Building brand awareness on major online marketplaces is a clever strategic move to connect with your customers where they are. By listing your products on Amazon, eBay Motors, or Walmart, you ensure a broader outreach and new growth opportunities for your auto parts retail business. 

The hardest part, however, is selecting the one that will be the most profitable. This is always a very tricky question given that creating an online presence in any online marketplace requires money, time, and effort – especially when you’re up against a lot of competitors.

In this blog post, we’ll cover the specifics of selling car parts on Amazon, eBay Motors, and Walmart, highlight the benefits, and shed more light on the potential pitfalls such as high competition, complex listing requirements, and fee structures. More importantly, we’ll provide practical tips on overcoming these challenges to help you find the most profitable sales channels and grow your business.

How to Sell Auto Parts on Amazon

As one of the most popular online marketplaces among buyers and sellers alike, Amazon has a significant customer base that any online retailer would like to tap into. Automotive aftermarket business owners are no exception. Amazon auto parts sales grow by 15% yearly, making it the largest auto parts and accessories marketplace.

However, along with the potential for sales growth comes the challenge of outperforming the competition, which likewise shows no signs of decreasing.

It’s important to remember that selling on Amazon comes with a complex fee structure that can affect your profit margin. Therefore, planning your budget carefully and weighing the potential benefits and risks before deciding to sell on this platform is crucial.

Pros and Cons of Selling Parts and Accessories on Amazon

Main Things to Know to Sell Car Parts on Amazon

Like with any new sales channel, you’ll need a step-by-step plan that considers potential challenges and includes methods for dealing with them before you start selling on Amazon.

1. Amazon regulations and requirements. Register on Seller Central and sign up as a seller on the Professional selling plan. You will also need a credible independent auto parts eCommerce website that Amazon can review.  In particular, get approval from Amazon to sell under the Automotive & Powersports product category.
2. Product Listings. Ensure you have clear and complete product data, including fitment information, product descriptions, and high-quality images. Import product details from your eCommerce website to list selected products on Amazon.
3. Auto parts fitment data on Amazon. Provide precise and consistent auto parts compatibility data per ACES/PIES standards. Thanks to the thorough product details, your consumers will be able to use Amazon’s Part Finder to determine whether the part you’re selling on Amazon is compatible with their vehicles. You can use fitment information from a reliable third-party catalog source to submit ACES data on your behalf.

How Much Does It Cost to Sell on Amazon?

Amazon charges a 12% referral fee per product sold in the automotive category, except 10% for tires and wheels (plus a monthly storage fee for inventory not being sold and additional advertising costs). 

Selling Car Parts on eBay Motors

Did you know eBay Motors sells three car parts or accessories every second? That is 180 car parts sales every minute or 10,800 transactions every hour, around 260,000 sales daily. If this is not the reason to test the waters of eBay Motors, make part of its customers your own, and maximize your profits, I can hardly think of what could be!

However, the hitch is that, just like with Amazon, you must first win the competitive edge to sell successfully. In fact, selling aftermarket vehicle parts and accessories on eBay sparks the same challenges as Amazon regarding the fee structure and parts compatibility, offering such benefits as a broad customer base and global shipping options.

Pros and Cons of Selling Car Parts on eBay Motors

What You Need to Start Selling Auto Parts on eBay Motors

Although the initial steps are very similar to those for starting to sell parts on Amazon, there still are some differences.

1. An eBay Seller account. Opening a business account is the right way to start if you want to be a high-volume automotive parts online seller on eBay. Once you’ve registered and confirmed your account, click the “Sell” button at the top of the page. This will take you to a page where you can begin listing your parts on the platform.
2. eBay listings. While creating product listings, eBay allows you to upload fitment information in bulk, significantly speeding up the whole listing process. This is essential for online retailers who want to sell car parts on a large scale.
3. Parts compatibility. Fitment data is important to both eBay sellers and shoppers. Customers need to find and order a part that suits their vehicles, while sellers want their products to appear in search results. The eBay Parts Compatibility feature can help with this. For fitment data, eBay Motors uses its own Master Vehicle Lists (MVLs) format. Though this format has much in common with Amazon’s ACES format, they are not interchangeable, and each can only be applied to the respective marketplace.

How Much Does It Cost to Sell on eBay?

Sellers will have to pay a listing fee and a final value fee based on the item’s ultimate sale price for each item they list. An insertion fee costs 0.35 cents per listing. On average, eBay charges 6%-10%, depending on the seller’s account type. There also can be some additional costs for using specific tools or services.

Selling Automotive Parts and Accessories with Walmart

Selling car parts and accessories on the Walmart marketplace is also a great way for automotive aftermarket retailers to grow their business. Even though Walmart’s customer base is smaller than Amazon’s or eBay’s, it can still be a valuable sales channel for auto parts businesses, as it is less expensive.

Pros and Cons of Selling Car Parts on Walmart

Main Things to Know about Walmart to Sell Auto Parts

Walmart can be a good option for brick-and-mortar store owners who want to use digital commerce to sell to local buyers online.

1. Registering on Walmart. Walmart prefers to partner with retailers who have solid track records. This is why, if you don’t have experience selling auto parts, Walmart won’t approve you as a seller. Merchants must have a business license to sell on this marketplace.
2. Product listing and fitment data. Selling car parts on Walmart Marketplace will only be successful if the seller has access to an extensive database that includes accurate fitment information for each product they offer. This means a retailer must have access to an extensive database containing precise fitment data for every car part they sell.

Ensure all items are listed in the correct category. Attaching relevant data to a single listing is much more complicated than it sounds. Even though eBay has integrated inventory management features, you can also add fitment data with your own listing and inventory management tool. Automotive products on Walmart’s marketplace can be sold using the Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard (ACES).

How Much Does It Cost to Sell on Walmart?

While selling automotive aftermarket parts on the marketplace website, Walmart doesn’t impose listing fees. Another benefit is that you don’t have to pay a monthly fee or commission for your products to be displayed in search results when customers browse them online.

Top-selling Auto Parts on Online Marketplaces

While there is no definitive answer to which car components sell the best on online marketplaces, offering replacement parts in high demand is the best option.

Statista said bumper covers were the best-selling article in the segment between 2022 and 2023, with sales revenue worth over 4.1 million U.S. dollars. Front brake pads followed, with 3.9 million U.S. dollars. Plastic lightweight bumpers are also among the most popular vehicle parts sold online in the United States.

Online Best-Selling Vehicle Parts in the US in 2023

Best-Selling Auto Parts on Amazon:

• filters, brakes, suspensions, and tires;
• electrical components, such as bulbs, starter motors, fuel pumps, and injectors;
• mechanical items, including bushes and engine mounts;
• exterior and interior parts, such as door handles and wiper blades.

The Most Profitable Car Parts to Sell on eBay Motors:

• exterior parts, including steel bumpers, replacement grilles, and side mirrors; 
• suspension parts such as struts and leveling kits;
• wheels and tires; 
• lighting products, such as headlights, light bulbs, tail lights, and fog lights.

Combinations of Sales Channels

According to Channel Bloom, online sales of auto parts and accessories in the U.S. by online marketplaces are estimated to reach nearly $22 billion in 2024. This statistic highlights the promising market opportunity within the automotive and powersports parts industry on platforms like Amazon, eBay, and others.

Combining selling channels can help your auto parts business expand its customer base beyond the local market and maximize its revenue streams. To define which combination of selling channels best fits you, you should rely on your business goals, potential benefits, and budget.

3 Main Challenges When Selling Car Parts on Multiple Sales Channels

1. Keeping Fitment Information Updated

Ensuring that the fitment data is accurately integrated into all sales channels is crucial to avoid any returns or negative reviews. Each sales channel has unique requirements for fitment data, so it is essential to use appropriate fitment data in each channel. Amazon’s fitment data requirements differ from those of Walmart or eBay. Hence, businesses need to ensure they provide accurate and updated fitment data for each sales channel to avoid customer confusion.

Solution: Using a product information management (PIM) system allows you to integrate fitment data with sales channels, streamlining the process of managing and distributing product information across various platforms, including fitment data.

2. Streamlining Order Management

Coordinating orders and inventory across sales channels is crucial to avoid stockouts and overstocks. Moreover, inaccurate orders result in negative customer feedback, directly influencing product ranking on online marketplaces. However, tracking orders manually and making respective changes in the spreadsheet takes a lot of time and is prone to human error.

Solution: Automated order imports can help auto parts sellers get an overall picture of their sales across platforms and control stock levels. Consolidate all the order data in one place with a built-in or third-party order management tool. This will allow you to manage and track orders directly from your online store’s admin area.

3. Maintaining Competitive Pricing

It is quite challenging to maintain pricing across multiple marketplaces per their pricing policies and remain competitive, particularly in a highly volatile automotive aftermarket retail sector. 

Solution: Multichannel sellers should have specific tools or features built into their eCommerce website’s functionality to update prices on their sales channels automatically.  

Going Multichannel with X-Cart

Selling on Amazon, eBay Motors, and Walmart can be much easier with an eCommerce platform with all the essential functionality to seamlessly integrate your web store with the new sales channels, including fitments and product data handling, inventory and pricing synchronization, and order management.

In a nutshell, you need an automotive-focused shopping cart solution that will help you build an online store and automate all these processes, thus streamlining your multichannel selling and resolving the challenges mentioned above. And X-Cart is one such solution.

X-Cart Features for Automotive Aftermarket Retail Businesses:

• Integrations with SEMA Data, ASAP Network, and AutoSync catalog providers for accurate, standardized, and regularly updated fitment and compatibility data;
• Powerful Product Information Management system to help you handle complex fitment data, schedule imports at your convenience, and automate updates; 
• Order Management system to ensure your orders and inventory data are synchronized across your sales channels and consolidated in one place – your online store’s admin area; 
• Native API-driven integrations with Amazon and eBay Motors (the integration with Walmart is also coming soon!)

Amazon Integration: Amazon and X-Cart integration is an inventory and order management solution that enables online retailers in various niches, including the automotive aftermarket sector, to sell their products on Amazon. It allows merchants to export product details directly from their X-Cart stores to Amazon and import orders from Amazon into X-Cart. You can sell on the marketplace nationwide or internationally and connect one or several Amazon accounts. 

X-Cart eBay Integration: Connect your store in minutes and manage your eBay listings in seconds. Send and update products, variants, images, descriptions, and prices one by one or in bulk, manually or automatically. Import orders back to X-Cart and manage them in the X-Cart admin area.

Although selling on multiple channels can be tedious, you can simplify the process by integrating your X-Cart store with the most well-known online marketplaces. With accurate inventory levels and a unified source of truth for your orders, you can simplify the sales process and concentrate on growing your business.

Key Things to Consider

As an online auto parts business owner, you know that relying on just one sales channel limits your business’s ability to get more orders. This is why you always look for new ways to expand your customer base and maximize your sales potential. Whether you sell wheels and tires, electrical & electronics parts, car suspension components, or interior parts and accessories, it’s critical to be where your target customer is.

While choosing the best place to sell car parts online and grow your profits, consider several factors, such as referral fees, buyer behaviors, marketplace policies, and, most importantly, the capabilities of your eCommerce platform.