Fixed Ops Journal - August 2017 - 35

ONLINE
continued from Page 34

significant traffic until last year, when
Silcox increased his spending with the
e-commerce vendor TradeMotion to include online advertising and marketing.
"Customers can put in keywords -
'Toyota parts,' 'Toyota brake pads,' 'Toyota starter,' 'Toyota alternator' - things
of that nature," Silcox says. "We've sold
to France, we've sold to Seattle, we've
sold all over. It's people hunting and
finding us."

Growing pains

"We've sold to
France, we've
sold to Seattle,
we've sold all
over. It's people
hunting and
finding us."

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Eric Silcox, fixed
operations director, Ed
Morse Delray Toyota

At first, Silcox says, Delray Toyota's parts manager handled orders
from the parts website. When he couldn't monitor the requests fast
enough, he tapped the dealership's wholesale manager to step in.
Soon, both managers realized that the website was generating more
business than they had anticipated.
"It was hard for [the wholesale manager] to not pick up the phone
and not take care of a customer who buys from us every week to answer an email from someone from Colorado," Silcox says.
Meanwhile, the dealership was learning an important lesson: Online
shoppers move fast.
"We just couldn't answer these people back," Silcox says. "Most of
the time, they go with the guy who answers quickest with the best
price. If you're waiting three or four hours, you absolutely lost."
By last September, the website was generating $15,000 to $18,000 in
monthly revenue. But Silcox believed the website would be more successful if he assigned a staffer to concentrate on online parts customers. He created a full-time position in January, and the results were
nearly instantaneous.
"Our inquiries have doubled," Silcox says. "We've added just tons of
new clients from Miami alone, which is local for us."
The new employee, who has a background in logistics, is responsible
for answering online quote requests, packaging parts and shipping
them promptly. Sales on the website now exceed $20,000 a month.

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Once a parts website achieves sales of $35,000 to $45,000 a month,
Getzler says, the site needs its own staffing to keep the operation running efficiently.
Silcox advises assigning someone to the venture from the start. Chris
Galloway, the parts manager at Lakeland Hyundai in Lakeland, Fla.,
agrees. Six years ago, Galloway hired SimplePart to help the dealership
launch wholesalehyundaiparts.com.
"I brought a guy on from Day 1 to help with the site, and then we've
grown it," Galloway said. "I'm looking to put a fourth [employee] on
shortly."
Silcox aims to increase his site's sales to $30,000 a month. He recalls
how his dealership used to try to find parts customers.
"It was 100 percent hoping someone would call the store, having our
trucks out there, having wholesale guys going body shop to body shop
to body shop," he says. "We didn't go outside a 50-mile radius.
"Now, we have our own website and we promote it through publications and word of mouth," he adds. "Just treat it like it's a separate business, and you'll watch it grow." 

AUGUST 2017

PAGE 35

http://www.OEConnection.com/FOJournal http://www.wholesalehyundaiparts.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - August 2017