Over the last 6 years or so, Impakt has tested over 10 million users with interests in the automotive industry. My name is Mike, and I lead the web team at Impakt. We have worked with brands like FMF, Guts Racing, the biggest bike graphics names, and companies that make everything from side by side parts to colored titanium bolts. We have helped out folks in the automotive industry with businesses of all sizes. Impakt is the agency the Pro Motocross circuit uses for many of the televised tracks. You likely won’t find an agency that has studied the behavior of more people that buy automotive products.
Today I want to share with you some behavioral patterns that might help you sell more parts in your business. I will break this down into a few sections. This will likely be part 1 in a series of tips tailored to this topic, because I have so much to say on this subject.
Customization
Automotive shoppers love options and variants. If you run a shop, you may already know that, but saying it out loud may make you ask yourself: am I offering every option I can on my website? Can x product come in a different color? Would it be valuable to my customers to expand my offering? Those are the questions you want to ask yourself. I can’t tell you how many business owners I have met that have realized that their website does not offer everything they can do.
What’s insane is that this runs contrary to what I have seen in other verticals. If you look up conversion rate tips in general, you will find information that says that the best-converting websites eliminate as many options as possible for customers. Most of our clients in the automotive industry get better results when they give more options to their customers.
Sticky Add To Cart
One test that wins every time for us is a sticky add to cart, especially on mobile. What is a sticky add to cart? It just means as you scroll down the page, the add to cart button, alongside your opinions, sticks on the screen. These are only effective if the user only has a few customization options. To put it in simpler terms, if I offered a handlebar attachment, where the user only needed to select color and size, then this would work well. Obviously, if the user needs to select like 10+ options, there isn’t really a way to stick that form with them. If the user clicks “add to cart” and it doesn’t do anything, there is absolutely no benefit to having it stick with them; however, most products can be offered without asking the customer for more than a couple answers.
Testimonials
Not everyone gets this, but buyers really want to hear what others think of the product. This comes in the form of reviews and also testimonials. If you have an influencer network, I can’t tell you how powerful video testimonials will be. The user doesn’t even have to know who the person is, as long as they feel like the message is genuine and coming from someone outside your organization. Social proof works in your favor. Even if you don’t have videos, screenshotting and linking to real reviews can do wonders for you. With automotive brands, people are typically looking for comments like they have been using the product for a long time (sometimes decades) and how they wouldn’t ever buy from anyone else.