2021 E-Commerce Study
Since the last MacKay & Company E-Commerce Study, the U.S. and the world were hit by a pandemic that upended everyone’s lives, unfortunately ended many lives, and disrupted most day-to-day business activities in a variety of ways, including the medium and heavy duty parts aftermarket.
With most people restricted to lock down (at home) for an extended period of time and, in many cases, still working at home, this spurred changes in people’s buying behaviors.
In late March of 2020, MacKay & Company immediately began assessing the impact of the pandemic on the aftermarket with a new report called Market Pulse, measuring weekly business activity levels at truck dealerships, independent parts distributors, fleets and component and truck manufacturers.
The latest monthly measurements from fleets is that their online parts buying is up 0.2% over pre-pandemic levels and this has been up as high as 5%. Truck dealers and independent parts distributors recently reported online parts sales up 4.5 points to 11% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Is this a temporary bump or an acceleration of a trend?
Here are just a few of the topics that we are planning to address in our latest E-Commerce Study:
So who is the online buyer? How do millennials differ from Gen Xs or Boomers? What parts are most frequently purchased online? What channels do fleets use for online purchases and why? Do fleets reference component manufacturers’ websites to assist in their purchasing of parts? If yes, how?
How do fleets find their online parts sources? If fleets are not using online purchasing, why not? In addition to parts purchasing, what data, invoicing and software integration is a necessity for online sources to provide? What online support is required and expected to ensure return customers?
And much more!