Maintaining your own car is not easy. Of course, a car is a convenient way to travel, for some it is still a status and prestige, but any car requires appropriate care. A car always costs less than it was spent on its purchase and maintenance, but this does not stop the ever-growing pace of car dealership sales; a person needs a personal car.
The fact is known that car manufacturers do not earn on the sale of new cars, namely on the supply of spare parts and components. We will not name which brands of cars especially need spare parts, but sooner or later any car undergoes repair. It can be ordinary wear after operation, or even a traffic accident. But in any case, while the cars drive, their owners will buy parts for them.
In any locality there are car owners, and all of them sooner or later turn to auto parts stores. An eternal car that is not subject to wear has not yet been invented, so the demand has always been very large for car parts, it does not fall, but even grows - now the car is accessible to any working person with an average income thanks to car loan systems. But even for poor people it may very well be an old car, a one-time repair of which costs half its market value. Therefore, the opening of its outlet for the sale of auto parts has prospects even in small towns, they are not only in remote rural areas.
Competition, of course, is very high, but conducting this kind of business is not done in the most optimal way. If you study the local market for automotive parts of any city, then good service can be found in official centers or at large dealers, but the price of spare parts in such stores is very high. Original allegedly. The remaining entrepreneurs do not bother to increase their competitiveness - they buy parts daily, profit is not bad, why then change something? However, there is something to change.
If you want to open your own auto parts store, you need to consider improving the level of service, which will give a huge advantage over other players in the market. Focusing on the client in such a business will make it possible to occupy a leading position among competitors simply because no one is doing it today. Thus, we can conclude that the competition is large, but relatively more easily bypassed by more modern methods of conducting trade.
There are plenty of options for opening an auto parts store. They all come down to one principle - to buy from a wholesaler cheaper and to sell more expensive at retail (although another way will be discussed below), but a novice entrepreneur is free to choose the features of trade and can cover different market segments.
To start a similar business, you need to register as a business entity; this will require an average of 20 thousand rubles. There are no restrictions, you can open your LLC, you can take out just like an IP. Code (OKPD 2) 45.32 Retail services in automotive parts, assemblies and accessories. If the business will be conducted through wholesale sales, then the code exists and another code (OKPD 2) 45.31 Wholesale services for automotive parts, assemblies and accessories.
After registration, the first thing is best to decide on the car manufacturers whose spare parts are planned to be delivered. In the world there are only a few major global automotive concerns, but there are a lot of brands. Most of them belong to huge holdings, but spare parts for local auto production are also relevant for Russia, as well as China (Chery, Byd, Geely, Lifan and some others) and Ukraine (ZAZ, the most common model of which is Chance - an exact copy of Chevrolet Lanos).
Absolutely all manufacturers can be covered, of course, even by supplying spare parts for Indian and Iranian cars, but in addition to huge investments, you just need to understand huge amounts of information and work with a maximum number of suppliers. Therefore, it is optimal to concentrate on one popular manufacturer, country of production, or simply choose several brands whose cars are common. Work with cars of rare brands is unlikely to pay off, since the parts purchased by the dead load will rest in the warehouse, because there are probably not a dozen car owners, for example, the Holden brand, in the entire million-strong city.
It is best to carefully study the market and determine which parts are offered the least for which vehicles; this will allow you to quickly find your consumer, investing less money and effort in advertising. The direction for the sale of spare parts is promising, for example, for the Chinese automobile industry - there are more and more such cars, but there are corresponding stores, although not in large numbers. And, of course, you need to rely on the available funds, because in order to trade parts for BMW, you need to buy a shipment of goods worth more than when working with the AvtoVAZ model range.
What is still noteworthy in such a business is a wide range of possible starting capital; if you wish, a very small store can be opened by investing about 200 thousand rubles in it. If investments increase, then, as a rule, profit grows, so you can count on a similar undertaking with different amounts of starting capital.
A further question is finding a place. There are perhaps three possible options. The first is the location on the territory of car markets. In large cities, most of the car-related trade is conducted there, and the entrepreneur, whose outlet is located in the car market, has the advantage that only potential customers visit it. That is, the cross is large and there is, mainly, only the target audience. Of the minuses - a huge concentration of competitors from all sides who also seek to earn. This does not allow to overestimate the cost of parts, and the business has to be conducted in conditions of struggle and harsh survival. However, most auto parts stores in car markets have been around for a relatively long time and are not going to close.
It will be especially lucky if the market does not have a presence of spare parts for any car brands that motorists have (again, the Chinese auto industry - finding a spare part for them in not so large cities is still a problem, this is due to the fact that Chinese cars are relatively recent began to be delivered in large quantities to this country).
The rent starts at 20 thousand rubles, a typical small store with its warehouse and retail space is at its disposal. It may be possible to put in several display cases, but this, as a rule, is not interesting for customers - they go after a specific item and do not look around enthusiastically in the store. The very last option is to trade from an unopened tray, but this is mainly done by sellers of stickers and cheap accessories, they probably will not buy spare parts in this way - there is zero confidence in such sellers. But then it’s cheaper both in terms of rent and maintenance of the outlet.
The second option is to open a specialized store outside the car market, just in the city, which eliminates the need for competitors within walking distance for the buyer. In this case, you will have to additionally spend money on advertising, find a place with a lot of traffic and provide a wide range of products. Rent in the central areas of the city can be significantly higher, while being on the outskirts will lead to a small number of visitors.
The best solution is to be located near large car services or car repair shops. Owners of car service stations will generally become good partners; if you manage to attract them to your store, they will often buy a lot. But they are usually interested in only the price, they are looking for the cheapest item. The store, which is simply located in the city, must in addition have a list of related products, which is not necessary for the “market” point - next to it there are special shops for car oils, batteries and other universal things that are bought there. For a lonely located auto parts store, such goods will become a good source of income and will attract a non-target buyer who, in the event of a breakdown in his car, is more likely to turn to the place where he already bought it.
The third option is the most difficult, requires significant investment, but also allows you to cover not only your city, but even a region or a whole country. This is an online auto parts store. It is easiest to do this in cities of federal significance, especially in the capital. It is there that it is cheaper to order foreign parts, after which they will be engaged in their implementation. The assortment of such stores is an order of magnitude larger than a regular outlet and covers several manufacturers and all their models. It’s optimal when the site works across the country, sending out details to customers by advance payment, and at the same time has its own store in its city. The store operates on an outpost system, but in addition to it, a significant storage room will be needed. The lease of such a place starts from 50 thousand rubles in the regions, however, the main expense becomes the purchase of a large number of parts - you have to provide the whole country.
It is also worth thinking about hiring a courier who must either have his own car or work as a worker, but he will have to buy it.
And, of course, the site itself, the development of which alone will require about 20 thousand rubles, and further support and promotion may withdraw another 30 thousand from the capital. At the same time, the site should be user-friendly and have the ability to select parts precisely - according to the VIN code and by specialists on the basis of complete information about the machine. This is very often neglected by online auto parts stores. Many modifications of the same model very often lead to a situation where the part does not fit. And if a buyer can return to a regular store for an exchange, then he cannot go to a foreign city. Accepting spare parts for exchange for shipment is expensive for an entrepreneur and for a long time for a client who will probably not contact again. Therefore, it is better to initially work so as to exclude such situations. Another difficulty is the development of a database of spare parts, without which the conduct of online trading will be significantly more difficult. You can buy it (but it is unlikely to cost a thousand rubles), or you can, by spending time, make it yourself.
You can work in the store yourself, when you open a relatively large outlet, you can attract another person or get along with the help of your family. In the case of online sales, additional staff will be required who will maintain the site and work with the clientele - this is about 5 more people, depending on the number of visitors and the range of products supplied. It is better to shift accounting issues to outsourcing (it will require about 5 thousand rubles a month) or, again, do it yourself if you have the appropriate knowledge.
Based on this, monthly expenses will range from 10 thousand rubles (utility bills and accounting) to 110 thousand if there is a large staff (based on 20 thousand rubles per person). As for the purchase of parts, then, as mentioned above, it all depends on the starting capital. The most running parts for a small shop can be bought for 150 thousand rubles. At a simple point, it will not be possible to sell large-sized goods - both the size is large and the cost is large, and they are not bought very often. If we manage to find direct suppliers, we will be able to reduce the final cost for the consumer by half compared with competitors, but wholesalers usually work only with buyers who purchase large quantities. Therefore, a large warehouse or online store for its opening will need to be provided with goods of at least 1 million rubles.
The wrap in the sale of spare parts is on average 50%, which each intermediary adds to the price - it is easy to guess that the customer buys the goods at a knowingly high cost. That is why online stores sell goods at a great discount - they work with direct suppliers.
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning a slightly different type of business for the sale of auto parts. These are the so-called autodismantling. The essence of their work is not to buy new parts, but to sell used and rented from another car, similar to the car to the client. For this, masters buy out broken and not subject to restoration vehicles, disassemble them into parts, after which they are sold in parts. The benefit for the buyer is obvious - the cost of such spare parts is much lower than new ones, while original spare parts are often sold in good quality, because they rarely repair at auto dismantling, preferring to sell parts that have remained intact. Another advantage is the ability to buy parts whose production has long ceased. For the seller, such a business is also beneficial, because the total cost of entire spare parts exceeds the cost of buying auto trash in an unassembled state. But here, everything is not simple, because cars often “beat” to death precisely with the bow, and the market is filled with parts for the rear, but for the front there is a shortage.
Autodismantling can be a good addition to the already opened auto parts store, in which deliveries of new parts are established, but as an independent type of business, it can exist if you work with very common models and established purchases of broken cars. For 100 thousand, you can buy 3-4 dead Russian-made cars, but even in this case, providing a complete set for one model may not work. Therefore, in order for the assortment to be complete and presented not by one instance of each part, significant investments are needed; and not all customers will want to take parts from a dead car - not new ones. But as a promising option for the development of your store, autodismantling can be considered.
Matthias Laudanum(c) www.clogicsecure.com - a portal to business plans and guidelines for starting a small business 08/18/2019