1st choice spares approached Selesti in 2010 with the intention of having their existing site redesigned and brought up to date.

As a market leader in providing car spares online, the brief was as simple; increase conversion by improving design and user experience, whilst maintaining the existing relationships with their network of over 250 breakers yards nationwide (who provide their parts).

We understand change management is key when rolling out a new procedure to hundreds of stakeholders, especially when accessing remotely. A thorough scoping exercise with the breakers involved ensured we kept both monetising the site and their ease of administering the quotes system equally to the fore.

We utilised a web service from the DVLA’s data, so that users can search by licence plate for their car model, saving form population time. The website intelligently auto-suggests parts the user may be looking for, and then sends the request to the network of breakers (that provide their parts), who get an immediate notification a quote for what they stock is required.

Website members can then view their quotes and choose the most competitively priced/closest to them from the breakers that have responded, with updated by SMS and email all ensuring an informed and well communicated buying journey from request to delivery.

We consulted at length on the design, including split testing options as mentioned above. This has been changed again since the first reskin, reacting to the devices we’ve learned are being used to access the site from analytics. We’ve zoomed out from the initial big graphics which tested so well, and since the change traffic has improved further. The site benefits from a mobile version to ensure all visitors are catered for.

1st Choice exist in an extremely competitive market, we built the site to be completely malleable for this reason. A more streamlined form has already been implemented since launch, so even fewer fields are required from new members for an initial quote request, This has addressed leakage and improved conversion.

The powerful and simple to use CMS (content management system) including SEO engine has produced an upturn in organic traffic, as well as reduction in administration time. The huge flexibility and range of control we’ve delivered means their Search staff can add and tweak the site’s content and meta structure to react to changes in their market from competitor activity etc.

Both traffic and conversions have risen. A great example of our ongoing improvements is the

new streamlined part request form - successful completed part requests per look up have fallen from 2.16 in December before the change to 1.72 this month.

Since completing 1st choice spares Selesti have been commissioned to build a salvage car auction site as an additional revenue stream, this is nearing completion, along with a used car sales listing service, all to tap into the half a million users dealing in changing/replacing and fixing cars every month.