Car Accessories
We are a motor driven society, even countries like Vietnam and China are crazy for cars, and our cars say a lot about us. People spend a fortune not just on buying their cars, but also on maintaining, and personalising them, whether that be the key chain, specific air freshener, fancy floor mats, or more extreme make-over such as spoilers, alloy wheels and custom engine parts.
A friend of a friend got involved in this business years ago. He was a mechanic and had friends in Hong Kong. They sent him parts and he sold them on to his boss. The boss got cheap parts and the other two guys were both making a profit so everyone was happy.
The business grew when the UK guy started attending trade shows and realised that a few well placed adverts in car enthusiast magazines would drive more business. He kept his mechanic job but ended up with a nice car and a house in a good part of town on the back of his accessories business.
Start by buying some magazines and understanding what you want to supply. Spoilers, chip sets and engine parts are more sophisticated than air fresheners and floor mats and therefore carry higher margins but you will need to build more knowledge and potentially deal with more complex enquiries or complaints.
Sell only to trade
Sell online using EBAY
Sell online using your own web-shop
Market through trade fairs and exhibitions
Advertise in magazines
Open a shop
Selling to trade may be tough if you do not work in the car maintenance industry,
but not impossible. Talking to garages that do modifications in your local
area may spark some interest and advertising in trade magazines (ask your local
mechanics what they read) will help. Make sure that you have an idea what you
are planning to specialise in before you start talking to these guys, if you
come across as "a bit wet" they will view you that way for a long
time. On second thoughts you may want to try talking to mechanics in another
town while you build your knowledge.
EBAY is great for this kind of stuff. Specialist parts and equipment abound, and people tend not to carry much stock. You may become the victim of price if your items are easily found but more specialist parts will go for a premium with shipping costs not being a problem. One option here is to specialise in vehicles that abound in your country and ship parts abroad. Morris Minors and VW Beatles spring to mind from Europe (also Brazil and India) and big old American cars just about anywhere outside of the USA.
Building an online shop is relatively easy and cost effective but you need to find ways to drive traffic. Whatever you read online and in your daily inbox this is not solved purely through website optimisation. You need to advertise and market your web page in a specialist market. Your site acts as a contact window for you and as a catalogue but not as the main driver of business.
Trade fairs and exhibitions are a great way to build contacts within the industry and to sell a few parts. The key value is not the orders that you take on the day, but the longer term contacts that may buy in bulk or write about you in their publications; driving more customer awareness and increased long term sales. Stands may be expensive depending on the venue and size of the event, reading trade publications should keep you abreast of what is being held when and how to contact the organisers.
I know that advertising in enthusiast magazines worked for my contact, and see no reason why it wouldn't work for you. Make sure that you are advertising a specific product and that you are in the right section of the right magazine, i.e. don't advertise Ferrari chip sets in a BMW enthusiast's magazine. It sounds obvious but when you start to look at the adverts in some publications it is not clear who is being targeted. Include your web details in the advert as well as fax and phone numbers. Make sure that people can contact you. If customers call you, and want an item you don't carry don't just say "no", tell them you'll get back within 2-3 hours and then find out whether you can get one and at what price. Even if the price is too high they may be impressed that you found what they wanted and hopefully will call on you again in future.
For this kind of business a grade C location, on the edge of town or even in an industrial park, should be fine. You need to be easy to find, but your customers have cars and can drive to your showroom. Keep the rent low and get as much space as you can afford to show off your goods. You shouldn't carry too much stock at any one time, so the shop can double as a warehouse if space at home is getting tight. You will drive customers into the shop through your other marketing efforts i.e. web site, adverts, business cards, word of mouth etc. Some customers want to browse and look for ideas and may want to ask questions and build a relationship with the car parts guy/gal. Having a shop also gives you added credibility, your customers know that you are likely to still be around if they have a problem with their purchase, which gives them peace of mind.
Sourcing stock is relatively straightforward. www.alibaba.com will have most of what you need and if not searching in Google using countries as a filter should find you accessories and gadgets that you had never dreamed could exist. You can also try www.tt.net and www.asianproducts.com
If you are carrying higher price items then you may not need to carry any stock. Make sure that your catalogue and/or website carry precise details of what is available and that your suppliers can ship with next day delivery using fed-ex or someone similar.
The differentiator is your stock, not price. Next day delivery from Asia does not come cheap and you still need to make a margin.
Finding your target market is key. Advertising in the Sunday Times is costly and wasteful, aim for trade and enthusiast magazines for optimum results and be prepared to invest in larger colour ads so that you get noticed.
You will be importing from abroad, which will at a minimum mean import duties, and potentially will require some licenses. Make sure that you are legally clear before you start shipping large quantities of goods.