Pentana Solutions exists to drive success through innovation; we do this by leveraging our global position and knowledge of trends within the automotive market. For many years Pentana Solutions has dedicated their innovations efforts to parts inventory, warehousing, distribution and sales-related technology – this financial year has been no different. The business has taken the mantra of helping retailers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and distributors to sell parts online very seriously.
Automotive Parts – The Trend
Inventory mix and volume has changed significantly over the last few decades. To fully understand the trend we must look back 20 years – let us consider the Australian market for example. In the mid-90s the majority of the Australian car market was dominated by four brands, each brand had an average of five models and each vehicle had around 30,000 parts. At this time car sales were at 750,000 new registrations a year. Last year, the Australian market registered 1.1 million new vehicles, however, there are almost 70 brands in the market with 20 different model variants. For parts stockist, distributors and importers this could mean an increase of tens of thousands of SKUs! This is exactly why managing stock turnover is so important; market participants have had to learn how to cope with exponential growth year on year. It goes without saying that storing all these options means our warehouses are bigger and we need to find smarter ways to use them to increase the return on cost (our answer to this is Dynamic Warehousing) however this article will focus on driving parts revenue through sales.
Our Objective for Automotive Parts Sales
Our mission is to allow parts to be sold online 24 hours a day, seven days a week without significantly impacting the vendor. Technology needs to act as a facilitator to revenue growth; in line with this we’ve created more than five avenues to the global parts marketplace whilst enhancing efficiency through one single interface back to ERP and dealer management systems (DMS).
Creating More Avenues to the Global Parts Market
Today Pentana Solutions’ customers invest extensive time and energy into maintaining their parts inventory database, this is a clear competitive advantage for many players so we set about finding different ways for them leverage this to sell parts online.
Today there are five new ways Pentana Solutions’ customers can sell parts online:
- Online Market Places
The demand for automotive parts in the consumer space continues to grow, as do the online marketplaces available across the world. Currently, Pentana Solutions supports clients selling parts on eBay.com, Alibaba.com, Amazon and Aliexpress.com.
- Electronic Parts Catalogue
Consumer parts sales are a part of the revenue puzzle but the volume of parts being purchased by trade competitors is vastly greater. The amount of time parts vendors spend maintaining their own parts database is something that can be leveraged particularly well by an electronic parts catalogue (EPC). This tool enables trade based parts buyers to find the right part for their job in the fastest way possible using graphic and number based cues.
- Clera
Throughout Australasia ERAnet and eraPower are used by a large proportion of franchised automotive dealers. These dealer management systems exist on a connected network – a key advantage when trading parts because of another Pentana Solutions tool called Clera. This solution allows dealers on ERAnet or eraPower to trade parts very quickly based on pre-existing trade agreements.
- Self-Managed Websites and Online Stores
Large-scale dealership groups, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and retailers can also leverage the set of tools available at Pentana Solutions alongside their own strong digital marketing position. The benefit here is not only another channel to market but also the efficiency of bringing this back to their ERP or DMS. Currently, our clients are using tools such as eCorner to do this but the flexibility of the solution really allows this payment gateway list to be quite extensive. In addition to third-party sites, many of our customers are opting to use Pentana Solutions site partsales.com.au. This site links directly with eraPower and ERAnet dealer management system and allows automated part sales with dealerships using other ERP systems.
- PareX – Virtual Parts Warehouse
This online web tool is available for all franchised dealerships to take advantage of and exists to reduce obsolete stock, back orders and turn what is considered scrap into cash. With integrations into distribution and retail level ERP systems all information updates in real time to maintain accurate inventory levels.
All these avenues connect back to either dealer or distributor ERP systems then close the loop with a tool called Handle. The benefit here is that Handle reconciles any sale back into existing DMS and ERP systems.
How Can we Help You Sell More Parts Online
With over 40 years of experience in automotive tools and a long history in parts sales and warehousing our consulting team will be able to design a parts sales solution that leverages your business’s strength and aligns with the overall mission.
