The ‘Best’ and Busiest Online Tire Stores

By Joy Kopcha
Source: www.moderntiredealer.com, October 2020

People love lists, right? I do, anyway. And Newsweek and global researcher Statista have published an interesting one with insights on what’s important to online shoppers. They’ve named 1,000 online shops (websites) the “Best Online Shops 2021.” And yes, there are tire retailers in the mix.

In naming ‘the best,’ Newsweek and Statista acknowledge they started their research with the busiest sites. That means a totally magnificent website created by a small, individual seller — including a small tire dealer — isn’t going to show up here.

They didn’t consider websites that sell a digital product — the movie you download from Netflix or the cabin you rent on Airbnb.com — but instead focused on websites that sell and ship physical items. (There were a few other exceptions, but I don’t want to get stuck in the weeds. You can read all about the methodology and find the full survey.)

Professional testers judged the sites using 41 objective criteria that fall into these six categories. (A survey of 8,000 American shoppers surveyed the sites on seven more subjective criteria.)

• Structure and usability
• Payment
• Trust and security
• Purchase and delivery
• Service and communication
• Technical performance

Even without a technical background in web design or graphics, these are good things to measure when you look at your own website. Better yet, ask your employees to give your site an overview. And don’t just ask your team members who spend their days behind a computer. Your best eye might come from a savvy shopper who works in an alignment bay.

Here’s an example of one criteria from each of those categories:

Structure and usability: How functional and user-friendly are the site? Think of the structure, the layout.

Trust and security: Can your customer see evidence that the site is secure?

Payment: Is there an overview of all the payment options available? If you offer a store credit card or secondary financing, is that evident?

Purchase and delivery: Do you offer free delivery? Express delivery? Do users have to log in to place an order?

Service and communication: This is important both before and after the sale. Is the site optimized for mobile devices? Is there a clear path to contacting a real person after the sale?

Technical details: How quickly does the page load? Are visitors bouncing off the site after landing on the homepage?

The answers resulted in scores and ultimately rankings for online shops that fall into eight general industries.

There wasn’t a specific tire category, but I found tire retailers in the “car, motorcycle and boats” section.

That section has 45 sites in all, and it’s a real mix. From major auto parts retailers — AutoZone is No. 2, with a score of 8.51 —  to lots of accessory and parts shops, plus sites in the boating world.

For tires, Newsweek and Statista say these are the ‘best’:

What do you think? How does your site measure up?