(Feedback) A new Finishline type store.

[kitcarbp]

I dont know much about selling retail autoparts but I was part of a company that manufactured and sold to the OEMs for over 15 years. I know enough to be dangerous. But I know a ton about buying cobra parts building mine! Markups are amazing when dealing in volume but doesn't apply to the cobra hobby. As a consumer I have tried all sorts of on-line suppliers and in fact without them I could not have finished my Cobra since my “kit” was not complete but I chose that path to build a better quality car and have more control over quality. You all know theAmazon model and some of the bigger auto centric sites like Rockauto. My feeling is to be very successful to focus on Cobras, Daytonas and maybe GT40 replica parts you just set up a great storefront ( like amazon) and build purchasing agreements with the 6-10 companies we all know of that sell cobra / daytona/ GT40 parts. Take the crawl walk run approach. I think 20 good suppliers is easy to accomplish the first year and grow from there. You want to be a store that uses their suppliers to drop ship from their warehouses to your customers, this eliminates having your own warehouses or employees. Common sense. I know there are quite a few attorneys on this site that know how those agreements are structured. My favorite online retail model to date is Fordpartsgiant.com. I have used them for about 3 years to buy oem parts. They are only a web store but have the complete parts database for all Ford cars and trucks going back decades. When you order on their site, it feels as though you are ordering directly from a ford dealer but 30% lower prices on Ford and Motorcraft parts. The downside is customer support is lacking if you have an issue. They have purchasing agreements with dozens of Ford dealerships throughout the US. When you place your order, its broadcasted to all the dealerships in this network as an open order and any dealer in this network is able to bid or fill that order. It works great for me the consumer. I get my part within 5 days and always at least 20-30% lower in prices than my local Ford dealer. I know this because my parts come from all over the US from different dealerships each time I order no matter what it is. So I think that can be a successful model even in the Replica Hobby. My 2 cents. The capital needed is spent on web store, database creations, and maybe some licensing agreements? But customer support to answer the phone to help a customer is important and will differentiate your store from all the others.