Case study · Automotive
Gearhead Tuning
Dealer E-Commerce Site with QuickBooks Sync
Gearhead Sales sells custom tunes and parts for Ford diesel and EcoBoost vehicles, through its own site and a network of dealers. We replaced its aging OpenCart store with a WooCommerce site that gives dealers their own prices, takes cards and PayPal, sends every order to QuickBooks Online as a paid invoice and links buyers to the tuning sheet for their truck.
Overview
Gearhead Sales sells custom tunes, tuners and performance parts for Ford Powerstroke diesel and EcoBoost trucks and cars. Many of its products are tunes written for one customer's vehicle, so a sale does not end at checkout: Gearhead still needs the vehicle details to write the tune.
In early 2018 we updated and secured Gearhead's old store, then replaced it with a new WooCommerce site at ghtuning.com, which launched in May 2018.
The Challenge
The old store ran on an outdated version of OpenCart that was hard to upgrade, and the tuning forms customers filled in after buying lived on a separate support site. Gearhead wanted one site that did more:
- Dealers who resell Gearhead products needed their own prices and a full checkout, without retail customers ever seeing those prices.
- Customers pay by credit card, and Gearhead also wanted PayPal.
- Every sale had to reach QuickBooks without anyone typing it in.
- Buyers needed an easy way to find a dealer near them.
The catalog was also complicated: products are organized by engine and model year, and many tunes come in packages whose options and prices change with the truck's setup.
What We Built
A store organized around the truck
We built the site on WordPress and WooCommerce, starting from a commercial theme that Gearhead picked and restyling it in Gearhead's blue. The home page puts the two product lines side by side, and the catalog is organized by engine and model year: 7.3, 6.0 and 6.4 Powerstroke, and EcoBoost Raptor, F-150, Explorer Sport, Taurus SHO and Mustang. We moved product content and images over from the old store and added options where a tune depends on the truck, such as stock or larger injector nozzles.
Dealer pricing
Dealers get a Dealer account that Gearhead creates, so Gearhead decides who sees wholesale prices. Logged-in dealers see the same site with dealer prices on every product and check out at those prices. Gearhead sets the dealer price per product from the admin.
Checkout and QuickBooks
Checkout takes credit cards through Authorize.net, the processor Gearhead already used, and PayPal. Sales tax applies only to taxable items shipped within Texas, with tunes exempt, and shipping is a flat rate with free shipping over $100. Each order syncs to QuickBooks Online in real time as a paid invoice, with tax, shipping and discounts on the right lines.
Tuning sheets
We rebuilt the custom tunes page and the tuning sheet for each engine on the new site, with the standard header and footer. The order confirmation email links straight to them, and completed sheets go to Gearhead's sales inbox.
Find a dealer
A dealer map, searchable by location with the radius in miles, lists each dealer with its address and phone number. We loaded 41 dealers for launch.
Launch and speed
We set up title tags, headings and a custom 404 page, and Gearhead pointed its old domain at the new one. When customers said the new site felt slow, we compressed images, minified scripts and styles, and cleaned up how static files load, which moved its GTmetrix PageSpeed grade from C (78%) to A (91%).
Results
- One site for the catalog, dealer sales, payments and tuning sheets, launched in May 2018.
- Every sale lands in QuickBooks as a paid invoice, with no manual entry.
- Dealers order at their own prices, and Gearhead controls who has a dealer account.
- GTmetrix PageSpeed grade raised from C (78%) to A (91%) in the week after launch.