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Saying ‘Thanks’ To Your Customers
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By Advance Auto Parts
ONLINE ONLY: Save 15% OFF on your Order! Use Code SAVE15
link hidden, please login to view Valid through May 1st, 2022 at 11:59pm ET.
link hidden, please login to view Promo Codes At Your One-Stop Automotive Parts Store
Keeping a car up and running can be expensive, even when you’re buying and installing the new parts yourself. But, with an Advance Auto Parts coupon code, you’ll be able to save more on the parts you need to keep your car on the road. Advance Auto Parts is the leader in automotive parts and we offer some of the best prices on everything from lawn and garden batteries to brakes. And, with our exclusive Advance Auto Parts coupons and discount codes, your savings will be even more substantial. Just browse our latest Advance Auto Parts promo codes above to find the discount or offer that you can use. Then, just apply your promo code when prompted during checkout to see just how much you’ll save. Take advantage of Advance Auto Parts discounts today so you can keep your engine purring for less.
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By Counterman
Online ordering is a great way of marketing your products to both commercial and retail customers. It’s a convenient way for them to engage with your store and your merchandise on their own terms.
For the customer, there are many advantages to using your online portals over calling or visiting your location. They don’t need to leave their shop or home, they don’t have to wait on hold and they don’t need to rely on your personnel to guide them to the correct parts, pricing and availability information.
Convenience, Speed, Availability
Online ordering attracts the sort of consumer who is in search of convenience, speed and availability. These are the people who don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of time in-store or on the telephone. This could be a commercial account that wants minimal interruptions to their workflow and needs parts found, quoted and delivered quickly. It also could be a retail DIY customer with very well-defined needs, shopping for a specific brand or price point, or simply researching a future purchase.
For the store itself, online ordering may reduce the number of incoming calls or “drop-in” visits, and it may expose your store to new clientele who might not have otherwise purchased from you. You may consider fewer calls and visits as a negative outcome, but in reality, both of these outcomes can actually improve profitability.
Existing customers who have embraced your online resources are still buying – they’re just buying differently. By placing their own orders remotely, they’re also giving your parts specialists an added opportunity to serve another customer (on the phone or in person), and to perform daily storekeeping tasks. A reduction in commercial phone traffic also allows your in-store personnel to spend additional time working on more complex parts requests, and helping close sales with those customers who require additional attention.
There are drawbacks to online sales. Online shoppers don’t get your closely managed “in-store” experience, and they may receive less exposure to your other products, services and marketing. This has more impact on the retail trade, as commercial customers are most likely contacting you to fulfill immediate and specific needs, and are less interested in impulse items or the attractiveness of your plan-o-grams.
For both types of customers, their “relationship” with your store might be put at risk if they don’t feel connected in a meaningful way. It’s important to use these online purchases as a gateway to building confidence and recognition for your store as a partner in vehicle repair and maintenance.
Implied Commitment
Offering your inventory online also represents an implied “commitment” to the customer. Online pricing and inventory availability must accurately reflect what’s actually on your shelves. Accurate inventory counts are crucial to any store operation, but some online sales also require an added element of scheduling. When an online platform allows for the customer to order non-stocked parts to be delivered from your DC or another store location, it creates an expectation of arriving at your store on schedule. The online portal has made the customer a promise that your store now must fulfill.
Acknowledging or accepting any incoming order must be done promptly, and final processing or delivery of that order must be completed as promised. Keeping the customer informed in the event of any delay is even more crucial to online success, because of the “remote” nature of the transaction.
It can be extremely frustrating to get a quote or place an order and then discover that the part is out of stock when you arrive to pick up the merchandise. This becomes even more of an inconvenience if the part has been ordered and pre-paid online. Many online-purchase platforms place a preauthorization hold on the purchaser’s credit/debit card. Depending on the card issuer’s policies, this “hold” may not drop from the account immediately. For some customers, this may prevent them from having enough money in their account to purchase the same part elsewhere until those funds are released. The repair can be delayed, and often, blame for the situation is assigned to you for “holding their money.”
High-Maintenance Customers
The final consideration when choosing to steer customers toward your online offerings is the customers themselves. We all have that customer who never seems to give us the correct application information, or even worse, insists that you send “both options” when a choice exists between two parts. This sort of customer is not the ideal audience for online ordering or “self-checkout,” as you may find yourself processing a large number of returns for unwanted or incorrectly ordered parts. It also will increase the number of “second deliveries” required to complete the job, and overstock for parts that are returned to the store.
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By Counterman
As part of its 50th-anniversary celebration, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) is featuring ASE-certified professionals through a series of
link hidden, please login to view showcased in ASE communications, including its website and social media platforms. To submit a profile, ASE-certified professionals interested in sharing their story should visit
link hidden, please login to view, complete the online form, upload their photo and click “submit.” ASE plans to recognize and honor ASE-certified professionals throughout the year, including during Automotive Service Professionals Month in June.
Established in 1972 as a non-profit organization, ASE is a driving force in the transportation industry. As an independent third party, ASE upholds and promotes high standards of service and repair through the assessment, certification and credentialing of current and future industry professionals, and the prestigious ASE Blue Seal logo identifies professionals who possess the essential knowledge and skills to perform with excellence.
Today, there are approximately 220,000 ASE-certified professionals at work in dealerships, independent shops, collision repair shops, auto parts stores, fleets, schools and colleges throughout the country.
For more information about ASE, visit
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By Counterman
While O’Reilly Auto Parts launched its dual-market business strategy in 1978, the company’s roots are in serving DIFM customers. Over the years, the company has built up enough brand equity with repair shops that O’Reilly has been able to employ a premium-pricing approach with much of its professional-customer base.
“Throughout our history, we’ve been steadfast in earning our professional customer’s business by providing excellent customer service from highly trained professional parts people with rapid access to industry-leading inventory at competitive prices,” O’Reilly CEO Greg Johnson said during the company’s Feb. 10 conference call. “This unwavering commitment to customer service has allowed us to drive exceptional value for our customers and capitalize on competitive advantages to earn pricing premium in many of our markets.”
The unprecedented events of the past two years have changed O’Reilly’s calculus on growing its DIFM business. With some smaller independent parts sellers struggling to cope with the supply chain disruptions, demand volatility and inflationary pressures of the current market environment, O’Reilly sees an opportunity to grab a larger slice of the DIFM pie.
On the heels of record financial results for the full year and fourth quarter of 2021, O’Reilly recently rolled out targeted, companywide price cuts for DIFM customers, with the goal of winning new business and capturing more sales from existing professional customers.
DIFM Market ‘Very, Very Fragmented’
Johnson outlined the new DIFM pricing initiative during the company’s Feb. 10 conference call.
He asserted that the turbulent market conditions of the past two years – characterized by supply chain shocks and wild swings in customer demand – “have been more disruptive on the do-it-for-me side of the business, which remains very, very fragmented.”
The challenging environment in the DIFM market has magnified the gap between the large national retailers like O’Reilly and some of the smaller independent players, Johnson noted.
“Against this backdrop, we have been very successful in gaining professional market share and growing substantially faster than the overall market through the strength of our industry-leading inventory availability, tiered distribution and hub network and world-class professional parts people,” Johnson added. “However, we believe that the current disruptive environment presents an opportunity for us to enhance our competitive positioning and leverage our competitive advantages to drive accelerated long-term market share gains.”
Over the past few quarters, O’Reilly has tested several DIFM pricing strategies in multiple markets, and the company was “very encouraged” by the results,” according to Johnson. “After dialing in our strategy,” O’Reilly rolled out the professional pricing initiative companywide at the beginning of February.
Johnson emphasized that O’Reilly’s “service-over-price philosophy” isn’t changing. COO Brad Beckham echoed Johnson’s comments, noting that the goal of the initiative is to turbocharge O’Reilly’s gains in DIFM market share “based on all the services we offer along with a very competitive price.”
“We strongly believe that the lion’s share of the professional business in the marketplace is won day-in and day-out through exceptional customer service and rapid inventory availability,” Beckham asserted during the conference call. “However, we believe we can generate solid long-term returns by further investing in professional pricing.
“As an important part of our professional pricing initiative, we are intentionally not positioned as the lowest-price competitor in each market, and our store and sales teams remain as committed as ever to earning our customers’ business by out-hustling and out-servicing our competitors.”
‘Not a Race to the Bottom’
The pricing initiative was a hot topic during the question-and-answer session with investment analysts.
One analyst asked if the pricing initiative could be a slippery slope leading to additional price cuts in the future. In his response, Johnson insisted that it’s not “a race to the bottom.”
“I want to reiterate that this is a targeted approach. This is a very scientific approach that we’re taking,” Johnson said. “This is not across the board. This price enhancement was done by category, by SKU. And based on our performance, our supply chain strength, we still feel that we can charge a premium to our professional customers.”
Responding to a similar question from another analyst, Johnson emphasized: “We are not doing this to be the lowest price in the marketplace.”
“We’re not saying price is not important,” he added. “What’s more important to that professional customer is the relationship we have with them, the inventory availability that we have and our consistent performance and ability to get that part to them [on time] so they can complete the jobs they’re working on. Our professional customers will always prioritize that over price, assuming that we’re competitive on price. So we feel like this move will enable us to take additional market share, both from existing customers and from customers we may not be getting business from today.”
Beckham asserted that the pricing initiative is aimed at repair shops of all shapes and sizes, from the shade-tree mechanics and independent garages to the regional players and national chains.
In particular, company leaders believe the pricing initiative could help O’Reilly make inroads with its existing customers that are sourcing parts from O’Reilly and other suppliers – “maybe a piece from our public competitors, a really big piece from the independents and then another piece of their monthly purchases from a specialty company.”
“We’re already delivering to these shops,” Beckham added. “In some cases, we’re delivering part of the job that maybe they had to get another item from somewhere else. We just see tremendous opportunity [here], and our customers are telling us that with our inventory availability, our service, our people, if we can make some adjustments [on price], we really have a huge opportunity to turn into the first and only call for those garages.”
During the Q&A session, CFO Tom McFall provided more color on O’Reilly’s approach to setting price levels vis-à-vis its competitors.
“We have a wide range of competitors and … some compete solely on price. A lot of specialty, one-line suppliers get business by being absolutely the lowest price, and that’s not our business model,” McFall explained. “ So when we say we’re going to be within a competitive range, obviously it depends on how expensive the part is.
“… And what we have to remember is the biggest cost for our professional installers is their labor. And that ability to turn those bays is what turns their profit. So we want to make sure that we’re pricing holistically, for the quality of the product, the availability of the product, the team that we offer, the services that we offer – so we look at it in aggregate.
“There’s always going to be someone … who will be the lowest price. And if that’s how you sustain your business, if somebody comes along and decides to drop the price, you’re going to be in trouble. We want to have a relationship and a partnership with our professional shops that helps them make money over the long term.”
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