Mapping and optimizing data for the UK’s No. 1 car parts supplier

With more than 250 branches nationwide, Euro Car Parts is the U.K.’s No. 1 supplier of—you guessed it—car parts.

The company mostly sells after-market car parts from brands like Brembo, Castrol, Shell, Bosch, and its own range, but Euro Car Parts also has a wide range of parts and accessories for other vehicles, including vans and motorbikes.

Managing product data for thousands of parts isn’t easy, especially when that information comes from a variety of sources and systems. For a time, Euro Car Parts used in-house resources to handle its data feeds, but the team quickly realized this process wasn’t sustainable.

“When you’re working in a retail environment where products, prices, new ranges, and new brands come in daily,” said Dave Cain, Head of Digital Marketing at LKQ Euro Car Parts, “managing that internally with disparate amounts of data can be really, really challenging—pretty much impossible.”

Euro Car Parts wanted to advertise its full range of products across Google, but the company struggled to properly format product details like price, availability, shipping costs, images, titles, and more within listings. This hurt its ad performance, but the potential damage extended beyond just key campaign metrics.

“It’s crazy to think how many different bottles of oil and the wide range of brake discs you can buy,” Cain said. “There are thousands, so getting that data right, especially when it comes to things like brake discs, which are a safety product. We’ve got a responsibility—we’ve got to get that right. So it’s a no-brainer that we brought in a third-party to help us with that.”

Jaywing, the company’s long-standing agency partner, recommended Feedonomics as that technology and service provider, and the relationship officially started in November 2022.

Since taking over feed management, Feedonomics has helped Euro Car Parts increase its product eligibility in Google Merchant Center (GMC), improve its click-through rate (CTR) and return on ad spend (ROAS), and add two new channels to its advertising mix.

“Prior to implementing Feedonomics, daily manual updates were not only time-consuming, but also prone to inaccuracies,” said Mansukh Godaria, Senior Digital Marketing Executive at LKQ Euro Car Parts. “Now, the platform seamlessly integrates product data, inventory levels, and store information from various sources into a single feed. Due to the improved data accuracy and efficiency, this consolidated feed enables us to create and execute optimal marketing campaigns.”

A focus on data consolidation and feed quality

When the partnership began in late 2022, Cain said data consolidation and improving feed quality were top of mind. Euro Car Parts leaned on the power and flexibility of Feedonomics’ platform to achieve both.

With the ability to import data from multiple sources, combine it within the platform, and optimize listings at scale, Feedonomics unlocked some quick wins for the business, including a 20% increase in product eligibility within GMC in the initial onboarding period.

Efficient data remapping—which includes ensuring the company’s products display correct URLs, availability, price, and more—also played a big role in Euro Car Parts’ improvement.

“So we’ve got 100,000 products within our inventory,” Cain said. “Working with Feedonomics, GTIN coverage improved from 58% to 74% in six months. And that gives us great coverage as well within Google search results.”

Data protection was also a major focus. Dedicated feed managers at Feedonomics have worked closely with Euro Car Parts to mitigate data discrepancies in its master source files and have used the platform to ingest supplemental data from other systems to prevent account warnings and widespread disapprovals.

These efforts have allowed Euro Car Parts to maintain a GMC error rate below 1% for the majority of its relationship with Feedonomics.

“What you’ve really helped us to do is support us with error resolution,” Cain said. “We received feedback from Google in Q3 2023 where they told us that we’ve got one of the best feeds within retail. I think our accuracy rate on our feed is over 99%, which is very encouraging.”

High-quality data drives successful ad campaigns, and the impact Feedonomics has made on the company’s product listings gave it the confidence to expand. Since the relationship started, Euro Car Parts has added two new channels—Facebook and Google local inventory ads (LIAs)—to an advertising portfolio that already included Google Shopping and Oracle.

Euro Car Parts has a free service where customers can check product availability, see the latest price, and reserve products at a local store, and Cain believes LIAs enhance that offering.

“As a business, we offer 15-minute click-and-collect, which is really, really powerful,” he said. “Being able to advertise that we have this particular product in a local branch [helps] supplement those additional benefits of shopping with us.”

Using custom labels and A/B testing

While you may think of car part sales as a steady-flow business, there are times throughout the year when certain products are in higher demand.

During rainy season, for example, wiper blades are flying off the shelves. Products related to Black Friday, staycations, and family trips warrant special treatment in other months, and Feedonomics has given Euro Car Parts the ability to capitalize on those periods.

With more control over data and dedicated feed managers there to assist with promotions, Feedonomics has set up numerous custom labels to help the company take advantage of seasonality.

“Custom labels have helped us a great deal when it comes to advertising ranges, and even just grouping products together from a brand perspective,” Cain said.

Feedonomics’ ability to group products more efficiently has also unlocked A/B testing for Euro Car Parts. One of the most successful tests came when the company segmented items based on profit margin.

“By running the high, medium and low test using custom labels—and doing the proper structuring with Feedonomics—we saw a 44% reduction in customer acquisition costs and an 88% uplift in return on investment,” Cain said.

Another notable test involved adding personalization within product titles, which resulted in a 7% uplift in CTR and a 22% improvement in ROAS.

Cain said having dedicated feed managers and other specialists available 24/7 to support Euro Car Parts is one of the biggest benefits of the partnership.

The Feedonomics team works closely with Jaywing to ensure alignment on key advertising initiatives, and the three-way collaboration between all parties has made a huge difference in the company’s success.

“Ultimately, you’ve got an agency, you’ve got a tech provider, and then you’ve got a supplier, which is us,” Cain said. “And I think the relationship works incredibly well…We work together as one team, and it’s a partnership. So I’m really, really encouraged by what we’ve accomplished.”