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Bespoke E-commerce Website for Charles Trent Limited

Trents
trents logo

Introduction

Charles Trent Limited is one of the UK’s largest and most established vehicle recycling and car breaking companies, with a legacy dating back to 1926. After over five years in use, their existing website no longer met the evolving needs of their business. B4b’s software team were brought on board to deliver a robust, modern e-commerce solution built for scalability and growth.

The Challenge

Trents wanted to modernise their website and gain the flexibility to introduce new features and workflows tailored to their unique business needs.

Before moving into development, we carried out a comprehensive discovery phase to fully understand Trents' pain points, business goals, and customer needs. This involved mapping out desired user flows, identifying functionality gaps, and exploring how the new site should look and feel. From this research, we produced a series of wireframes and interactive prototypes that were reviewed and refined collaboratively with the Trents team. Only once the solution was fully aligned with their vision did we move into the build phase.

The brief was clear: deliver a streamlined, fully responsive, and SEO-friendly e-commerce website that could integrate seamlessly with Trent’s existing systems, provide powerful search functionality, and showcase their wide range of vehicle parts with clarity and ease.

Key Features & Functionalities

To address these challenges, b4b developed a robust solution with the following key features:
01

Advanced Car Part Search

Recognising that no two customers search for car parts in the same way, we developed a multifaceted search function that makes finding the right part quick and seamless. Users can now search for parts using a variety of methods:

  • By vehicle registration number and part type
  • By OEM number
  • By vehicle, make, model, year, and part type

In addition to these structured search methods, customers can also browse parts by category or by selecting specific car makes and models, offering a flexible and user-friendly way to explore Trents’ product catalogue.

02

Custom API Integration

The new website connects directly to Charles Trent’s proprietary API, pulling in real-time product data including pricing, RRP comparisons, product imagery, stock levels, and condition grading. A compatibility checker, allowing customers to validate parts against their vehicle’s registration, is also planned for future release.

03

Streamlined Navigation & High-Quality Imagery

A simplified navigation structure combined with high-resolution visuals and videos offer a clear and engaging user experience. The site architecture was developed with SEO best practices at its core to ensure that Trents continues to maintain its strong visibility in search engine results.

04

Mobile-First Design

With over half of users browsing the website on mobile, the new site is fully optimised for all devices. Whether on desktop, tablet or smartphone, customers enjoy a fast and intuitive browsing and ordering process.

05

Detailed Product Listings

Product listings are rich in detail, pulling live data directly from Trents’ internal systems via API to ensure accuracy and up-to-date information.

Each listing clearly displays the condition grading of the part, giving customers immediate insight into its quality and usability. This grading system helps users make informed purchasing decisions and builds trust by offering transparency around the condition of used parts.

To encourage quicker decision-making and drive higher conversion rates, product pages also feature a real-time countdown timer showing the cut-off point for next-day delivery. This subtle but effective feature creates a sense of urgency, prompting customers to complete purchases before the deadline passes.

Combined with clear pricing (including comparisons to original RRP where applicable) and high-quality product imagery, the product pages deliver an e-commerce experience that balances function, speed, and trustworthiness.

06

Customer Accounts

The new customer account system has been designed with usability and convenience in mind, streamlining the post-purchase experience and encouraging repeat business. Account creation is quick and hassle-free.

Once logged in, customers can easily view their past order history, complete abandoned carts, and download invoices - all from a single, easy-to-navigate dashboard. Additionally, they have the ability to save their delivery and billing address, making future checkouts significantly faster, especially for regular buyers or trade customers handling frequent orders.

The platform has been built with scalability in mind. Upcoming enhancements will introduce features such as the ability to track the status of an order and facilitate the returns process.

06

Job Listing Section

Recruitment plays a vital role in the continued growth and success of Charles Trent Limited. With a broad range of roles across operations, logistics, customer service, and technology, the team needed a better way to promote opportunities and attract high-quality candidates. As part of the website redevelopment, a dedicated careers section was introduced to give job listings the visibility they deserve.

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Result

The final product is a sleek, modern, and high-performing e-commerce website tailored specifically to the needs of Charles Trent Limited and their customers. With custom API integrations, powerful search tools, and an optimised mobile experience, the site now serves as a robust platform for growth - helping Trents maintain their industry-leading reputation and continue delivering excellent service to both trade and private buyers.

“We at Charles Trent Ltd engaged b4b to rewrite our website, with a focus on CX & e-commerce. It was a joint project with our own team, and we found it a pleasure to work with the b4b team, especially Jed, Abbie & Seb. The project started with a ‘Discovery’ piece and the collaboration and flexibility from b4b throughout was top notch and really helped us create a website that we’re extremely pleased with. The b4b team have proven to be professional, knowledgeable and very capable. We’re delighted that they were on our team to create our new website.”

Niel Joslin
Chief Operating Officer

Charles Trent Limited

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