In July 2021, IMR interviewed 500 independent automotive repair shops, nationally representative by location in the U.S., to get insights into their use of publicly available websites for parts purchasing. Examples of e-commerce sites for purchasing parts included Amazon, eBay, JC Whitney and RockAuto.com among others. The survey looked at whether use of publicly available websites for parts purchasing has changed over time, if shops plan on increasing or decreasing purchasing parts from these websites and what’s driving that change in parts purchasing, if they compare prices to their regular suppliers and much more.

IMR has shared some key findings from the interview, such as:

• In 2019, 36.2% of shops indicated they purchased parts from publicly available websites (such as Amazon, eBay, JC Whitney, RockAuto, etc.). In 2020 that number increased dramatically to 74.7%. In July of 2021, 50.2% of shops said they purchase parts from publicly available websites.

• 93.1% of parts purchased by shops are through integrated/captive business-to-business applications\shop management systems, by phone or brought in by the customer.  6.9% of parts purchased are through publicly available websites.

• Shops with 1-3 bays purchase 13.8% of parts through publicly available websites; shops with 4-7 bays purchase 6.2% while shops with 8+ bays purchase 4.0% through that channel.

• 48.4% of independent repair shops say they are purchasing a little less/a lot less parts from publicly available websites compared to the same time last year while no shops (0.0%) state they are purchasing a lot more and 2.8% say they’re purchasing a little more.

• 86.2% of shops say they will not or are not likely to increase parts purchasing from publicly available websites over the next year.

• 51.0% of independent repair shops rarely compare prices from their regular supplier to publicly available websites.

• 42.1% of shops with 1-3 bays always or often compare prices from their regular suppliers to publicly available websites; 10.0% of shops with 4-7 bays always or often compare prices while 39.5% of shops with 8+ bays sometimes compare prices.

To check out the full report, go to: https://bit.ly/3BpNPCF.