The automotive aftermarket industry is going to be worth $855 billion by 2028—and that’s just in the United States.
If you work in the automotive industry selling aftermarket parts in an eCommerce store, you already know it’s a profitable business, but it comes with a unique challenge: the sheer volume of existing data is not just overwhelming but can also be unreliable.
This is where Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard (ACES) and Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) come in.
These industry data standards support inventory management, ensuring that the data you use and provide to your customers is accurate and consistent.
This blog explains what ACES and PIES are, how they work, and the benefits they offer.
Plus, we explore how using them with Spark Shipping can give you a competitive edge in the rapidly growing aftermarket industry.
ACES and PIES data exist to address a fundamental challenge in the automotive aftermarket industry: the need for standardized communication and management of vast amounts of vehicle fitment and product data.
One of the most common problems in the industry before these data standards were used was inconsistencies in how vehicle and part information was described.
For example, a Chevrolet could be referred to as "Chevy," and the term "rear wheel drive" might be abbreviated in various ways, such as "rear drive" or "RWD." This made it difficult for suppliers, business partners, and shoppers to match parts to vehicles, which resulted in incorrect orders, returns, and dissatisfied customers.
To combat these issues, the automotive industry introduced the Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard for vehicle fitment data and Product Information Exchange Standard for automotive parts data.
These data standards were designed to:
Remember, ACES and PIES files are database standards—they are not databases themselves. They help different parties in the automotive aftermarket industry exchange data more effectively.
However, the Auto Care Association notes that manufacturers and suppliers are not required to use ACES and PIES data standards, which leads to some gaps in the system.
Although ACES and PIES are not necessarily used across the entire auto parts industry, they’re helpful standards that many manufacturers and sellers choose to follow.
Like any standard, ACES and PIES are governed by an independent body, the Auto Care Association’s Technology Standards Committee (TSC). The ACA is a trade group for automotive brands, and its TSC committee manages all of its data standards.
The TSC handles monthly updates to ACES and PIES. It also:
ACES and PIES standards change over time, usually every month. Updates to these standards include new product data and vehicles that have hit the market.
The TSC also sources data from users, which it independently verifies with a team of industry experts. Although the review process lasts 90 days, these regular updates keep ACES and PIES relevant to the automotive aftermarket parts industry.
Because ACES and PIES standards change frequently, it’s a good idea to double-check that you’re using the most recent version so you don’t share outdated information with your shoppers.
While the two standards are often lumped together, they’re used for different types of data.
Unlike PIES, which focuses on product information, ACES ensures that aftermarket parts can be accurately matched with vehicles based on application data, such as:
ACES connects part numbers with a specific vehicle, so you can see which parts are compatible with a vehicle. It also helps you manage your electronic catalogs, which helps eCommerce shoppers find a part that's compatible with their vehicle.
ACES is available in two databases:
The databases supporting ACES are updated monthly to expand vehicle coverage and ensure that the data remains current. Originally focused on the light and medium-duty industry, there's a growing demand for the database’s coverage to include the heavy-duty industry.
ACES facilitates the exchange and management of automotive application data. The standard uses XML format to detail the compatibility of parts with vehicles, using codes instead of names for brands, part types, and vehicle attributes.
This coding system standardizes data processing, making it more efficient, but it can be challenging for those unaccustomed to reading such files.
Typically, ACES data files include:
While ACES focuses on compatibility, PIES is all about part numbers. Instead of identifying parts by compatibility or function, the PIES standard identifies them by product features.
You don’t have to pay a subscription fee to access PIES data, which includes over 20,000 product types and 25 categories.
PIES data standards include valuable information on aftermarket parts, including:
While ACES and PIES share the common goal of simplifying the online sale of components and parts through automotive data standardization, there are some key differences between the two:
Combining ACES and PIES data gives you a comprehensive approach to managing automotive parts data. For example, a reseller might use ACES to determine whether a particular part is compatible with a vehicle and then consult PIES for detailed product information.
It can be difficult to manage all the data that comes with aftermarket auto parts. There’s a point where the sheer volume of data becomes a hindrance instead of a help, which is why ACES and PIES standards are so important.
The Auto Care Association created these standards to make it easier not only to find the right information about compatibility and parts, but also to standardize how to format and share this data between parties.
ACES and PIES can also help you:
Implementing ACES and PIES is much simpler when you follow a clear process. Whether you’re a manufacturer, warehouse distributor, or online reseller, the goal is the same: create structured, reliable data that your partners and customers can trust.
Here’s a straightforward way to get started.
Begin by reviewing how you currently store fitment and product data. Most businesses find that data lives across several systems, spreadsheets, or vendor feeds, making inconsistencies easy to miss.
The next step is to map your existing fields to the standards. For example, your “vehicle notes” may map to ACES qualifiers, while your “item description” or “features list” map to PIES marketing content fields.
Once you generate your first ACES and PIES files, you now have structured, standards-based data that can drive your online catalog, search filters, and vehicle-lookup tools.
Before you use this data, validate it. Basic validation helps you identify issues like missing required attributes, outdated vehicle codes, or inconsistent brand names.
ACES and PIES standards change monthly. Create a workflow for regular updates to keep your listings accurate as new vehicles, parts, and codes are added.
For many businesses, keeping everything in sync without consuming hours of manual work is the hardest part of this process.
Many businesses use additional tools to manage and validate their ACES and PIES data.
These include ACES/PIES viewers that make XML files easier to read, as well as validation software that checks each file against the latest standards and flags errors or missing attributes.
These tools are useful for reviewing a single file or troubleshooting data issues. However, they don’t solve the bigger challenge: keeping your catalog accurate when distributor data is incomplete or doesn’t follow ACES and PIES formatting.
That’s where Spark Shipping comes in.
We take wholesale distributor data and ensure it meets ACES and PIES standards when you upload it to your eCommerce site.
Let’s say a wholesale distributor only provides a reference number without any product-rich data. Spark Shipping will pull that information from the ACES and PIES datasets, so your listings will automatically be complete.
Without Spark Shipping, you would need to manually update your eCommerce website to add product details. If you have hundreds of listings, that’s hundreds of headaches you’ve got to deal with.
You probably don’t have much time for manual updates, so trust Spark Shipping to help you:
It’s cumbersome to manage your YMM data and product details, especially across a growing eCommerce store. ACES and PIES simplify data to streamline your business and improve the shopping experience, but they don’t fix everything.
If you want to use ACES and PIES to their full potential, go with Spark Shipping. We improve the accuracy of your eCommerce listings, save you time, and automate tasks so you can focus on growing your business.
See for yourself how we simplify eCommerce for auto parts: get a Spark Shipping demo now!