Spare parts presented on Handbook for the Successful Aftermarket Dealera project born and created with the aim of identifying, collecting and presenting best practices and winning strategies in the distribution and sale of automotive spare parts. The exclusive event in which SicurAUTO.it also participated together with other specialized publications takes place at 30th anniversary of the Assoricambi consortiumwhich brings together today 112 spare parts dealers and more than 1440 workshops affiliates AceService.

ASSORICAMBI PRESENTS THE SUCCESSFUL SPARE PARTS MANUAL

THE Assoricambi’s Handbook for Successful Spare Parts Dealers is the result of an in-depth analysis of best practices among member companiescarried out with the support of two consultants, Antonio DeVitismanagement engineer and Enrico Vincenti, psychologist, with the aim of updating the previous survey published in 2016 and making it a usable manual for spare parts dealers and workshops. At the time we also discovered that Asoricambi between the implementation of a AI-powered tool called “Carolina” – to facilitate and avoid errors in the location of auto parts that auto repairers require of spare parts dealers, increasingly resorting to instant messages and photos sent via WhatsApp. We’ll tell you about that later, with a dedicated in-depth analysis, so stay tuned.

Returning instead to Assoricambi’s Handbook for Successful Spare Parts Dealers, investigation from which the bases of the reference system for the operators of the maintenance chain were laid, some fundamental steps have been planned for identify best practices, but also areas for improvement to increase turnover and be more competitive, also taking into account changes in OE distribution networks, such as that of VW. A first online survey, in which the partners took part, was supplemented by remote and in-company interviews to identify, for a small number of selected companies, the best practices collected in a structured and organic way in the manual. The manual is divided into two macro parts: Reference framework and analysis of best practices.

COMPANIES ASSOCIATED WITH ASSORICAMBI AT A GLANCE

Reference framework, which collects the results of the online questionnaire completed by 107 companies associated with Assoricambiretailer i General dataTHE logistics in all its phases from receipt of goods to distribution, purchase and pricing areaorganization sales area, administrative and accounting and finally digital space. Here is some strong points of the Assoricambi manual for individual zones:

General data: most of the companies associated with Assoricambi have a turnover between 1 and 4 million euros per year with a total number of employees not exceeding 16 and a turnover generated by each resource between 190,000 and 242,000 euros. As turnover increases, the total number of employees increases, but not always the number of outlets.

Logistics: the larger the size of the company, the greater the tendency to have a head of logistics already from 1 million euros of sales on. The use of barcode scanners is widespread at an average of 51%, while only a small percentage have also assigned a barcode to product warehouse locations. The use of OE QR codes to unlock genuine spare parts is different.

purchases: the number of brands managed by member companies increases with the increase in turnover, rising on average from 34 to more than 78. However, it does not change the average margin applied to products of around 40%.

Sales: beyond 66% companies still has a sales manager formalized, regardless of the size of the company. The higher the turnover, the higher the average number of resources employed at the counter, in external sales, in the call center and in online sales.

Administration and accounting: the survey revealed that, regardless of turnover, almost all of the companies surveyed have radministrative and accounting managers formalized, even if these resources bring no benefit to the client. This is probably due to the need for legal and tax compliance without making mistakes.

Digital: the most widespread channel among the companies associated with Assoricambi is Facebook (77%) and with a active website in 73% of cases. A small portion have no online presence at all (9%) or have a third-party website (7%).

ANALYSIS OF BEST PRACTICES AMONG ASSORICAMBI MEMBERS

The second part of the spare parts manual then offers many tips for achieving excellence in the various strategic areas of the organization. The integration of the previous analysis from 2016 includes a fundamental part, reserved for human resources management in addition to the organizational and procedural best practices that have been found among the reference associates.

“Good enough is never good enough when excellence is the goal”he stated Giampiero Pizza – General Manager of the Assoricambi Consortium, which presided over the presentation of the manual with President of Assoricambi Andrea Camurati. “For thirty years, our mission has been to grow through collaboration, improve processes, innovate, network, expand knowledge of the sector and consolidate the cohesion of our Group”. “We are convinced that together with our spare parts dealers and our AssoService workshops, together with spare parts dealers, distributors and OEMs, we can give life to a new story in the Aftermarket world”.