When you have worked in an industry for 25 years, it’s really exciting to see transformation occurring in the way our industry works. I have only seen this level of transformation occur as dramatically as it is at the moment, on a couple of occasions.

Exciting, Real and Amazing

When consumers begin voting with their feet and purchasing product from retail car dealers on mass, it should gain the attention of every retailer in the industry. Online automotive parts and accessories sales have experienced exceptional growth, the Australian market, for example, has seen 17% growth over the last five years. In the last three months, the volume of parts purchases, in particular, transacted via the internet has grown exponentially. Sites such as eBay have reported one automotive part sale occurring every four seconds.

The dealers that are genuinely opening their dealership to sell parts online are enjoying strong sales to new customers and with a gross profit that parts departments have not enjoyed for many years. Those dealers that are already operating ahead of this market are seeing transaction volumes of over 60 a day. When reviewing sales across all our customers selling parts in this fashion, we can see they are enjoying an average order value of over $85. There is clearly a consumer demand for purchasing parts via online marketplaces and for any dealer that has not woken up to this trend treat this ‘Closer Look’ as a serious green light.

- Steve Kloss

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