INTERNET PARTS SALES

[mopar70guy]

We are looking to open an internet parts store. We are still in the planning phase. Moving forward soon. Looking for any issues to be aware of? How is it working for you? What are your profit margins

Thanks

[Parts007]

We sold on eBay for a couple of years thru the OEconnection program... We canceled it after we realized it was not worth our effort.

The eBay catalog we used was not good. We told customers we are not liable for incorrectly looked up parts via their catalog. We told our customers to email us with a VIN and a description of what they were looking for.

Ratings are important.. I had perfect ratings: here are some:
Excellent seller, fast delivery, nice to deal with Buyer:
Excellent seller, fast delivery, highly recommended Buyer:
Good seller item as advertised
Packaging is excellent. Fast shipping. Super happy. Good transaction
Great Ebayer Buyer:
smooth transaction, great experience A+++
Top Shelf Seller, Honest and Reputable, A++++ All The Way, Pleasant Transaction.
Awesome A1 Ebayer, Extremely pleased with hat thanks for the bonus hat brush
Item as described - thanks!
Excellent product as promised great ......
NEW GM PART AS DESCRIBED !! I AM VERY SATISFIED !! VERY HONEST EBAY SELLER !!
nice part thanks

There is always someone selling a part cheaper, so you are going to have to go in cheap. very low margin..

There are shipping costs incurred. also for us to prepare the shipment to make sure it arrived in good condition. We provided free shipping to I had to make sure everything I sold was above a certain price. We also had to make sure there was nothing too big (high shipping costs) on the ebay sale list.

Everyone along the way wanted a cut, OEconnection, eBay.. It wasn't easy.

[LOKI1]

I found e-bay to be a major headache. I also had problems with accounting so I no longer sell that way.

[Zep33]

If you are talking about Ebay, you can't really dabble in it and make any money. Either go all in or stay out

You need to invest a lot of time and money into it. With all the fees and headaches involved, the only thing that will cover that is massive volume.

The huge dealers with their truckload discounts are the ones making money at it. I can't imagine anyone else even wanting to get involved nowadays.

Be prepared for so little profit when all is said and done, that you'll be kicking yourself for getting involved 6 months down the road.

Take a few of the types of parts you are thinking about selling, look at your cost (including shipping to a residential address as far away from you as you can ship) and compare to what they are selling (completed sales) for on Ebay (including the shipping - which is more than likely free). Deduct Ebay and Paypal fees (call it 15-16% or so), factor in your labor to box and ship, and see if you come out ahead.

Good luck

[dbuck]

Like everyone else said, unless you can go huge it's probably not worth it. It certainly wasn't for us.

A lot of times the owner or somebody says "Sell more", or "Get your numbers up" or something like that, and our options are extremely limited.

You can enlarge your wholesale, offer a bigger discount to attract new shops, and in the long run you likely didn't increase your net, usually just a bit of gross and a fair amount of expenses.
You can try internet sales, and guess what, it's even worse than wholesale. Lower margins than wholesale, freight expenses, damage, returns, all the fun of wholesale and less benefits.
If you ship enough stuff to get shipping discounts through a major carrier, great, you've got a shot. If its a normal dealership you are going to have a hard time justifying it after a few months.

Shop around first, see what others are offering the same parts for on various sites, ebay, amazon, their own website. I see people selling parts below what employee cost is at our dealership, with free shipping or very little. You can do all the math before you jump in.

[Rykid50]

waste of time. The big dealers sell at cost. Not even worth it. We sold an expensive lamp on ebay. Cust sait it was broken and send us his old one back. Ebay refunded his money. I took all the parts down while on the phone with ebay fighting.
Don't bother with online