2025 Online Parts and Accessories Report

Welcome to the Fixed Ops Roundtable. I’m Sarah Vantine here with Ted Ings and RevolutionParts. We have an exciting group with us here today, Ted.

Sarah, we really do. We’re gonna talk about the twenty twenty five online parts and accessory sales report. So I’d like to welcome the panelist, Sarah, who are with us here today. Shon Kingry is here from the Kayser Automotive Group in Balmy, Madison, Wisconsin. Thank you, Shon. Grant and Jeremy are here from Dick Huvaere’s CDJR. Gentlemen, thank you for being here with us today.

Anthony Bluebello is with us from BMW, Westchester, a big favorite, of course, at the fixed stops roundtable. Tully Williams on the West Coast from the Niello Group, ten, European luxury dealerships. Tully, welcome. And, of course, our great colleague and friend, Jensay Numa from RevolutionParts. Everybody, welcome to the panel. And, Sarah, let’s get let’s get cooking.

Yes. This is exciting. So in twenty twenty five, RevolutionParts released their online parts and accessory sales report. And one of the most interesting statistics, Jen say, that that we saw was that dealers reached over six hundred and six million in online part sales in twenty twenty four. And so with this group today, we wanna ask some questions. And, Anthony, I think I’ll come to you first.

But with online part sales and with consistent year over year growth, you know, it’s making more sense now than ever before for dealers to get into the online parts selling business. So from your perspective, what do you think is holding others back from taking advantage of this revenue stream?

I think it’s really a stereotype sometimes.

Also depends on upper management who can get the approvals, but stereotype, I think gross profit margins, time, personnel, and experience. You know, it really just depends if you never, you know, jumped into that dip, that deep side of the pool. You’re not gonna learn you’re not gonna know how to swim. So, you know but best thing about a pool is there’s a shallow end.

So, you know, you can always step your foot in. So I think people just need to learn that, you know, you can do it. You know, you just have to you have to put your all into it and you can do it. But, I think it just has a bad stigmatism, bad stereotype.

You know?

Grant and Jeremy, I wanna come to you. You’ve seen a lot of success in selling online parts, but a lot of dealers may be thinking about, you know, refraining from it. What do you see, and what do you think is holding others back from taking advantage of this revenue?

I’ll start. Yeah. I think the biggest thing is the unknown.

The unknown of what your profits are gonna be, what the benefits are, the costs associated with it, and, who has control over those things.

And I’ll just add effort and belief. You know, it takes a lot of effort. The day to day in a parts department is very busy, and to actually be able to believe that you can sell online, whether it’s here in the US or globally, for some parts managers, that that’s, that’s a difficult hill to climb.

Tully, I’ll come to you next. And and on this topic, what do you see? You know, with Highline dealerships out on the West Coast, what do you think may be holding others back from taking advantage of this?

Oh, I think that, you know, they said it well that everybody gets scared. But think about this, is that when you look at your parts inventory, what we’re trying to do is move parts. That’s what the OEMs want. And when you look at different ways to move it, one, the service shop.

That’s what ninety percent of your parts go to. The next, you got wholesale because we’re forced to sell parts to our competition at a greatly reduced price in our local market. Next is how do we sell parts out to the world to drive those numbers? Margin, a lot of times, to me, is not the crucial element in this.

It’s about moving the metal and not having obsolescence. All I care about my parts department is aged parts. I care less about all the other metrics. Don’t have aged.

And this really helps you with that because if you have a great parts inventory, what happens?

Your store does better. Your parts department does better, and the manufacturer loves you because you’re moving what they make money on. It’s parts and cars.

Shon, a lot of great thoughts. What what else would you add to the conversation with thinking about, you know, how maybe dealers are concerned about, you know, getting into this?

Well, I’m gonna follow exactly what Tully said too. I could care less what inventory value is that we have eight stores, and I have some stores with one point four million dollars of inventory and some at three hundred and fifty thousand. I could care less as long as I don’t have obsolescence. So what Tony said is a spot on.

Because if you’re moving the inventory, then we move we’re moving cash flow. I don’t think you can underestimate when it comes to revolutionary part in our RevolutionParts on how this is something a little bit different. It kinda like grid pricing and matrix pricing. And when when Tony’s got everybody off the hours per hour and effective labor kick, and it’s all about hours.

Guys, this is a change of of of things. Like you said, we’ve maximized the back counter with keeping text off the back counter and delivering parts. You know, you go to MEDA, and they’ll talk you out of wholesale because there’s like like, Tony said, you’re you’re selling parts at such a reduced cost. Guys, this is something different.

Tony’s been around for a hundred and two or three years. We’ve been around a hundred years. This is not the norm to sell online and it’s a different way of thinking that quite frankly isn’t taught in any academy any twenty group you go to you gotta think outside the box again. What’s changing where was EV ten years ago?

It’s it’s it’s part of Tollie’s everyday life. You know, selling online now, guys, is part of that.

Jen say, six hundred and six million in online part sales in twenty twenty four. What what do you see from your perspective at Revolution Park?

Well, I see that, you know, I think everybody’s actually understanding that they need to change.

Everyone’s afraid of change in any way, shape, or form. But I think in a dealership, if you think about how dealerships function, sales operates different nowadays. Right? Service department operates different.

They have way more technology nowadays. And it’s so funny, like, in parts, it’s like, hey. Just let them just do what they always did. Right?

And I think everybody’s understanding, like, hey. Listen. We need to revamp the totality of the dealership so that way, you know, it’s actually with today’s times. And I think people are starting to understand that more, but, obviously, there are people that are still reluctant.

But I think that’s gonna change as these numbers keep growing.

You know, it’s amazing, Sarah. Our industry continues to evolve and change. We’ve had a lot of things happen in the last four to five years, and we’re very resilient.

Among those are record highs, in new vehicle prices. The average age of a car today, I think you all know, is somewhere between twelve and thirteen years old. I think I saw twelve point six recently, and people are keeping their vehicles longer, not to mention the popularity of do it yourself repairs.

Let me come to Anthony first on this question. Anthony, how can dealerships position themselves? Because there is a segment for this growing demand and especially considering the number of DIY shoppers continuing to increase each year.

Oh, totally. The number is growing. I mean, everybody’s got a smartphone. Right? I mean, I’ve been working my parts counter for over two decades, and every single person I talk to wants to price shop you.

You know? So you either have to adapt and conquer or give them that high price, give them all the information, and then they go buy it somewhere else. That’s the last thing you wanna do. You want to you already have them there.

Why not be transparent? Why not tell them, hey. Here’s the retail. This is what I can do.

Or push them on to your ecommerce site. Hey. Listen. We have an ecommerce site that goes for sheer volume.

Let me divert you there. Here’s the correct part number. You can buy it from there. It’ll get shipped right to your house because you don’t have any dealership.

You gotta be transparent. You gotta keep the customer retention. We all know customers that come back here keep us keep our doors open. And what it costs for customer acquisition sometimes can be a lot lower if you just have a returning customer.

So I think transparency is just kinda key and utilizing a lot of free avenues that we already have, you know, Google business profiles and, you know, Instagram, Instagram reels, YouTube, you name it. So I’ll stop there.

Anthony, if I can follow-up with you on that.

You know, you mentioned two decades in the parts business.

Have you seen the retail parts business change and evolve, you know, in terms of how customers used to, you know, take advantage of coming into the dealership, you know, with that front counter and calling versus what’s happening now with all the technology that continues to evolve?

You know, when I first started doing this, it was a lot of, you know, you get a call, you get a customer come in, they price shop, you print them a quote, and they would leave to do whatever recon they needed to, check with their independent shops, you name it.

Nowadays, you know, let’s say, you know, within the past ten years, everybody’s got a smartphone. Everybody I mean, I don’t care if you’re seventy or twenty two. You can Google something. A simple part number is gonna get you, I’d say, eighty, if not ninety percent of the way there. So you really have to be transparent.

I try to wear my heart on my sleeve. Just give it right to them, black and white, and see if you can make the sale. Because, really, you you have to keep that customer there. Whether you’re giving away a little bit of gross or not, you still gotta make a sale. I want some of the pie than none of the pie.

Makes a lot of sense. Grant and Jeremy, let’s ask you. You’re very much involved with ecommerce and parts. What are you seeing there, at your location?

Yeah. Well, we all know that this is a relationship business. So whether it’s a relationship with our service department or our parts department, we want our customers to have a relationship with us. So as we continue to grow, we’re still pretty new at this. This is our first year at selling parts online. We’re really looking at those maintenance parts and how we can gain additional sales and retention through our customer base.

Jeremy, anything you’d like to add, including I wanna follow-up with, you know, what prompted you to get into the ecommerce and online space where you may not have been before?

He did. I motivated him. Yeah. Yeah. We got through the fear and the belief. Yep.

Tell me, is that go ahead, sir.

I really don’t have much to add to that. I mean, we’re just we’re really trying to figure our way through it right now.

I mean, it’s Sure.

It’s still rather new for us. It’s fresh.

Tully, we’ve heard in a couple of the conversations here about that fear factor. You’ve got nine or ten locations there in Sacramento, California. What have you seen, as getting into the online ecommerce space?

Well, we’re I think we’re thinking a little bit differently. I just wanna move parts. I just wanna keep my inventory moving. I don’t want any aged inventory.

So our target here is is that everybody believes in retention. We are number one in retention. Right? That is what it’s all about.

But when we look at online sales, we’re looking at as an additional revenue source outside of our market. I don’t wanna be advertising online parts in our marketplace. You know, we might be a little different. I wanna market in every other market.

Right? But I because I wanna keep our market strong where we are with our luxury brand. So we see it a little differently that so it’s kinda neat for us to kinda get we get the branch out in, you know, forty nine other states of the United States instead of being in Northern California. That’s how we see it for us when we look at that.

Now too, is that is it scary? Hell, yes. It’s scary. But here’s the thing. Revolutionary parts makes it so easy.

That’s the best part. You you you you sign a contract and guess what? Thirty days later, bam, you’re online. And how much do you wanna spend on advertising, which we all do on everything else?

So the goal is to that, why would you not try it out? Because there’s not a big risk factor involved. And that’s what really started with us a while ago. Larry Sherman at our at our Jag Land Rover store Rockland, I mean, at Sacramento has always been strong in this.

He loves doing this. Right? And he did he he just thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. And then you have someone, oh my god.

Okay. We’re gonna get ripped off. We’re gonna sell something.

Come on. Come on. Talk about what is the gain that you’re gonna have. You’re gonna move parts. You’re gonna keep your inventory clean, and you get to add some gross to the books.

And, Tully, can I come back to that support that you get from RevolutionParts? You know, you’re managing a lot of things for those ten locations in fixed operations, service, and parts. You know, this is just one piece of your business. Does it help to have that partner who advises you on what maybe what to do better and what to do best?

One hundred percent. Because here’s the deal. I’m not gonna do it. I told the parts managers when we sign up for parts revolution, I’m out.

I mean, here’s the deal. I’m gonna track you, and if you’re not doing well, I’m gonna let you know. And if you’re doing well, I’m gonna let you know because we’re gonna rank everybody. I love to rank.

Big green, big yellow, big red. So the goal is that we’re gonna rank everybody. But we want we what I want is I want our parts managers to get together because we have one site, all makes, all models. So now all of the parts managers have a say in what they’re gonna do.

So now when they get on the phone and they talk about, hey. Where do we wanna go? They make the decisions. I’m holding them accountable.

Here’s the deal. I’d be parts managers well. They need to run this business as a real business and have fun doing it. The funny thing is that they’re gonna have a blast doing it.

Right? And Larry Larry’s made a good example of it. He’ll I’m in Texas this month or wherever he’s at. Right?

And he sells stuff and he’s having a blast doing it. And now with our group site coming online, we’re very excited about it, and we’re gonna get the excitement of all of our parts managers, one hundred percent. All I do is track it to tell them, hopefully, all the great success they’re having.

Shon, Tully is a tough, tough act to follow. Tell us a little bit about your geography there. How many locations, what franchises, and what you’re seeing there, especially on the do it yourself side.

Yeah. It’s funny. That’s exactly where I was gonna go with that is, you know, I’m I’m not in a major metro like Tollius in Sacramento. Yes.

We have two hundred fifty thousand people here in Madison, but I’ve got stores in O’Connell Falls, Wisconsin, population twelve hundred. Okay? And and that’s that’s a real number. I’ve got three stores in one city of Sauk City, but I’m a little more rural aware.

And, again, I think you can’t underestimate kinda like we’re told when I get go on the BDC side of it. The advantage to something like this and being online, people aren’t always working on cars from eight to five, by the way. People need car people need parts at eight thirty at night, and they can order parts at eight thirty at night. We can ship parts next thing in the morning when we get there because it’s already sitting there waiting to go.

And to your point, Ted, of the rural side the rural side of it, I mean, Wisconsin, we’re in the middle of nowhere here. I hate to say it. We really are. Yes.

We’re two hours north of Chicago. But once you go north north of Madison, until you get to Green Bay, there’s not a whole lot enough. I mean, quite frankly, I do the trip every week. I know.

And and you can you can reach all those people. Yes. You’ve got some players. You know?

You’ve got a player out of Minneapolis. You’ve got one out of Green Bay, but they’re in the wholesale business. They’re not in the online business. To be very candid with you, there’s very little online players in the Midwest.

They just haven’t got there yet, and it’s it’s it’s fear. I mean, it’s it’s a fear. It’s a fear of change. It’s always the word is fear, but the fear of making a change and something different that just haven’t thought of before.

Anthony, one more time back to you. This could be the great equalizer because no matter if you’re in a rural area or a major metropolitan area, you’ve got a level playing field here if you’re gonna get into ecommerce.

No. You aren’t kidding. I mean, we sell to all fifty states. I I print out a document from UPS and FedEx that shows how many shipments go to each state every month and every year.

And, I mean, my popular states are the ones that are the most farthest away from us. We’re in Pennsylvania. I sell to Florida. I sell to Texas, California.

We had twenty two thousand packages last year go to California.

So I I ship I ship everywhere. I ship to Wisconsin. You name it. I I I all fifty states are touched, even Alaska and Hawaii.

Grant, for the audience, where is your dealership located, and are you seeing the same thing in terms of shipping out of state?

Yeah. We’re about forty five minutes outside of Detroit in Richmond, Michigan, and it’s a it’s a small rural town. And, same thing. We’re shipping to Texas and Florida, California.

We’re even shipping globally. We have a couple customers in Germany that we’re doing business with regularly.

Gen z, look what you started here.

It’s all his fault.

We tell him all the time.

Hey. He he helped me with my eBay thing, man. I ship a lot of international stuff through eBay. So thank you, Gen z.

And by the way, Gen z, tell us a little bit about your role with RevolutionParts and what you do because there’s also a consulting side of the business as well.

Yeah. So I I run a consultative services team here at Revolution. And since I, built multiple ecommerce parts departments from being in dealerships myself, I actually took those skills and brought it to revolution. Now, we actually do coaching and guidance for accounts to provide their progress, which is one of the ways that I know Grant and Jeremy very well.

We we we had a we had a long period of time where we worked together, and etcetera.

So but, but I do wanna throw one quick point because we’re talking about the the the DYIers. Right? The the people that are doing it themselves now and the car is lasting longer. I think a big piece of the puzzle that we are, like, people need to understand is they’re building cars to last longer.

People don’t wanna get rid of their cars anymore because they don’t wanna pay any more money than they’re already paying it. Things are way more expensive than ever. And if they feel like they’re getting a deal online for a part so they can hold on to their car, that is a way easier decision to make than changing whole vehicle out. You know?

And I think if you understand the market, like, the market’s changing before, it was cool to have a new car. Now it’s cool to say you fixed yours. You know what I mean? So if you can get the parts at a good price and you get them online and you know it’s OEM on top of that, it’s not aftermarket.

It’s OEM. It just it’s a whole another and you know you’re getting it from a dealership sometimes too. That just is a whole another trust factor to earn the business, which is why I feel like these numbers are growing.

Gen z, it’s incredible to see all of the progress that’s been had in the last few years with RevolutionParts and then to see where it’s going in the future.

Just to go back to the panel and and talk a little bit more about selling in the online marketplace is. That’s a big topic of conversation that I know parts managers have some reluctance or maybe some hesitations about opening up to a global platform of people. But, let me start with you, Anthony, and and go back around. You know, with online marketplaces you mentioned, eBay, Amazon, and their big revenue drivers.

How how did, how did you see this evolve? And and also, you know, what maybe misconceptions had you heard, you know, getting onto these platforms, and how does reality really compare?

Well, the reality is it does cost cost something to be on eBay and Amazon. We all know that. There are fees associated with, but the reality side, at least from what once we got over that hurdle was that we can make our own prices. We can tweak everything.

RevolutionParts platform’s so live. You can make an update. It’s instant. So, you know, if you see an issue, you can correct an issue.

But the biggest thing is really and and then personnel, you know, not not knowing who am I gonna need somebody? Two people, three people. We were able to grow over a hundred thousand without hiring one person. And then once we broke that threshold, then you start adding people.

And then I also think the other misconception is that you don’t need advertising. I feel like you have to have advertising. If without advertising, you know, it it’s gonna grow, but nowhere near as much as it could with the advertising.

Grant and Jeremy, I wanna come to you next. And and you mentioned selling to Germany and shipping parts internationally. So talk to us a little bit. You know, what misconceptions have you heard about selling on some of these online platforms, and how has reality really compared?

Well, I think the biggest thing is people don’t look at all aspects of selling online including, you know, you have the opportunity to make money on shipping as well, you know, not just the part. And, yeah, there’s there’s sellers plat the the each platform will charge you a certain thing, but you can’t rely simply on those. You have to have your own site as well. You have to, you know, basically diversify all your listings. You can’t just keep them on one of those sites and expect to that to pay off for you.

Good point.

Yeah. And continue to tweak. And that’s where kind of where we’re at right now in our first year is now we’re we’re selling. We have sales revenue coming through. Now it’s tweaking those profits and those shipping costs to to make real money and and keep the parts churning, most importantly.

Very nice.

Tully, how how has the how has online selling evolved at the Nilo company?

You know, our our spearhead is Larry Sherman at our Jag Land Rover store, and everybody’s scared to, you know, sell parts online. And Larry didn’t see anything wrong with it, and he enjoys it. And he he brags about it to at all of our parts managers, dinners and meetings. So it’s it’s good that they take the fear out because everybody’s scared of we’re gonna get a fraudulent credit card.

We’re gonna ship a part, and they’re gonna decline it. Okay. This happens every day, everybody. This happens in the in the service drive.

So the issue is that don’t be scared of fraud. Now revolutionary parts helps us with fraud to make sure that we’re not having those kinds of issues, and they do the best they can do. But overall, there is bad people out there, and you’re gonna get stung. Move on.

Right? And then that is not the reason why we should not do it. And I think that one of the one of the topics came up is, you know, it doesn’t matter where we live. I could be in, you know, no name Alaska and have the biggest wholesale operation in the world because of online parts.

Right? The issue is it doesn’t matter where you’re locating are. The whole thing of it is that we’re opening up ourselves to the world about here’s what we have to sell. Right?

And as Grant and Jeremy talked about, they tweak it every day. That’s what’s gonna make it work. It’s not a set it and let it. Right?

This is a set it and let’s have fun with it. That’s what I see.

Shon, what misconceptions had had you heard about and and also, you know, what was the success that you have seen?

Well, I’m really and this is really the the the one I do gotta say, hey, Paul, me totally because he took it. Out of the eight stores we had, every one of the parts managers said the fraud is the first thing that comes up. And I’m sure Jen Saint Anthony. I’m sure you guys hear that is what about the fraud. What about the fraud? What about the fraud?

Listen as as Tilly says it happens every day anyway, if you’re gonna deal with it, it’s gonna be it’s gonna be the roadblock that’s out there either you either, you know, you can’t be half pregnant and and either you’re in it or you’re out of it and you know you talk about the online side of it.

Sorry, I know you know I’ll probably get Ted trouble from Ted for saying that you’re in the business. It’s you know it’s kinda like wholesale either you’re in wholesale or you’re out of wholesale. You can’t be halfway in and half half in the pool. You’re in or you’re out.

You know? And and I think that’s the biggest part. And you talk about online purchasing. My example would be this.

I’ve lived in Madison now for two and a half years. I went to Target last Sunday for the first time. Why? Because I can order it online.

I don’t have to go. I mean, online purchasing, guys, is is where we’re at. I literally was at Target for the first time in two and a half years. We don’t go grocery shopping.

We ordered online. It shows up. What’s the difference? It’s the same. And guess what, guys?

They’ve got fraud too, and they’re in the business.

Chen say, they’ve seen the evolution not only as somebody in a dealership running a parts department, but then now at the RevolutionParts side. And I’m sure you hear a lot of stories from different dealerships of why they don’t wanna get involved in this. So share with us how have you seen, online sales evolve, and and what what have you seen and heard?

Well, you know, there used to be a day, and some dealerships may still have this. It may still be the focus, where you’d have a big retail parts center, right, with gondolas and all that stuff. And some dealerships still do it. Right?

But I’ve I’ve learned, and, actually, you watch that that section of business has dwindled so much in most dealerships because the average person doesn’t want to go to the dealership. Let’s just be honest. Right? I I think COVID has pretty much changed everybody’s mindset. It’s all about convenience.

People will pay more just so they don’t have to leave their house nowadays. You know, people will spend more money on a DoorDash order than actually going there to actually eat it. You know? And and the thing is that that mentality doesn’t change with parts.

You know? It doesn’t change with the convenience. And the thing is you and you know what’s amazing? What at Revolution School is we can see the average order times of people.

It’s when the dealership’s closed. Right? People are ordering in the middle of the night while they’re on their phones and their computers. And if your only way you’re gonna make money is in the dealership, those people aren’t even shopping at that time at the hours of operation of the dealership nowadays.

You know? So you have to advance to the times and advance to the economy, advance to the the convenience of everybody. And here’s the thing, if you don’t change, all the other platforms around us that are making everyone else change are gonna put you out of business, unfortunately. So you’ve gotta adapt because not even because we want to.

It’s because you have to. You know?

So Sarah, we’ve seen the data, that hedges and company data shows that the online parts and accessory market is going to grow by fifty percent over the next five years.

So congratulations to everybody who’s here today.

If you online would like to access the latest report, and, that’s the one we’re talking about, the twenty twenty five online parts and accessory sales report. We’re providing a link so that you can do that and learn more. I wanna thank everybody on the panel today.

Great expertise and great information. Grant and Jeremy, thank you and welcome. And, we look forward to having you back and hearing more about the success that you’re having. So thank you. Great information today.

Anthony, as always, thank you. And, you know, never a dull moment with you or with Tully Williams at the Newell company. So, appreciate all that. Shon Kingry, thank you for all you do for the industry. And, thanks for bringing all this to the surface with, ecommerce, and we’re very grateful to you and, and RevolutionParts for all that you do.

Alright? Happy to do that. Behalf of on behalf of Sarah Vantine, I’m Ted Ings. And, RevolutionParts.com is the place to go and learn more about ecommerce. RevolutionParts.com. Everybody, the all star panel here with us today at the fixed ops roundtable.