Shingle Springs Subaru
Anthony Wells, Fixed Ops Director of Shingle Springs Subaru, adds $70,000 of monthly Parts Department revenue while cutting expenses with RevolutionParts.
“There’s more to selling online than the revenue and gross profit you collect from the part sales alone. With stock order discounts, return reserves, and profit on shipping, we add thousands of dollars in gross profit every month on top of the online part sales.”
— Anthony Wells, Fixed Ops Director of Shingle Springs Subaru
The sky’s the limit for the Shingle Springs Subaru Parts Department. That’s in large part thanks to Anthony Wells, the Fixed Ops Director running the show. That wasn’t always the case, though—before Anthony began selling online, he had one major problem to solve.
“I wasn’t seeing the kind of growth that I wanted and my parts business felt stagnant. We were doing retail, wholesale, and service drive sales, but it wasn’t enough. One thing that we’ve done with RevolutionParts is sell all over the country,” Anthony says of his Parts Department, formerly confined to his local market of Shingle Springs, CA. Now he reaches parts shoppers across the country.
“One thing that caught my eye was that RevolutionParts was powering websites at the top of the page on Google search queries.”
Before embarking on his partnership with RevolutionParts, Anthony wasn’t exactly a stranger to online parts selling. When his previous web store wasn’t quite pushing sales as far as he knew they could go, he decided to do a little research. “One thing that caught my eye was that RevolutionParts was powering websites at the top of the page on Google search queries,” he says. “The look and ease of the websites from a customer standpoint really struck me. It was super easy to find the part.”
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For the Shingle Springs Subaru dealership to grow as a whole, Anthony knew he had to find a way to drive more gross profit to the Parts Department by maximizing every potential revenue stream. He decided that launching a web store with RevolutionParts was the answer.
Since partnering with RevolutionParts, Anthony has had a lot of success in hitting sales goals. “It took a few months to see traction. A good month back when we started was $5,000 in sales and then all of a sudden we hit the $20,000 mark. Shortly thereafter we hit $30K, then $40K, and now $75K.” Anthony expects to surpass $100,000 in monthly web store revenue in the next few months.
“our stock order discounts have gone up to about $4,000 a month from when we started. Last month we made $3000 on shipping alone.”
While seeing those numbers stack up month-over-month is a dream come true, Anthony believes the beauty of digital retailing goes beyond the revenue from part sales. “There’s more to selling online than the revenue and gross profit you collect from the part sales alone,” Anthony says. “With stock order discounts, return reserves, and profit on shipping, we add thousands of dollars in gross profit every month on top of the online part sales. Instead of having to add headcount and expenses, RevolutionParts has empowered us to eliminate expenses and be more competitive in the Parts Department.” After all, selling online is a volume game and Anthony takes full advantage of that. “The margins aren’t very high, but our stock order discounts have gone up to about $4,000 a month from when we started. Last month we made $3000 on shipping alone,” he explains, “which eliminates an expense line on the statement and it gives us more flexibility to be aggressive with our pricing and shipping.”
“If you want to sell more parts you’ve got to get into the game. It’s affordable and there’s not a lot of extra work involved in making it happen.”
Anthony enjoys that his Parts Department now generates revenue to support growth at the dealership. “I like the fact that my parts department is basically open 24/7 and I’m not limited to my geographical area,” he says. “If you want to sell more parts you’ve got to get into the game. It’s affordable and there’s not a lot of extra work involved in making it happen. It starts off slow but eventually becomes an exciting part of your business. We are amazed at how well it’s doing for us.”
READ MORE: 7 Ways to Grow Parts Sales Outside your Local Area
