The auto after-sales e-commerce model of auto parts and maintenance products is facing vigorous development

As of 2014, the number of cars in China has exceeded 140 million, and the number of civilian cars has also exceeded the 100 million mark. Such a huge car ownership is on average less than 4 years old. In other words, with the continuous growth of the vehicle age, it is bound to usher in the inevitable blowout of the automotive aftermarket segment in the next few years. The better prospects of the automotive aftermarket segment also leave a huge space for the development of China's auto parts, auto cleaning and reduction machines, and auto care products industries.

With such a huge development space, and the e-commerce market that is currently vigorously developing, how to combine the two, the imagination is infinite. But for now, Zhicheng Automobile Cleaning Equipment Manufacturers, Auto Cleaning and Reduction Machines, and Auto Maintenance Products Manufacturers believe that among the O2O, B2C, and B2B models, the B2B model of China's auto parts industry is the most suitable and has the most development prospects. 

The main reasons are as follows:

First, the current major customers in the auto aftermarket are still auto repair shops and maintenance and repair chain stores. Since China's auto industry started late, even though we are now the world's fifth annual auto production and sales champion, but for ordinary people, cars are still rare and still not well understood. Therefore, in the European and American markets where car cleaning equipment is relatively developed, the “shallow” understanding of Chinese car owners has led to a “weak” DIY ability, which directly determines that China ’s auto parts e-commerce is unlikely to be a direct 2C. The direct customers of China's auto parts manufacturers are still distributors, and the end customers are still repair shops. Therefore, if the model of B2C is an ordinary car owner, the author thinks that there are still some difficulties.

Even though the O2O model of online transaction and offline maintenance workshop for repair and replacement, is the link of online transaction still carried out by ordinary car owners? In other words, how should this platform do a good job of connecting the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain that already has various problems? These all take time to explore. Therefore, O2O is not in the present but in the future.

Second, there are many counterfeit goods and three non-products in the automotive after-sales industry, and there are more fakes on the Internet. The vigorous development of the automotive aftermarket has attracted many capitals to enter the market in the name of auto parts. When some people were stunned by their interests, they took advantage of our car owners' ignorance of auto parts to produce counterfeit and shoddy parts. Some insiders said that about 70% of auto parts in the current automotive aftermarket are counterfeit and shoddy products. This situation has caused a decline in the credit of the auto parts industry. Under this premise, how to ask consumers to go to the virtual network to purchase accessories?

Third, the professional problem of auto parts data. One of the problems encountered by auto distributors is the professionalism of data. Unlike other categories, if there is no professional data system in the auto parts industry, it is difficult for consumers to find the products he needs more easily and correctly. The data problem is a very critical factor that restricts whether auto distributors can make breakthroughs. It is a pity that there are no auto data service providers like Epicor, TecDoc, WHI, etc. in China.

To sum up the three problems, as far as B2B is concerned, this problem may be relatively mild.

In the B2B model, it is the auto parts manufacturer to the dealer that deals through the e-commerce platform, or the auto parts manufacturer directly to the car washing machine repair shop, or the dealer to the repair shop. Please note that no matter which pair of combinations, the buyers are more familiar with auto parts products than ordinary car owners. Precisely because of their understanding of auto parts, many problems caused by insufficient professional knowledge will be avoided in the communication process; according to their understanding of auto parts, the problem of lack of professional data will also be weakened.

In addition, according to the current scale of enterprises in China's auto parts industry, the majority are small and medium-sized enterprises. They like e-commerce because of its convenience and low-cost marketing. Most of their current e-commerce thinking is to obtain a wider range of customer resources or supplier resources under the most cost-effective situation. They haven't thought much about how 2C and O2O.

However, even the current legitimate B2B model is not an advanced state of development. Compared with the relatively mature auto distributors in Europe and the United States, China's auto parts auto maintenance e-commerce is only in its infancy, and the overall scale is still very small. Whether it is B2B, O2O or B2C, it still needs more profound exploration and development.