Anyone here own an online performance parts supplier?

I'm interested to hear your experiences in owning, managing, or otherwise being involved in a performance based auto parts supplier with a primary focus on online sales.

I have experience in successfully starting up a completely unrelated business so I am familiar with all the typical logistics and challenges of a new business but have been looking to additional opportunities as well.

Interested to hear about your start up experiences, how you source your products(from wholesalers vs drop ship), marketing experiences, etc. What has worked for you, and what has not? Great to hear about the success stories, also very valuable to hear about those who have struggled or met unexpected challenges. Would love to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We have a local enthusiast who has been quite successful starting up a business which focuses on several particular models with a dedicated website for each. They have several shop cars which they take around the country to track days, time attack, car meets for primarily marketing purposes, but not a bad way to spend a week at work either.

Depends what you are looking at. Are you looking to retail someone else's product or do you have your own product line that you are looking to resell online?

I'm assuming that you are asking about retailing other people's product. I tried to help a friend try and get started and man it was a tough gig and it didn't work well for him.

The question you have to be able to be able to answer is what makes me different than the 500 other places you can get this product? What is the true value you offer? If your answer is lowest pricing then you better sell in mega volume. As a start-up though, it's extremely difficult to get that volume so it's a catch 22. From there you have to play into your value added with all of your marketing. Some good examples are a successful racer that starts a safety gear online store or a parts store based on the brand he drove to the championships. He would use that as a starting place to build his brand from.

The people that I see really make it have one of 3 things going for them, a very healthy services business (Installation, Tuning, and Consultation) to go with the parts sales, They have a unique part or service that only they or a very small group of businesses offer, or a very large amount of start-up capital to be able to buffer themselves through the lean first couple years. Cash flow becomes very important for a start up. Lack of liquidity is a killer. Until you build your customer base, you are not going to have much money available to live off of from the business.

Most of the sourcing will come from distributors. If you try to source direct from the manufacturer, almost all of them will not really want much to do with you because you are too small. So basically you source from the same well as all of the other people do. Your contract with them will really help to build your cash flow. Look for sales incentive targets and volume pricing tiers as ways to help on that.

Just to let you know, I work setting an OEM's distribution strategy for a very large IT company. I work with small IT VARs all day long. The tenet's of the business are the same regardless of the product though.

bmw88rider wrote: The question you have to be able to be able to answer is what makes me different than the 500 other places you can get this product? What is the true value you offer?

This bears repeating. You either need a unique product or you need to be the cheapest guy in town.

All of the above. So the real answer is that unless you have something unique to offer, don't bother.

What does work is to have something unique PLUS the mundane stuff that everyone else has. If people are in your store naked, cause they want to buy your special underwear, you can most likely sell them a pair of jeans while they are there.

I will say to keep in mind that 'unique product' can be a very loose term, but yes, I agree, you need a unique product.

For example, if you attend PCA track days and are very chummy with many of the people there, and sell Porsche stuff at the same price as everyone else, you might get their business because they know you (but, beware, there are already at least 4 people doing this at your local PCA). Your unique product is that people tend to like you.

Or, another example, maybe you deliver your product via a ferrari, and therefore when people buy stuff you bring it to their house and they get to check out your ferrari and maybe get a ride. Or you only sell products for one vehicle and you allow people to demo your products in your car before they buy. Etc, etc, etc.