Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:37 pm Post subject: Online Business-Toyota Performance Parts
Im thinking of investing in a online parts business the predominantly deals in Toyota Peformance Parts that would include models.
Supra- all models
Aristo-all models
Celica
Lexus
supplying parts for engines 2jz/1jz, 7mgte, 1uzfe, 3sgte OEM and A/M
It would be getting most of its stock from USA from some big names like Titan Motorsport, HKS, TRD, AeroMotive, B&M, Carrillo, Crower, Nitrous Express just to name a few. Including many Japanese brands as well. Stocking up to 2000 different parts to start business with then increasing inventory lines up to 10,000 or more within the first year.
Obviously The online store will be competitively priced, with weekly deals. with full customer support. and most importantly discount for forum members. obviously with how strong the aussie dollar is many good deals good be had.
Think "Suprastore" Australia Im sure there are others out there, but I would just be another fish in the sea so it doesn't matter.
Just looking for peoples thoughts and comments. no trying to pimp any wares yet
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 2211 Location: Southside, Adelaide
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 8:54 am Post subject:
I think you will have difficulty competing price-wise with the likes of RHDJapan and some of the US-based stores... not sure what you could do to overcome that.
Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 4010 Location: Perth, WA
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:16 pm Post subject:
Most people can simply get the parts themselves these days, with internet orders and such. Most companies are willing to send to residential addresses on the other side of the world without much pushing, so the average enthusiast here in Aus can already get what we want at pretty reasonable prices. You're trying to sell to enthusiasts, and we can be a pretty tough lot as a whole. You can't really apply business strategies that work on mass populations, to small groups with similar interests. eg Overpricing something common and tricking people into buying it (which a lot of business seem to have down to an art) is just not going to work as well on enthusiasts as it is on general population, who mostly have no idea what that part does or why it would need replacing. So you're tackling a hard market as it is.. we all shop around and find the things we want at the cheapest prices, then pass it between us on forums such as this.
With a registered Aussie business you'll have pretty high overheads to cover that will make it hard to compete price-wise with what we can get ourselves.
eg. Almost nothing I buy these days comes from within the country. I can either buy direct from manufacturer, or from some US/Asian parts supplier, for 30-80% of the cost of Anywhere locally. Yes, some of these mobs are charging their cut to supply from manufacturer to myself, and theoretically there's no reason you can't do the same (then give us faster shipping~!) but it *Always* seems aussie places charge a higher cut.
I don't know what it is mate? It just seems like every single place that starts off as being "the cheap place to get stuff" gets expensive as they realize the costs arnt balancing out. Then they slowly drop out of the market as they either raise their prices or go out of business. I could name a good dozen 'jap parts supply' stores in Perth alone that started off cheap and were the new craze on the scene for up to a year, slowly died off, raised prices and went bellyup. Seems to be the trend in the industry. Obviously if you've no shopfront you save a little there, but you've got to maintain an eCommerce site (which isnt all that hard I realize) and provide a place to store and catalog all these parts (warehouse space is expensive) then provide things like warranties and insurance and such. Trade Act in Australia means you're responsible for providing quality in the parts you sell, even if it's nothing to do with you. You buy some part from a korean factory in a batch of 20, and one fails on someone's car, they will come at You for the warranty. Then you will havta try and chase the manufacturer for it - you may or may not get your refund, thus losing your cut on almost the entire shipment just cos one fails. For some reason, all these things are just cheaper overseas.. so they can charge less of a premium, and we can get our parts from them for cheaper.
Not saying don't do it.
It's in my best interests that you do, then I can prey on your specials and forum discounts
But try and take everything into account as best you can, figure out how much of a cut you'll need to charge on things, then see how it compares. If you do the math and figure out you can charge a lot less than other places, you've done the math wrong. At best you may only be a fraction cheaper on Some items. Other items you will boggle at how company X in US/Asia manages to sell it for so cheap.
Good luck _________________
1994 Black JZS147 Aristo - RIP. Went swimming
New 1992 Aristo Project
Most people can simply get the parts themselves these days, with internet orders and such. Most companies are willing to send to residential addresses on the other side of the world without much pushing, so the average enthusiast here in Aus can already get what we want at pretty reasonable prices. You're trying to sell to enthusiasts, and we can be a pretty tough lot as a whole. You can't really apply business strategies that work on mass populations, to small groups with similar interests. eg Overpricing something common and tricking people into buying it (which a lot of business seem to have down to an art) is just not going to work as well on enthusiasts as it is on general population, who mostly have no idea what that part does or why it would need replacing. So you're tackling a hard market as it is.. we all shop around and find the things we want at the cheapest prices, then pass it between us on forums such as this.
With a registered Aussie business you'll have pretty high overheads to cover that will make it hard to compete price-wise with what we can get ourselves.
eg. Almost nothing I buy these days comes from within the country. I can either buy direct from manufacturer, or from some US/Asian parts supplier, for 30-80% of the cost of Anywhere locally. Yes, some of these mobs are charging their cut to supply from manufacturer to myself, and theoretically there's no reason you can't do the same (then give us faster shipping~!) but it *Always* seems aussie places charge a higher cut.
I don't know what it is mate? It just seems like every single place that starts off as being "the cheap place to get stuff" gets expensive as they realize the costs arnt balancing out. Then they slowly drop out of the market as they either raise their prices or go out of business. I could name a good dozen 'jap parts supply' stores in Perth alone that started off cheap and were the new craze on the scene for up to a year, slowly died off, raised prices and went bellyup. Seems to be the trend in the industry. Obviously if you've no shopfront you save a little there, but you've got to maintain an eCommerce site (which isnt all that hard I realize) and provide a place to store and catalog all these parts (warehouse space is expensive) then provide things like warranties and insurance and such. Trade Act in Australia means you're responsible for providing quality in the parts you sell, even if it's nothing to do with you. You buy some part from a korean factory in a batch of 20, and one fails on someone's car, they will come at You for the warranty. Then you will havta try and chase the manufacturer for it - you may or may not get your refund, thus losing your cut on almost the entire shipment just cos one fails. For some reason, all these things are just cheaper overseas.. so they can charge less of a premium, and we can get our parts from them for cheaper.
Not saying don't do it.
It's in my best interests that you do, then I can prey on your specials and forum discounts
But try and take everything into account as best you can, figure out how much of a cut you'll need to charge on things, then see how it compares. If you do the math and figure out you can charge a lot less than other places, you've done the math wrong. At best you may only be a fraction cheaper on Some items. Other items you will boggle at how company X in US/Asia manages to sell it for so cheap.
Good luck
Thanks guys something to think about.
Honestly for me the investment is no greater than $3500 to get started so im not worried about outlay.
I don't need a warehouse or shop all though I might want one in the future which would eventually house dyno, mechanical, paint and panel services in the northern area of adelaide.
The parts are shipped directly from USA and which would include a shipping payment component I'm just taking a cut off the profit margin of retail.
The stock will be supplied directly through wholesalers and registered suppliers and will be run very much like suprastore.com in fact they will be supplying most inventory at wholesale cost (minus a % fee/charge) to me to which i decided what the retail margin will be I only have to cover ecommerce costs, which i'll do mostly myself.
Except it will stock parts that are revelant to jdm rhd models and a slightly cheaper deal due to exchange rates and discounts Im willing to provide off the bottom line this is not my day job really it will be a hobby!!
Why is suprastore doing this, to expand their market share to more places overseas.
No parts will be coming in cheap as, no name brands from Korea or other dodgey factories all are from reputable USA/JAP A/M companies that may be made in China like everything else nowadays but at least its the parts we love and know no rip off copies here!!!
warranties and returns are the same as suprastore.com
so much that customer support online will be through them
I will be contactable for any questions through email or phone support
Personally in SA there aren't many places to get "cheaper" brand name parts there is autobarn, horsepowerinabox and cartoys all of which are way over priced by at least 25% minimum before ya even get to the retail margin and I have compared prices even with shipping there are huge savings to be made online.
Im basically offering a online service much like others overseas and such, except only differences all my parts will be more car specific I hate searching for parts for cars, that are obscure. It will be marginally cheaper than at a store or online. I can offer greater discounts to forum members and later store clientel.
but the best thing about it is as apart of the deal Im aloud to sell locally made products or fabrications and sell them online to others in AUS or overseas especially the fast growing indian and malay market.
so really at the end of the day My online business will be a certified dealer so to speak of USA's suprastore.com products which include all the brandnames we know and trust. Except I will have slightly or more cheaper products because i can lower my profit margins more, plus locally made products, and discounts on a membership scheme and maybe I can compete with the likes of car toys in SA who knows. But I'm definitely doing this.
Please don't be like the Suprastore. that cockhead still owes me a couple of hundred and I gave up in the end.
I am in Japan if I can help you in any way???
I agree with most of what Rusty said.
Chris
This is good to know
I didn't actually know the suprastore or mark as his name is was like that you learn something everyday. I have several other hobby businesses and I seriously don't treat customers like this
One of the main reasons i was goner go with them is because they do most of the hard work for you by setting up a awesome webpage that is managed either by them or me, they give me free access to all their suppliers and wholesalers as part of the package (that was the biggest sale point), they take care of customer support mostly all I have to do is advertise as a dealer over here in aus. They give you free reign on profit margins, inventory size, inventory variety, not many legitimate places do this. I dunno know now
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