades, and testimonials you've received over the years on your web store.

It helps in establishing trust in your audience. You can even prepare case studies that go into detail about how you helped your clients in achieving their dreams and solving their problems. This helps the user visualize how you’ll be able to help them with their problems as well.

A steady digital presence attracts users who may not be hot leads at the moment but could turn into paying customers as they gain information from you.

Enhance customer experience to accelerate success with your digital automotive presence

As the automotive industry adopts technological advancements at a rapid pace, the role of ecommerce software integration in its cumulative success cannot be ignored.

It empowers you to present your offering to your target audience in a structured setting. It provides quality customer care to help you win over your customers and increase brand loyalty. And lastly, it gives you the opportunity to connect and engage with your audience by providing solutions for their problems,

Tell us in the comments how you think ecommerce software integration benefits the digital presence and overall success of an automotive business.

If you are an automotive equipment manufacturer, automotive dealer, distributor, repair shop owner, retailer, or any other player in the automotive value chain, who is looking for an e-commerce software integration to accelerate business success, call us to get help.