Cadillac & KW Parts: one platform, two brands
Explore how a leading Swedish distributor of American auto parts and a General Motors subsidiary drove innovation in automotive ecommerce — launching distinct yet complementary B2B and B2C storefronts across 30 countries.
In short
KW Parts, a leading Swedish distributor of American auto parts and General Motors’ official partner in Europe, needed one ecommerce foundation for its B2B business and a new Cadillac Europe B2C store. With implementation partner Mardi Gras, it moved to Virto Commerce: the KW Parts B2B store came first, and Cadillac Europe’s B2C webstore launched on the same backend three months after design approval. The platform serves 30 countries, searches a 4M-product catalog in under a second and handles EUR and SEK.
Together with Virto Commerce and Mardi Gras, we have now laid the foundation for a scalable platform to streamline our administrative processes with a backend that can be deployed for several ecommerce stores.
Challenge: B2B today, Cadillac B2C next
Following its 2024 four-year partnership extension with General Motors, KW Parts needed to modernize its ecommerce architecture to support both its existing B2B business and a new Cadillac Europe B2C launch.
As GM rolls out its all-electric vehicle portfolio across Europe, KW Parts also needed to be ready to scale distribution, logistics, and technical support for new product lines.
Solution: one backend, two storefronts
- Headless approach and scalability: Virto’s Commerce Engine handles all business logic and product enrichment on the backend, while both storefronts are customized independently
- Third-party integrations: API-first architecture enables ERP integration for KW Parts, Elastic search indexing for fast retrieval across the 4M catalog, and a Briqpay payment module for Cadillac’s B2C checkout
- Fast time-to-market across regions: KW Parts’ primary B2B ecosystem was established first, then used as the foundation for Cadillac Europe’s B2C store
Result: Cadillac B2C live in 3 months
Both storefronts are live and serving European markets. Key outcomes include:
- Cadillac Europe B2C webstore launched three months after design approval
- Transactions supported in EUR and SEK with automatic currency updates
- Search results delivered in under 1 second across a 4 million-product catalog
- Centralized payment admin via Briqpay handles all payment orders regardless of payment vendor
Business Benefits
- KW Parts’ B2B digital ecosystem serves as a reusable foundation for future storefronts — a critical structural advantage as GM expands its EV portfolio across Europe.
- Decoupled frontend-backend architecture means both brands can evolve their storefronts independently — new design, new market, new brand — without touching the commerce engine.
- Elastic integration indexes the 4M-product catalog and delivers sub-second search.
- Briqpay centralized payment interface gives admins a single view of all payment orders regardless of payment method or vendor, reducing reconciliation effort.
- Umbraco CMS integration for Cadillac gives the brand team direct content control without relying on KW Parts’ workflows or infrastructure.
KW Parts is one of the cases in our ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 commerce playbook. For the wider picture, see how Virto Commerce supports aftermarket parts businesses.
