Parts catalogue: fitment data that saves questions

Buyers reach an item in three ways. The first is the search box: it searches the item name, manufacturer, category, article number, description, OE numbers and the makes and models you have entered. The second is the vehicle filter: make and model, plus the year when the buyer picks a car saved under “My vehicles”. The third is category, condition, price, the “In stock only” filter and sorting by fastest delivery.

The item page is where buyers decide whether to order or to ask. It shows the fitment details and the OE numbers — or “on request”, together with a prompt to ask for the number before ordering, if you have not entered any. If a signed-in buyer has saved a vehicle, the page also matches your details against it. Every empty line on that page is a potential question.

A fourth route runs the other way. If buyers find nothing, they can send a part request. It reaches sellers with at least one catalogue item that fits the requested make, and sellers who stock universal parts see every request. So the makes in your catalogue also decide which requests land in your dashboard.

Make, model and year are approximations. The OE number, the vehicle manufacturer's part number, is an assignment: a part with that number is approved for that fitting position. Buyers holding their old part, or who got the number from a brand garage, search for exactly that — and the item page tells them explicitly that only a match by OE number is reliable.

Each item can carry several OE numbers, separated by commas in the spreadsheet. Use that: manufacturers replace numbers with successor numbers, and a part covering several makes within a group often carries a separate number for each. List every number buyers might know the part by. For aftermarket parts, include the OE numbers the part replaces according to its manufacturer.

Watch the spelling. On the part itself a number often has spaces or dots, in another catalogue none. The search box finds a number you entered without spaces even when the buyer types it with spaces; the reverse does not work. If a number circulates in two spellings, enter both.

The fitment columns act as a filter, and a more generous one than many sellers assume. Without a model, an item counts for every model of the make named: it appears under every model in the search, and the item page shows “All models” as the matching models. Without years, the year restricts nothing; such items stay in the list when a buyer filters by their model year.

For a wiper blade with a universal adapter that may be true. For a brake disc that only fits certain engines, it is an invitation to a wrong order. So name the models the part is approved for, and the years from and to where you know them. Engine, equipment and production date go into the description; there is no column for them, and the buyer looks there.

Models are matched by name: “Golf” and “Golf Plus” are two models, and an item that only names “Golf VII” does not appear when the buyer chooses “Golf”. So use makes and models spelt as they appear in the parts search's selection list, and separate generations by year. Where one generation hands over to the next, the model years overlap; there only the OE number still holds.

“Alle” (all) in the makes column turns an item into a universal part. That is right for care products, tools or accessories that genuinely fit any car, and almost always wrong for parts that merely look universal. A universal part appears under every make, the item page only tells the buyer that you list it for all makes, and it does not count in the “After you buy” block on car listings. And sellers who stock universal parts see every part request, not just those for their makes.

After the fit, buyers read what they will get and when. Condition has three values: new, remanufactured and used. A remanufactured part has been industrially reconditioned, a used part comes as it was removed; list one as the other and you get the complaint. For used parts, the donor vehicle and its mileage belong in the description; for remanufactured parts, whether an old core is expected back.

You state the warranty in months; the item page presents it as the seller's warranty on the item. So only enter what you actually promise. Delivery time in days drives the fastest-delivery sort and is shown to buyers as the delivery time — enter the time until the parcel reaches them, not until it leaves your warehouse. Stock decides whether an item counts as available; it is only deducted once payment has arrived.

For new items the import requires condition and delivery time: if either is missing, it skips the row and says why — a default would otherwise list a used part as “new”. If the warranty is left empty, the item shows no seller warranty. After the first import it is still worth looking at a few item pages.

If a buyer has saved their car under “My vehicles”, the item page matches your details against it and says in one sentence what the result is based on. The possible results:

Every result carries the same note: matched against the seller's details, reliable only via the OE number. So the match does not replace a check; it shows how precise your details are. A buyer who reads “The seller names the VW Golf explicitly” is more likely to order than one who reads “for all makes” — and rightly so, because you have committed yourself.

The same rule applies in the “After you buy” block on car listings. It shows how many items there are whose sellers name the make with a matching model and year; items for all makes do not count. Precise details therefore make your catalogue visible where someone is looking at a car right now.

Anyone with more than a handful of items does not maintain them one by one in the form. The parts module reads CSV and TSV files from inventory software or Excel; the template contains every column under the names that are recognised automatically, and the category list gives the permitted categories. Lists within a cell — OE numbers, makes, models — are separated by commas.

Every row is checked before it is taken over. Faulty rows are skipped and shown with a finding, such as an unknown condition, a “year to” before the “year from”, or a category not on the list. Read the findings rather than simply resending the file: they tell you which detail in your inventory system is wrong.

For ongoing upkeep there is matching by article number: items with the same number are updated, all others created, and empty cells keep the current value — a file with article number and stock only updates the stock. The easiest route to complete fitment data is therefore the export: export the catalogue, add OE numbers, models and years, import it again.