Fixed Ops Journal - August 2019 - F12

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

AMAZON
continued from Page 11

Amazon provides useful tools to help sellers judge how responsive
they are to customers, which items are most popular and which pricing
is most effective, Rankin says. "They'll ask you, 'Do you want the price to
be in the 'buy-it-now' box?' " - an Amazon feature that promotes sales.
Often, he says, the answer is no.
Because hundreds of sellers on Amazon may stock the same merchandise, customers often look only for the cheapest deal, Rankin notes. But
sellers can earn a top listing through a combination of low prices and a
good record of filling orders and responding to customer feedback.
Lots of parts can provide healthy profits, Rankin says, especially if sellers buy them in bulk, thus reducing the dealership's overall shipping
costs. Rankin says he includes shipping costs in his listings because that
increases the chances of being seen by Buy Now shoppers.

Expert advantage
The main competitors of a dealership that sells parts on Amazon Marketplace, Windrow says, are Amazon itself, aftermarket vendors and
some automakers that sell items on Amazon directly rather than
through their dealerships. Rankin says dealership parts 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 potential problem with a customer's
order, the parts desk can contact the customer and intervene to correct
the issue before the order is shipped, he notes.

Amazon no-nos
Amazon maintains strict rules for sellers on its Marketplace site
- including dealerships that sell parts. Violations of these rules
can get an account flagged, disabled or even banned:
 Don't contact buyers outside of Amazon's own messaging
service; other forms of direct communication are prohibited.
 Don't use customers' phone numbers and email addresses
gathered through Amazon for dealership marketing efforts.
 Don't try to redirect Amazon customers to your website or divert
them to other sales channels.
 Don't include inaccurate details in your descriptions of the parts
you're selling to try to game Amazon's search engine.
 Don't use terms such as "sale," "lowest price" or "coupon"
- Amazon considers them improper marketing messages.
 Don't advertise items you don't have in stock right now, even if
the truck from the parts supply center is on its way.
 Don't respond with hostility to negative feedback from Amazon
customers, and don't offer tangible incentives for positive
feedback.
 Don't be lazy about shipping Amazon orders - a late shipment
rate of more than 4% may get your account cut off.
 Don't jack up shipping prices to pad profits.
Source: Amazon

That saves the cost of a return, which negates profit from a sale, and
helps build positive feedback. The feedback is important, Windrow says,
because Amazon customers often rely on reviews of sellers and will buy
from a well-regarded seller who does not charge the lowest prices.
Dealers who use Amazon still need to diversify their parts business
model, consultant Hedges advises. He says he sees "plenty of dealers
who sell on Amazon but want to be less dependent on it." He recommends paying adequate attention to other e-commerce platforms -
notably eBay, which he notes has less reach but also charges lower fees
- and even more, the dealership's own website.
"Amazon customers are Amazon's customers," Hedges says. "They're
loyal to Amazon."

'Heaviest hitter'
Jason Hair, service and parts director of Volvo Cars Gilbert in suburban
Phoenix, says his dealership pays close attention to parts sales on its website as well as Amazon, even though he estimates that the store processes
250 parts orders on Amazon for every online order from its own site. Overall, Hair says, he sells $150,000 to $180,000 in parts online each month.
"Amazon is our heaviest hitter," he says. "Amazon and eBay are worldwide. Our dealership will never be able to compete with that scale in
web searches."
Still, Hair adds, the dealership website is valuable because "it has a
very deep parts catalog, which is useful for the do-it-yourself customer."
"Volvo's a relatively small brand," he says, "and I think that gives us an
advantage in the e-commerce market because we don't have the volume of competition a domestic dealer has."
Hair says dealership parts customers frequently respond to a price
quote with the assertion that "I can find it on Amazon for less." But he
notes that factory parts bought and installed at a Volvo dealership come
with a lifetime warranty - an advantage Amazon can't match.
He concedes that Amazon's influence on online parts sales is likely to
continue to grow.
"The dealership owner and I both feel that in the future, there's going
to be more and more purchasing through Amazon," Hair says. "We need
to be ahead of the game." 
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AUGUST 2019

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Fixed Ops Journal - August 2019

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