Look past delays and shortages, and you’ll find one online truck parts supplier that isn’t feeling the pinch. While other outlets may single-source product or engage in just-in-time inventory to trim excess stock, FinditParts, a heavy-duty vehicle e-commerce site, is gaining thrust, claims CEO David Seewack.
Created in 2012 to address product scarcity, the barebones upstart began identifying bottlenecks in the pipeline to connect buyers with commodities and hard-to-find spare pieces. Under one digital canopy, Seewack streamlined parts location where shoppers can find the exact brand in a fraction of time compared to offline methods. Over the past nine years, Seewack continues to improve his multi-tiered network model by guaranteeing parts availability through a combination of direct relationships with manufacturers, wholesalers, and surplus sellers.
Last year, recalls Seewack, segments of the truck aftermarket were encountering abnormally longer lead times caused by the cargo ship traffic jams from Asia, including China, to wait their turn at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach to unload their containers. According to Seewack, the timing could not be even more off. When the wholesalers went into cash flow conservation by reducing their inventories when COVID-19 hit, they were unprepared for how delivery vehicles would prove essential as the on-demand service economy filled the void.
FinditParts quickly soared. “Business is great!” laughed Seewack, speaking from his Los Angeles headquarters. “Every metric you can imagine is growing.”
The promise of large storage capacity like the 1,300-foot ship — equal to the length of the Empire State building — that congested the Suez Canal lanes for six days underscore the fragility that the best-laid supply chains can fold unexpectedly. “Where we are an amazing supplier, especially as inventories are shrinking in the ecosystem, is that we have so many sources of supply that we have at the same time for one part,” said Seewack.
Dating back to the early 2000s, Seewack studied migrating consumer behaviors to the online space. It inspired him to replicate the self-service model from Rock Auto, whose mission declared by the site is to “liberate” the paperback catalogs from the local parts store. The intuitive product search typically begins with year-make-model, part number or keyword entry. Further, Amazon’s bountiful product attribute listings demonstrated to him why shoppers typically begin their research there without feeling obligated to buy anything.
How fast that FinditParts could digitize application data for fleet owners to service their Freightliners, Kenworths and the like has been a marathon. So far, the privately held company has amassed more than 10 million item numbers, up 66 percent since 2016, which puts Seewack closer to becoming a resource base.
Portions of the truck parts industry are trailing their car cousins by the fitment applicability, explains Seewack. What appears on the paper catalogs is an incomplete digitalized presentation. He points to ACES, the Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard, the industry’s fitment data conversion shortcomings in mapping the fragmented physical dimensions into a universally readable format. Gradually and steadfastly, with the aid of trade groups, an organized approach has begun to build traction, says Seewack, but he admits his impatience with its speed to maturity.
Highly attuned to transport uptime, Seewack intends to break free from the old school ways where the major brands like Bendix brakes or Hendrickson rely on the automotive segment to market and distribute product via its hub-and-spoke network.
In February, FindItParts announced in a press release that they recruited David Olsen, CEO of Transaxle, to transform its e-commerce market strategy. As part of the business plan to expand its reach, the statement read Olsen “will execute its plans to develop areas from sales to technical services to supplier networks.”
Privately and sometimes publicly, critics of pure-play sites have cried foul. Some argue that businesses housing parts are unfairly matched against an e-tailer that does not own the inventory. Seewack says those allegations, especially concerning pricing, are overblown. “There are systems more in place to manage pricing,” said Seewack, whose resale values he alleges are marked up higher than his competitors. Besides, many manufacturers continually monitor reckless discounting and unauthorized use of their logos, which is one legal tangle that Seewack would prefer to avoid.
“The supplier community has figured this out from a supply chain and pricing management point of view,” e-mailed Mike Palm, vice president of sales for CRP industries. Regardless of segment or product category, CRP Industries supports Manufacturers Advertised Pricing, called MAP, because this form of governance ensures stability for the entire trade. Notes Palm, “MAP pricing is a tool that helps accomplish this if the market uses this.”
Chris Cammack, who oversees digital commerce for Grote Industries, a maker of vehicle lights, sees no conflict. Asset-free websites do serve a purpose, Commack told AMBW. And in most respects like CRP, Grote embraces two prevailing models in the e-commerce channel where some businesses choose to hold inventory or none at all, with the loophole of forging alliances with third-party warehouses.
No matter what, as Cammack carefully tracks internet sales, including Grote’s presence on the FindItParts homepage, transactions are growing. To that end, Grote created a stopgap to equalize fair competition. The lighting company has worded their contract agreements giving full license to resell its products through third parties. But in terms of backing their loyal accounts, Commack said, “We don’t do a lot of dropships. It’s not in our business model.” He added, “I’m interested in keeping everyone competitive.”
The “may the best man win” attitude carries an entrepreneurial spirit for David Seewack, who plans to launch a customer service center in India to supplement his company operations arm in the Philippines. If everything follows the plan by September, the truck enthusiast should expect enhanced product imagery, drill down fitment data and related content positioned to render FinditParts a knowledge hub envisioned by Seewack. Price factors out of the value proposition. It becomes centered around a frictionless customer experience and timely package arrivals.
With much effort to become the first call with buyers, Seewack qualified his goal a notch lower. “My value proposition is that if you don’t’ have that part readily available from your number one or your number two supplier, look no further than FinditParts because you could be spending hours on the phone calling everyone in the world.”
