Learn How To Make The Most Of The Shopify Customer Account Page For Your Automotive Ecommerce Business
The automotive industry would be the last you’d imagine being online. It’s hard to believe cars and bikes are being sold online. Isn’t it?
But the reality is—the eCommerce automotive industry is pretty much a reality, and it’s shifting gears towards growth with speed.
The industry is predicted to grow to $213 billion by 2029 (Fortune Business Insider).
Now on to what’s in it for you!
If you’re an automotive business shifting to eCommerce, in this article, we tell you why and how to set up a Shopify customer account page and how to maximize its use to grow your business.
Read on!
The growth of automotive eCommerce
Automotive eCommerce entails the buying and selling of automotive parts, vehicle spare parts, services, etc. online.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the automotive industry shifting online. While the sale of cars went down during the pandemic, consumers started purchasing spare parts and services online.
And with life coming back to normal, the number of consumers open to buying online has increased. 61% of consumers now buy automobiles and spare parts online.
Online automotive sales include vehicles as well as spare parts and automotive services. The shutting down of brick-and-mortar automobile stores, a sudden surge of digitized businesses, and an increase in the number of customers comfortable with online purchases have all led to an unimaginable boost in automotive eCommerce.
To put things in perspective, let’s look at some statistics:
- Sales of cars and motorcycles in the eCommerce market increased by 180% from January 2022 to January 2023
- The conversion rate in the eCommerce automotive market increased by 5.51% from 2022 to 2023
- The B2C consumer base has the largest market share in the industry
- Ecommerce visitors increased by 5.11% from 2022 to 2023
Why do you need a Shopify customer account page for automotive businesses?
Many traditional brick-and-mortar automotive business owners are still of the opinion that eCommerce makes sales and purchases more complicated. But we beg to differ because it benefits businesses in many ways.
1. It helps you turn visitors into registered customers
Here’s a hard truth: the average conversion rate of eCommerce websites is less than 3%. This means less than three out of every hundred visitors make a purchase.
So when potential customers visit your store, you must ensure you get something out of them—a sale, their contact details, a sign-up, etc. After all, automobile parts are high-value products and the competition in the automotive industry online is fierce. And you wouldn’t want to miss any leads.
That’s where you can bring in your Shopify customer account page.
- Encourage visitors to sign up
- Incentivize them to sign up
- Tell them about the benefits they can avail of upon signing up
- Highlight the different features – rewards program, wishlist, etc.
- Convince them to sign up via social login, making it faster for them
2. You can allow shoppers to wishlist items, boost sales
First-time visitors rarely make purchases. But they might like automotive parts on your site. Or the ones they want aren’t available at the moment, and they’ll have to wait until they’re restocked. In such cases, they can secure products they like for future purchases by adding them to their wishlist.
3. It makes repurchases easier for customers
Automotive parts are products that customers don’t change often. They stick to the brand and product type. Hence, customers would want to order the same product again. A customer account page makes it easy to repurchase products on automotive eCommerce sites. All that customers have to do is log into their account, go to order history, find the product, and repurchase it.
A step-by-step guide to set up a Shopify customer account page
Step # 1 Install Flits
To set up a Shopify customer account page for your automotive business, you’ll require a customer account app. That’s because you’ll need to include many features within your customer account page, which the app will enable you to do.
For example, in addition to the default features such as order history, you might want to add features such as a wishlist or recently viewed products. That’s where the customer account app comes in.
Flits is a Shopify customer account page app that can help you personalize customers’ experience. The app offers add-on features such as store credits, wishlist, social login, recently viewed products, etc. that enhance customers’ experience.
In addition, the Flits app is an excellent way to collect customer data via different features.
Install Flits to enhance your customers’ experience on your Shopify store.
Step # 2 Choose a customer account page template
Flits offers two customer account page templates—UNO and DUO.
- UNO: A simple, clean design that can be customized to match your brand’s visual language
- DUO: An overall minimal look with rounded corners for the account page elements for those who want to customize a minimal look
Let’s take a look at both these templates:
UNO
DUO
Step # 3 Customize the customer account page
After you’ve chosen a template, the next step is to customize the page. But why customize? The simple answer is, to align it with your brand. When customers are on the page, they should connect it with your brand.
Besides, there are many advantages of customization:
- Your Shopify customer account page will be one of the most-visited pages on your automobile eCommerce site. Customizing this page will help customers recall your brand easily.
- Another reason to customize is that this page is like customers’ personal page. And that gives you an excellent opportunity to connect with them. You can use data to do so. Collect data from this page and use it to create personalized campaigns to retarget these customers.
The Flits customer account page app allows you to easily customize both the customer account templates. All you need to do is pick the theme. Customize the page by changing the color, font, icons, etc. The app will guide you at every step and make it much easier.
Here are a few tips to help you customize the customer account page:
- Customize the color of the navigation bar
- Change the color of the text
- Change the font color
Also read: Ways to customize your customer account page
Step # 4 Set up social login for easy registration
One of the top three reasons why visitors don’t make purchases online is because many websites make sign-up mandatory and have a long process for it.
But there’s a solution for this—social login.
The social login feature will allow visitors to sign up on your automotive eCommerce site via their social media accounts. You could enable social login via Facebook, Instagram, etc. social platforms.
Social login helps boost sign-ups because it’s a faster process compared to customers having to fill out a lengthy new form.
Another plus point of social login is customers don’t need to remember one more login and password. This makes login faster and simpler for them.
An example
Step # 5 Install add-on features
A basic customer account page with limited features is not good enough to engage customers for too long. Therefore, you’ll have to install a few add-on features that can make your customers’ experience better.
Let’s look at the add-on features offered by Flits.
Store credits
Loyalty, rewards, and store credits programs are one of the best marketing tactics to boost customer engagement and keep them coming back to your store. It helps:
- Increase repeat purchases
- Boost customer loyalty
- Keep customers engaged and motivated to shop more
Customer retention and engagement are a big challenge in the automotive industry, because of low purchase frequency. Customers don’t need to purchase these products repeatedly and often.
But with a store credits or rewards program, you can increase customer touch points and increase the possibility of them coming back to your store.
Social login
Website login might seem like a small thing and that’s why many businesses tend to overlook the importance of making login easy.
But think about it, it’s the first step customers take when they want to shop on your site. And so, if you make it difficult, long, and boring, you might risk losing customers.
The social login feature makes login faster as customers don’t have to bother remembering new passwords. Moreover, you have the details of the customers’ social accounts, which can be used to retarget and remarket.
Wishlist
Another challenge in the automotive industry is customers prefer to buy specific products only. At times, a particular product may be out of stock or customers are unable to make purchase decisions.
These are situations where the wishlist feature comes in. Customers can add products they like or are considering to the wishlist. Then, buy at a later point when they’ve made their decision, or when the product is restocked.
Recently viewed products
Add the recently viewed products feature in your Shopify customer account page for automotive. It helps customers shop better.
While shopping, customers might want to compare products or revisit products that they are considering. At that time, instead of browsing and finding the product again or opening each product on a new page, they can simply visit the recently viewed products section.
Reorder
Another effective way to use the customer account page for automotive eCommerce businesses is to install the reorder tab. Customers prefer to use the same brand/products when it comes to automotive parts. To make it easy for them to buy the same product repeatedly, ensure you have the reorder feature.
Step # 6 Integrate other marketing apps
To run marketing and promotional campaigns successfully, you’ll need more tools and apps on your Shopify site. And that’s why you’ll need to install other third-party apps.
Now, it’s important that your customer account page app provides the capabilities of seamless integration. That’s where Flits wins again.
The app seamlessly integrates with many third-party apps. For example, the product review app Judge.me, email marketing automation app Klaviyo, and web push notification app Pushowl, among others.
Ready to set up your automotive business on Shopify?
Now, it might seem counterintuitive to try to get visitors to sign up instead of guest checkout, but think long-term, and getting registered customers is the only way to grow your automotive eCommerce business.
In the coming months and years, eCommerce businesses are going to depend a lot more on customer data, and less on other factors. And that’s when you will require an efficient customer account page.
Install Flits customer account app on your automotive Shopify store today!
