Alden Auto
Alden Auto Drives Huge Growth Through RevolutionParts’ Consulting Services
RevolutionParts empowered Alden Auto with a user-friendly platform to manage their parts inventory, sales, and fulfillment processes. But, the real turning point came when parts eCommerce giant, Mike King was brought in to help maximize the dealership’s use of the platform.
Alden Auto’s Challenge
Alden Auto was a successful dealership, but their parts department wasn’t performing as well as it could. The parts manager, Christopher Forrester, had taken the department from $8,000 to $35,000 in monthly online parts sales. Their new goal? To continue growing while maintaining strict control over costs and improving customer experience.
Christopher describes the early days as a struggle, saying, “the [parts manager] before me didn’t want any part of selling online, so I had to start from scratch.” The team had partnered with RevolutionParts to power their online sales, but they needed guidance to improve processes and scale more efficiently—which is where King came in.
Designing More Efficient Operations (Inexpensively)
Mike worked closely with Christopher and his team to improve every aspect of their workflow, from packaging to customer communication. Mike told Christopher, “These are the things that you need to do to be successful, and they don’t involve spending money.”
Those key areas of focus included:
Daily Processes:
Mike helped Christopher to improve the consistency and speed of daily processes right away. Christopher said, “we were already doing the work, but not often or consistently enough. I used to post things whenever I had the time, instead of doing it right away.
Optimizing Pricing & Shipping:
Mike also helped Alden Auto evaluate their pricing and shipping strategies, ensuring they were competitive while protecting profit margins. Christopher said, “Mike connected me with a FedEx representative to help us secure better shipping rates. We also started looking closely at shipping supplies and costs, making adjustments that really improved our bottom line. These small changes, combined with more efficient processes, made a noticeable difference in our sales and customer satisfaction.” By securing better shipping rates through negotiations with carriers like FedEx, Alden Auto was able to offer better deals to customers without sacrificing profitability.
Inventory Management:
Mike introduced processes to upload inventory from Alden Auto’s local PDC, which allowed them to offer a broader range of products without physically stocking every item. “Just by improving our listings and inventory management, we instantly saw an increase in sales—even for items we didn’t have on hand at the time,” said Christopher.
Consistent Packaging & Presentation:
Mike emphasized the importance of making a good impression through packaging. He trained the team to package parts efficiently and securely, ensuring a positive experience for customers when they received their items.
Speedy Customer Service
Mike’s philosophy centered on the idea that customer experience is critical to growth. He taught the team to focus on communication, accuracy, and consistency to build a loyal customer base. “Customer service was probably our biggest contributing factor to growth,” Christopher recalled. “That’s what sets us apart.”
Abandoned Cart Outreach
One of the most impactful strategies Mike introduced was cart abandonment outreach. He created a process, which helped to convert potential lost sales.
“We realized we were losing a lot of potential sales to cart abandonment. Mike introduced strategies for reaching out to those customers, which was a game changer. We were able to convert a significant portion of those abandoned carts into completed sales,” Christopher said.
Gathering Google Reviews
Mike also implemented a process for requesting Google reviews from satisfied customers. “People who leave reviews are usually the ones we’ve upset. But if you ask the happy customers, they’ll gladly give you five stars,” Mike noted. By sending daily emails to customers who had recently received their orders, Alden Auto saw their reviews skyrocket from 20 to over 500, with an improved rating of 4.9 stars.
Results:
Impressive Growth Without Increased Ad Spend
Before Mike’s consulting services, Alden Auto was spending $1,500 a month on ads and generating $15,000-$20,000 in monthly sales. Under Mike’s guidance, Alden Auto’s sales jumped to $150,000 per month—all while maintaining the same ad spend!
Christopher praised Mike’s impact on their business: “Mike showed us how to build customer loyalty and improve processes, and now those customers just keep coming back.”
By implementing RevolutionParts’ tools alongside Mike’s strategic guidance, Alden Auto was able to scale their operations without hiring a large team. Previously, the parts department was run by only two employees, Christopher and Kim, who managed both the eCommerce and in-store parts sales—but their growth has demanded change. “Now we’ve added a third employee, but for a long time, it was just the two of us handling everything,” Christopher said.
The Power of Pairing Expertise & Technology
The RevolutionParts platform allowed the dealership to automate many of the manual processes involved in selling parts online, from order processing to inventory management. By integrating with Alden Auto’s existing systems, RevolutionParts ensured that the dealership could scale without adding more complexity.
“We started using RevolutionParts four years ago and we haven’t had any issues. It’s been easy to work with, and it’s helped us grow,” says Christopher.
Mike King’s hands-on consulting, paired with RevolutionParts’ platform, transformed Alden Auto into a robust eCommerce operation. For dealerships looking to expand their parts business online, the lessons from Alden Auto are clear: invest in the right technology, focus on customer experience, and work with experts who can guide you toward long-term growth.
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