How Auto Parts Catalog Software is Changing the Aftermarket Landscape

Introduction

The automotive aftermarket is undergoing significant changes and it has experienced a multitude of transformations in recent years. These transformations include the introduction and wide acceptability of electric cars, application of AI, IoT, ML and other new age technologies that have reshaped how automotive businesses work with their stakeholders and customers. There are more such advancements that have redefined mobility as a whole. They include technologies like ADAS, connected cars, OTA updates, self driving cars, etc. There is a plethora of new and improved introductions in the automotive sector which is here to stay.

Today, our focus will be on the transformation of the automotive aftermarket landscape with the incorporation of auto parts catalog software. How is it reshaping the automotive industry? How is the aftermarket being affected? What are the advantages to the business using this software?

Let’s begin this journey of understanding the impact of auto parts catalog software in the automotive aftermarket.

In the traditional set ups, the auto part catalogs were maintained on paper and were distributed to all the dealers across the geography. Now, we can just give a thought of how much a business might have spent on creating, maintaining and distributing those paper-based catalogs. That’s not it, if there were any part changes or supersession, the whole catalog would need to be redesigned, reprinted and redistributed. Now we get an idea what would be the cost implication of such manual management! These are just two aspects of the traditional challenges - there are more. But, here we will discuss what benefits auto parts catalog software has brought to the automotive aftermarket:

Efficiency in Identification of Parts

With paper based catalogs, it was a challenge to correctly identify the parts and resulted in incorrect ordering of parts quite a few times. With auto parts catalog software's, the identification of parts is super simplified and shows the complete exploded view of all parts in an assembly.

Detailed Information About Products

Traditional spare parts catalogs were unable to provide all the details of the parts when ordering or making purchase decisions. Auto parts catalog software gives you the complete detailed information about the parts such as its specifications, compatibility, price, availability, supersession information, and update history. In case any such part isn’t available, the software suggests the part that will act as an alternate for the one sold out.

Ordering Process Streamlining

Auto parts catalog software has made the ordering of spares as easy as a childs play. Dealers can now order spare parts and also enjoy end-to-end tracking with call tags for the delivery channels. There are options to integrate inventory that shows the availability of the spare when ordering. This also enables an integrated marketplace for the dealers to order the spares.

Insights that Help in Making Informed Decisions

Reporting and insights is an important aspect for any business. With traditional setups it was extremely challenging to compile the data that was in thousands of pages to calculate insights or trends in ordering or spare part performance. Auto parts catalog software enables OEMs to see the performance of the spare part sales and also get information about trends, ordering patterns, how are the dealers using the software, how are they placing orders, etc.

Conclusion

Auto parts catalog software has improved the way automotive OEMs do business and has enabled dealers to reduce errors and streamlined the ordering processes. The entire value chain is improved due to these improvements and enables OEMs to implement targeted strategies and help their dealers to improve their aftermarket sales.