WHY A SOUND STRATEGY FOR SELLING PARTS ONLINE CAN BE A HUGE EARNER FOR YOUR DEALERSHIP.
It was a phone call that I won’t ever forget, and it seems like it was just yesterday. It was from a friend of mine, David who is dealer principal of a Chevrolet, Hyundai, and Chrysler dealership in Boston, Mass.
That phone call took place in 2008 when, in the U.S., General Motors was downsizing and Chrysler was pulling franchises to pair them with Jeep and Dodge stores. Back then, people were not buying as many vehicles as the OEMs were manufacturing and this trend has continued since the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads is now 10.7 years old.
CRISIS EQUALS OPPORTUNITY
David, who had invested in his stores saw the change in market conditions troubling, hence the phone call. However it wasn’t long before he identified an opportunity to become a parts and accessory reseller. He knew he could make this work and he did not even have to have any stock on hand. He created partnerships with other dealers so that he was able to provide parts for every manufacturer. Dealers were happy to let David resell their inventory. There was no upfront investment or hassle, and David did all of the work.
David basically developed an Amazon.com style process of selling parts. He developed a simple database with parts descriptions and photos so he was able to merchandise product quickly as he was adding additional sites. It was such a simple process and the majority of dealers missed it, since they were in reactive crisis mode — just trying to stay in business during one of the largest downturns in our industry.
David added parts to eBay, craigslist, backpage, and every classified site he could find across the world. David also had an advantage since he is multilingual. He then moved on to adding more relationships with accessory companies which allowed him to expand his product offering. Eventually he was drop shipping parts direct from the OEM. His only investment was human capital and he had time due to the major downturn in the industry.
PAID SEARCH
An additional advantage was his basic understanding of paid search advertising. This understanding provided an opportunity to increase the awareness and traffic to his online stores and parts listings on eBay.
When he was asked why would he spend money to drive traffic to eBay and not just send the traffic to his own online store — his reply was that it’s the same concept of why shopping malls came into existence. If several stores advertise at one location then the shared effort has more impact.
In fact, eBay offers self-serve Google advertising programs for individuals with eBay stores, so it’s simple to build a campaign. EBay also has its own advertising campaigns running nationally so there is a lot of synergy. It was amazing to see how David continued to add product for anything automotive.
With a little technology in place like squeeze pages, on-site cookie retargeting, and marketing automation there would be no stopping David or any other individual with the drive to make a lot of money — the type of income that would only continue to grow in the midst of practically any economic downturn.
The Internet has opened the doors to so many opportunities, and it will continue to do so for many years to come. This I can assure you. The question is: do you have the drive to increase your bottom line by $100,000+ per month?
Sure the competition has increased since 2008 and will continue to increase but, if you have the drive to work a little longer, a little wiser, innovate a little, and look at obstacles as opportunities you could become the next David.
