Shopping for a replacement part online has never been easier, especially for those that know exactly which part they need. But what about the DIYers that aren’t car pros?

Have you ever started a repair job on your vehicle only to find you didn’t know the name of the part you needed?

You could stop by the local car parts store next time you are out and hope someone there can help you find it. Or you could spend hours researching to find that part ID or description. You might not even know where to start! This is the situation most people find themselves in during a DIY project.

Our latest motors tool—Shop by Diagram—does all the hard work for you, letting you search and shop for parts visually using interactive diagrams.

Black Dot’s Shop by Diagram offering allows your customers to find any auto part visually, by making your part and schematic diagrams interactive and shoppable, on your own ecommerce site!

This leading edge offering supplements your current browse and search options by introducing a new shopping experience to mimic what happens in an auto parts store. After a user tells your site what car they’re shopping for, they select a vehicle system such as brakes or suspension and a visual diagram of that system is displayed. All they have to do is select the part on the diagram to identify it. Once identified by a click or tap, your ecommerce site has everything it needs to display all available part options that are relevant for the repair.

They can get a better look at each part by zooming in and out. We even support pinch and zoom for mobile users. This experience works seamlessly with your existing parts database, surfacing only the part you selected from the diagram that will fit your car.

To make these diagrams interactive, we leverage the power of scalable vector-based graphics (SVG). Black Dot automotive data specialists map each diagram to the appropriate vehicle, qualifiers, and years. Then, each part on a diagram is mapped to its correct part description and industry standard part type IDs. Due to the complex data relationships and the number of diagrams to be prepped for this functionality, Black Dot employs proprietary automation to make this process fast, affordable, and maintainable.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Contact Black Dot today for a live demonstration of how we can supercharge your ecommerce experience with interactive parts diagrams and how to easily integrate them with your existing site.