The aftermarket eCommerce industry is booming. According to this study, growth from $42.5 billion in 2020 to 132.75 billion by 2028 is expected. For the automotive aftermarket industry, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to fuel a shift to online shopping, leading to even more opportunities to reach new consumers all over the world.
Today, the challenge for eCommerce marketers is meeting the changing expectations of modern consumers. Digital shoppers are now accustomed to a whole new array of shopping technologies, most notably around personalization and customization. With 3D product configurators and augmented reality experiences, aftermarket companies can now allow customers to create exactly the product that they want – and even interact with it in their own spaces through AR and VR. Customers will – and already are – voting with their wallets by actively choosing companies that offer next-generation shopping experiences.
In this blog post, we offer tips for how best to use personalization in the aftermarket, including:
- Understand your customer! There are so many different types and groups of people who are shopping for spare parts online – understanding who they are and what they want is crucial. Use tools like Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic and try to better understand their customer journeys. Define and refine your target audiences, so that you can best meet their personalization needs.
- Improve the user experience. With next-generation tools like 3D product configurators, configure-price-quote (CPQ) tools and AR product experiences, you can make it simple for your users to personalize products. Even better, these tools work on almost any digital device, including mobile phones, so that your customers can shop your virtual showroom 24/7 from anywhere in the world.
- Make content king. The link between improved digital content and improved digital sales is already well-established – better content will almost always result in better sales, from your product photography to your specification sheets to your product copy. For spare parts marketers, who have their roots in traditional catalog and phone-assisted sales, focusing on providing a new breed of customers with a new level of enhanced content will be key. Some of the most important eCommerce channels, like Amazon and eBay, are already mandating a certain degree of content in order to list products, and those trends are going to accelerate. And if you are running your own website, personalized content and product recommendations can be a game changer! Some of the biggest companies in the world, from Netflix to Walmart, are prospering through their use of personalization and recommendation engines.
- Optimize for search. In eCommerce, if your product isn’t searchable, it might as well not even exist. At CDS Visual, our research has shown us that in the aftermarket industry, users want to find spare parts in 10 seconds or less. If it takes any longer, the shoppers will drop off. You might already be familiar with best practices for search engine optimization (SEO), but these days on-site search is just as important. The biggest platforms are already using their own search engines, with different algorithms – and that’s creating new opportunities to appear in product focused searches with high purchase intent. Make sure you are optimizing for all personalization related search terms and tagging your images appropriately. It’s now even possible to add BOM and serial number search aspects to your eCommerce marketing strategy.
Ready to see how CDS Visual can help you create a product personalization and customization strategy that will help you lift your eCommerce results? Contact us today for a free consultation and demonstration.
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