Amazon is increasing into the auto components market

Amazon is increasing into the auto components market

The e-commerce behemoth is likely to capture nearly two-thirds of the net components market this 12 months, estimates Hedges & Co., a digital advertising company in Hudson, Ohio. Amazon’s share of the market has risen much more rapidly than online components sales general, says Jon Hedges, founding father of the corporate that bears his title. Jason Hair, service and parts director of Volvo Cars Gilbert in suburban Phoenix, says his dealership pays close attention to elements sales on its web site as well as Amazon, although he estimates that the store processes 250 parts orders on Amazon for each on-line order from its own website. Overall, Hair says, he sells $a hundred and fifty,000 to $one hundred eighty,000 in parts online every month.

Amazon has 1000’s of automobile parts including brake pads, rotors, suspension components, radios, filters, oils and even automotive batteries and tires. Amazon web site is huge, however make certain to navigate to the Automotive section so as to search for automobile elements.

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While it could’t hold identifiable information like your VIN or license plate number (for that, we suggest an app like Dash), it could possibly store the make, model, and yr of your automobile. It also can identify or save more detailed data like your engine dimension, trim fashion, and transmission type.

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In addition, Amazon’s expansion into aftermarket auto components could assist it eventually promote vehicles on-line. Last November, Amazon began selling a select variety of automobile models on-line in Italy.

About two-thirds of parts bought on Amazon are offered by the corporate and supplied immediately by way of its warehouses and suppliers. The relaxation are sold on Amazon Marketplace – third-get together sellers, together with dealerships, that function “shops” on the Amazon platform for a fee.James Windrow, vp of promoting at RevolutionParts Inc., a Phoenix company that gives dealerships with software program for online components gross sales, estimates that Amazon takes a ten % reduce of revenue from tire-and-wheel gross sales on Amazon Marketplace and 12 % for everything else. The primary competitors of a dealership that sells components on Amazon Marketplace, Windrow says, are Amazon itself, aftermarket distributors and some automakers that promote items on Amazon immediately rather than via their dealerships. Rankin says dealership components employees’ technical expertise gives them a distinct edge.”A lot of online platforms use generic part descriptions,” Rankin says.

If Amazon notifies a dealership of a possible problem with a customer’s order, the components desk can contact the shopper and intervene to correct the problem before the order is shipped, he notes. Amazon, like eBay, requires sellers to communicate with clients via its web site. A dealership cannot gather Marketplace parts clients’ e-mail addresses and use them for its personal advertising promotions.

Dealers who use Amazon nonetheless need to diversify their elements business mannequin, advisor Hedges advises. He says he sees “loads of dealers who sell on Amazon however need to be less dependent on it.” He recommends paying adequate consideration to other e-commerce platforms – notably eBay, which he notes has much less reach but additionally costs decrease fees – and even more, the dealership’s own web site. Hedges estimates that 10 to15 p.c of U.S. franchised dealerships sell on Amazon Marketplace and says that share is likely to grow.