Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. plans to launch a wholesale and retail parts web site next year.
It would have debuted sooner but Gordon Moog, Toyota's wholesale programs and dealer communications manager, says the company's battle with the Y2K bug have eaten up funds his staff needs to launch the parts web site.
"We're still fighting the battle:" says Mr. Moog who adds that he's still hoping to get the site up and running next year. "Speed is of the essence. If you don't get into it now, it'll be too expensive to get into it later. Either you'll have to buy someone out or you'll have lost customers.
"Internet marketing, contrary to popular belief, is very expensive:" he explains, adding that there is a lot of backend integration to accomplish, which takes a lot of people hours.
Mr. Moog estimates that launching the site likely will cost $1 million in out-of-pocket costs and another $1 million in "hidden" costs.
Some dealers are wary of automakers going on line to sell parts, figuring it is a way to circumvent traditional retail channels.
"The Internet is not to sell around the dealers, but to help the dealers sell more parts," says Mr. Moog.
"We want to have a full-blown web site selling everything except cars to wholesale and retail customers:" he says. "There are a lot of dealers that are for it and it would open a lot of possibilities for sales."
The planned site will ask Internet parts customers if they want home delivery, dealership delivery or dealership delivery and installation.
"This would be incremental business that we wouldn't have had if we didn't have a web site' says Mr. Moog.
Much of this Internet push is aimed at customer retention.
"Our research shows that customers who have their vehicles serviced for routine maintenance and repairs at Toyota stores are three times more likely to buy another Toyota:" says Mr. Moog.
That also is the aim of Toyota's Support to Aftermarket Repair (STAR) program, which assists independent collision and repair shops with their work on Toyota vehicles.
Mr. Moog says that when a Toyota customer has a bad service experience, even when it's not at a Toyota dealership, it reflects poorly on the manufacturer.
"They equate the poor service with the vehicle as much as with the place they received the service," he says.
Because of that, though the STAR program, Toyota offers quality Toyota factory parts and service advisories to the independent facilities.
Currently, 241 of Toyota's 1,190 dealers are STAR dealers.
"They are very aggressive in the wholesale arena:" says Mr. Moog of the STAR dealers. "On the whole, STAR dealers have three times more wholesale business than non-STAR dealers."
This is business that the dealers would be getting no part of and now they are at least getting the wholesale parts business. And, according to Mr. Moog, customers are likely to be more satisfied with the repairs if factory parts are used and the independent technicians have everything they need to perform the service in a quality manner.
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