Earlier this year, the Auto Care Association released its initial e-tailing report for the aftermarket, which found that online parts sales are growing at roughly five times the current projected total aftermarket growth rate of 3.5 percent, and that the e-tailing market was set to double in size by 2018. Online-only parts suppliers such as 1A Auto have benefited from that increased interest.
1A Auto, based in Pepperell, Mass., is a family-owned online parts business that launched in the late 1990s. The company is expanding thanks to the growth of online auto parts sales. Earlier this year, the company outlined plans to expand into additional facilities in Pepperell (adding another 150 jobs to its current local workforce of 95). Two years ago, the company expanded its Kansas City distribution center into a new 190,000-square-foot facility.
1A was built from the ground up as an online parts retailer, and Pasha Gavrichev, director of business development at 1A, says the company took advantage of flexible, open-source technology to develop its own homegrown e-commerce systems early on. The company also began working with eBay in 1999, before eBay Motors even existed as an entity.
"eBay has a developers program and a pretty well-documented API that allows you to integrate it with your systems," Gavrichev says. "We opted for a customer integration to eBay Motors, and we have a team that stays on top of all of the changes to the platform and how that is reflected in the API, and any new functionality that becomes available."
eBay Motors is the only marketplace that 1A uses. "By focusing on eBay, we have time to spend working with them closely," says Brian Pickard, channel manager at 1A. "The biggest benefit of working with them is that they don't compete with you. They aren't taking customers away from us, and that's the largest reason why we've chosen to continue to work with them. It's a pure marketplace."
eBay Motors recently partnered with Assurant Solutions to provide additional extended service contracts and warranty protection for new and used auto parts and tools. Pickard says that the eBay Motors fitment and parts compatibility tools have also been beneficial.
"It's much easier for consumers to find what they need with the fitment catalog," Pickard says. "They are constantly raising the bar on quality, and that aligns well with what we are looking for."
Custom solutions
In the early 2000s, 1A decided to move away from the e-commerce partner it had originally used. "The level of service and quality of product wasn't there," Gavrichev says. "There were a number of challenges that were preventing us from growing as fast as we wanted to grow. We invested in an in-house development team that built us what we wanted. We couldn't get that through our partner at the time."
That's why the company opted for a custom integration with eBay Motors. The company runs its own homegrown business systems (although its ERP software comes from a third party), which Gavrichev says takes a significant technical effort to maintain. "We also run our own e-commerce websites, and it takes a lot of effort to integrate everything together to make it work effectively," he says.
That technology is married to business practices that help the company maintain its growth. "We have a lot of new product, and we watch trends and understand which cars are hitting our sweet spot," Gavrichev says. "We've also benefited from the rising tide of eBay Motors growing and e-commerce growing overall."
Integration remains the company's biggest challenge. "That takes a lot of our development time, just making sure all of the systems talk to each other seamlessly," Gavrichev says. "We have to get all of the products published on our websites and on eBay, and make sure all of that information is accurate and up to date."
The company has optimized its websites for mobile access (rather than creating its own mobile apps). The 1A site is also rich in multi-media content. There is a large library of videos on the site outlining different types of DIY repairs, along with responses to questions that customers have asked.
"That's part of our branding strategy," Gavrichev says. "It's even more important with mobile devices, because people watch a lot of videos through their phones and iPads. It's another way to reach potential customers."
Gavrichev says that customer service is another key for growing the business. "People will come back to you only if you serve them right the first time," he says. "We have a U.S.-based call center, and we have multiple ways for the customer to get in touch with us before they make a purchase."
DIY customers are often unsure if they can complete a repair. 1A's staff can answer those questions. If something goes wrong in that process, the company has an open returns policy.
The bulk of the company's products are "long tail" demand items. Competition comes mainly from other similar online suppliers and some local dealerships. Forecasting is a challenge, but Gavrichev says that the company is once again looking to leverage technology to improve those processes as well.
"Forecasting requires a combination of art and science," he says. "You try to forecast seasonality based on similar products or categories. It's something we refine and get better at every year. We're experimenting with some analytics, but we don't have anything in place yet that drives our decision making."
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