internet parts sales

[teamparts]

I'm curious what other dealers are doing about internet part sales. Our own dealership web site gets so few hits I wonder why we have it sometimes. There are a few companies out there that sell email parts leads but they charge so much and the closing ratio is so small that we would lose money. It seems that every dealer is trying to cut the price of the other guy until you get some guys like gmpartsdirect.com that sell at dealer cost!

[fburrows]

We have set up a successful Business to Business platform for a very large GM Dealer in the Washington DC Metro area. It allows his wholesale dealer customers to check his inventory and order parts directly over the Internet. The main thrust of this effort is to reduce transaction costs as opposed to cornering the market. We are currently processing 150 orders per day with this system. The installation of this system was a lot more difficult that we expected. Our backgrounds are automotive not Internet and we had to overcome lots of problems implementing what we thought was a simple concept. We would be happy to answer any questions about the project.

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Frank Burrows

[This message has been edited by mbowers (edited 09-12-2000).]

[eman]

I am currently in the process of building a parts web site for my dealership. I think that just a parts order form will not get the $$ in the door for the department.

You can check it out if you like: http://lexus4you.com

Istill have a little work left to do!

William

[Results]

There are a lot of ways to make your parts department successful on the Internet.

Your first comment was that your site was not generating enough leads. (e-mail me your URL and I will take a look at it)

There are several stores that are turning profits quicker in parts then selling cars.

You will be surprised that while price is a factor that it is not as important as availabilty, speed of response, and the method of handling the e-customer

Try some of the following ideas.

Redo your parts request form if needed after seeing eman's site.

See which suppliers you have that are web based with their inventory and you may be able to develop successful links where you don't even have to stock the part, it gets ordered via the internet and you get a check in mail from that supplier at the end of the month.

Are your Internet specials attractive, current, and redone at least every two weeks?

How many e-mails are you sending out at least once a month to advertise your special, and your department?

Is your department set up where you respond to am e-mail with in 30 minutes?

If you would like to have a few more ideas thrown at you please feel free to contact me


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Results
Mike Stinson
results@rintuit.com
www.rintuit.com

[Chuck Hartle]

Mike,

I continue to hear all these great stories about dealership parts operations that are making a big hit on the internet, but I have yet to see any of them materialize. fborrows
seems to have a grasp of doing internet business B2B, yet I would like to hear of a real success story for an internet parts operation that is truly ahead of the vehicle sales????

Let's hear a dealership name and address so that we can verify this information.....

Thanks,

Chuck Hartle'

[InfinitiPM]

eman,
Who did the web design for your website, and do you know approximate development costs involved? Do you have a counter that tracks the hits on your parts page? How much response do you receive on this page? (part inquiry, sales/mo) I'm looking at updating our current page to allow searching the parts inventory by p/n with list price and availability information.
Tom

[eman]

InfinitiPM,

I am building this site myself (www.lexus4you.com). I am currently doing this for a few dealers in my area and my GM thinks it is great! He believes that the more I learn the better employee I will become.

The avg. development cost I have been charging is $350 setup and $250 a month. That includes hosting and the shopping cart + any changes needed. The only extra costs you may find in this type of project is the domain name ($70/2years) and the PGP Key to secure the orders.

There are a lot of shops that do this. I got a price from a local shop and they wanted to charge a large set up...$5,000 for the site, $500 for the cart and $75/hr for changes. I thought that was a little much for us to test this type e-commerce.

The site (lexus4you.com) is not yet completed. We are collecting the current year model products to add to the cart. However, we are receiving at least a order a day at this time for the products we have in the cart.

I hope this helps you. OOO Last thing, I do have a log report for the site. Month to date 300 unique visits. This is with no advertising and the site has only been online for 2 weeks!! I think that is not so bad.

Let me know if you have any questions! I will keep everyone posted on how the site is doing.

EMan

[worldparts]

Please allow me to identify some of the things that can significantly affect the results you experience from selling parts over the Internet. One very important thing you need to understand is the idea of PHYSICAL vs. DIGITAL selling environments. As parts managers and parts counterpeople, you have been selling parts in a PHYSICAL environment (over the counter and over the phone). In other words your main objective has been to get customers (wholesale, retail or internal) to come to your dealership or call you on the phone, make inquiries and purchase parts. The more customers you can get to do this, the more sales and gross profit you can generate. Your online selling objective should be the same. You should be trying to attract new and existing customers to come to your website, make inquiries and purchase parts. The question is how can you attract new and existing customers to your website? Keep in mind that the Internet is a NEW TECHNOLOGY and new technology will always spawn new marketing techniques. Your website is a DIGITAL selling environment that will allow you to do things that you could not cost-effectively do in a physical selling environment. With that as a foundation let me identify some things you can do to improve your online selling success.
1.Add more search and shopping capabilities to your web site.
95% of parts department websites have only one feature, an inquiry form. Web savvy customers would be more willing to buy online if they could get meaningful specific detailed information from your website with out having to wait for someone to answer an inquiry form. Your website should be able to answer the 2 questions every parts buyer will ask, Do you have it in stock? and How much is it? Is there anything else your people could be doing besides Checking a number?

2.Maintain control of your website and update often.
Just as you have complete control over your physical selling environment you should also have complete control over your online selling environment. You need to be able to make changes and enhancements to your website at any time. You should not have to wait, or worse yet, be charged every time you want to add a product or change your website. I am not talking about completely rebuilding your website every 3 months, you just need to make sure your customers know that you are really there.

3.Focus on getting exposure in places where your customers are most likely to surf. You will want to join, support and advertise on automotive portal sites and Internet car club sites. While the front page of www.autoweb.com or www.e-auto.com may be to costly for most dealerships parts departments, sites like www.g-body.org, www.grandprix.net, www.impalaclub.com or www.allpar.com may offer a more affordable banner program. And there are thousands of sites out there like those just mentioned.

4.Stay online all day long.
If you are going to sell online you need to be online. Set up a computer on your least active parts counter and put some one in charge of checking the e-mail on a regular basis. There is at least one thing that almost everyone who is successful in online selling will tell you is that you MUST answer your e-mail quickly. Most e-mail software programs (Outlook Express, Netscape, Eudora etc) have an Insert text feature that will allow you to pre-type and save template e-mail replies. Now you can simply insert them into the e-mail message you are answering. Knowing how to use this tool will save you countless hours of typing. You may not need to have a full time Internet parts person right now, but that should be your goal!

I apologize for the length of this reply but I hope it helps




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Bob Van Der Ploeg
bob@worldparts.com
http://www.worldparts.com
ICQ: 7660816

[worldparts]

Chuck, Here are some dealers that are experiencing great success selling online.

Koller Dodge - http://www.kollerparts.com
Best Chevrolet - http://www.gmproshop.com
Tallahasse Mitsubishi - http://www.worldparts.com/tallmits
Vandevere Oldsmobile - http://www.vandevere.com



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Bob Van Der Ploeg
bob@worldparts.com
http://www.worldparts.com
ICQ: 7660816

[eman]

I just added a forum to the parts site http://www.lexus4you.com

My thought is that if people come to the site to talk about their Lexus then I have a good opportunity to sell them accessories! What are your thoughts?

Eman