How Violette Motors Improved Their Website Experience with X-Cart

Bruno Bosse, the Parts Manager at Violette Motors, faced a problem many online business owners face: their checkout process wasn’t intuitive enough. Nine years ago, Bruno built his own website and integrated Keystone’s Interactive Garage (IG), a tool that helps users visualize and customize vehicle builds.

However, despite IG’s helpful features, the checkout experience was still confusing, and customers were unsure how to purchase products. They could add the parts they needed to the cart, but the checkout process became confusing due to a lack of clear call-to-actions and directions.

After a series of trials and errors, Bruno contacted Ryan from Interactive Garage, who referred him to X-Cart. This is where the story took a turn for the better.

The Struggles with the Existing System

Bruno’s website was built with the Interactive Garage catalog, which worked well in many ways, but there were clear flaws in the user experience. “I added parts to the cart, but there was no clear path to checkout. Some parts had a checkout button, but it just sent customers off to the IG site,” explained Bruno. This confusing workflow led to frustrated visitors who couldn’t figure out how to complete their purchases.

Bruno needed a better solution, one that would keep the helpful functionality of IG but provide a much more intuitive automotive customer experience.

Searching for the Right Solution

Before contacting Ryan from IG, Bruno had explored other options. He spoke with Peter from NetDriven and checked out Keystone at the Big Show in Orlando. While these options offered some great features, they didn’t meet all of Bruno’s needs.

For instance, the aftermarket website couldn’t pull pricing data from his Keystone Automotive Operations account, which was a dealbreaker because of the exchange rate between USD and CAD. As a Canadian business owner, Bruno couldn’t afford to manually convert all his prices and account for import costs.

NetDriven seemed promising, but they didn’t offer the wide variety of wheels and tires that Bruno needed for his customers.

The Referral to X-Cart

After discussing his options with Ryan from IG, Bruno was introduced to X-Cart. He liked what he saw: a native integration with his Keystone Automotive account and Turn 14 Distribution. He also needed a platform that would support a seamless experience for his customers, and X-Cart offered mobile-first automotive website design, fitment by year, make, model, VIN, engine type, and more.

The Challenge: Maintaining IG Functionality

When Bruno first inquired about X-Cart, he was concerned about how he could still use Interactive Garage while improving his site’s checkout process. Since X-Cart doesn’t have a native connector for IG, we proposed an alternative: integrating IG as an iframe on his site.

This way, visitors could still interact with IG’s catalog, but their experience would be more intuitive. They would be forwarded to the X-Cart checkout for easier purchase.

Optimizing the Experience for Canadian Customers

In addition to resolving the checkout issues, Bruno was also looking for a platform that could better serve Canadian customers. With Keystone Automotive Operations as his main supplier, the ability to easily convert prices from USD to CAD was crucial. Thankfully, X-Cart had the tools to handle this, which made Bruno more confident in his decision.

Another thing Bruno was excited about was X-Cart’s focus on wheels and tires, especially for popular vehicles like the Ford F-150 and RAM 1500. X-Cart’s ability to display these parts in a visualizer made it easier for customers to find exactly what they needed.

X-Cart’s Autosync visualizer allows customers to see how different wheels, tires, and accessories will look on their vehicle from multiple angles: front, side, and rear. The more interactive shopping experience helps buyers make confident decisions, reducing the chances of returns.

The integration also improves website engagement, as the ‘View on Vehicle’ tool encourages customers to spend more time browsing, which positively impacts SEO rankings. Additionally, AutoSync’s real-time fitment validation ensures that shoppers select the right size, finish, and color, eliminating compatibility issues.

Beyond visualization, AutoSync enables effortless product data management by providing access to extensive catalogs with hundreds of brands. These catalogs include factory-accurate colors, multiple finish options, and precise fitment data, all of which sync with X-Cart.

The Road Ahead

Bruno was impressed by fast native integrations, an intuitive automotive user experience, and the smooth checkout with no guesswork. He also knew that getting the category mapping right would be crucial, and we were happy to provide the support he needed to ensure a smooth transition.

With X-Cart’s smart category mapping, uploading and organizing automotive product data became effortless. Our system allowed Bruno to import catalogs from top providers to make sure that product categories aligned correctly between the supplier’s data and the online store.

Though Interactive Garage wasn’t a perfect fit for full integration, we found a workable solution that allowed Bruno to maintain the IG functionality and create a better customer experience. 

Need a similar experience for your auto parts store? Get in touch, and we will advise you on how X-Cart can solve your current challenges!