Buyparts.com.au to launch at ITTES

Online aftermarket truck and trailer accessories specialist to launch at Melbourne's International Truck, Trailer & Equipment Show

Buyparts.com.au, a new online aftermarket truck and trailer parts and accessories distribution company, has announced it will be hosting an official launch evening for its suppliers at the 2014 International Truck, Trailer & Equipment Show, to be held at Melbourne’s Royal Showgrounds, on the evening of Friday, April 4.

Steve Tabacchiera (pictured, left), Managing Director of Buyparts.com.au, says the evening will be an important milestone in the development of the fledgling firm.

“The website has been up and running since November but the International Truck, Trailer & Equipment Show will be our first real ‘here we are’ event,” he says.

“It’s important for us to be there; it’s important for us to support the industry we run in. We’ll have touchscreens set up, staff taking people through the website on iPads, and suppliers taking people through their ranges on the stand.

“We’re inviting our suppliers to be there for a few drinks and canapés as we celebrate our official launch,” he adds.

Buyparts.com.au offers aftermarket truck and trailer parts and accessories at retail, trade and fleet pricing, taking orders and payments online before handling and tracking the freight of the parts direct from the supplier to the customer’s door.

With enquiries handled via a dedicated telephone line (9.00am to 4.30pm) and an innovative live web chat function, it effectively bridges the gap between suppliers and customers in the online sphere. Buyparts.com.au also offers back-to-back warranties on its parts and it has an exchange/customer returns policy in place.

Tabacchiera says the site has filled an important gap in the commercial vehicle marketplace.

“The commercial vehicle industry is something of a late adopter when it comes to technology,” he says.

“It’s populated more by traditional-style bricks-and-mortar businesses but there’s this huge growth in e-commerce. E-commerce ties in really well with commercial vehicles because convenience is a huge driver – people want to know where they can get parts and the easiest way to get them. Total cost of ownership is a big concern and truck owners and operators want to be efficient with their parts and service spend.

“Looking around in the industry I saw an opportunity because there are many quality suppliers out there but none of them have a really strong web presence – no one has really decided to branch out into that web space and dedicate a hub to commercial vehicles,” he says.

“What we offer is a plug-in solution for our suppliers to get online and we offer a major hub of resources and information for our customers – basically we join the dots.”

The thirty-two-year-old assembled a presentation and a business model and began talks with a variety of parts suppliers in early July last year.

“We started building it in August of 2013 and by September I knew I was onto something,” he says.

“Then I brought Stuart Pascoe [pictured, right] on board as Manager – Business Development and Operations, to kick the project into a higher gear.”

Tabacchiera has previously worked for major operations including Denso, John Deere and Mercedes-Benz, while Pascoe, 49, has come from a role heading up parts sales for Cummins Diesel.

“I came from an agricultural and truck background and Stuart has a strong knowledge of industrial engines, so together we knew many suppliers and it all meshed together really well,” says Tabacchiera.

In under six months the Buyparts.com.au website has been attracting plenty of attention.

“It’s just been powering on – if I just gauged the success of this platform purely on supplier

interest, we’ve knocked it out of the park,” Tabacchiera says.

The site currently has 3000 subscribers and lists over 6000 lines of products from 26 quality suppliers, with many more poised to get on board. The brands represented include companies such as Fleetguard, Fuchs, Dana, SAF Holland, Denso, Bosch, Hitachi and Nelson Exhaust Products, with lighting expert Hella about to join the line-up. Tabacchiera says quality products are the foundation of the business.

The website is ruffling some feathers across the truck industry but Tabacchiera says he’s simply offering an alternative way to do business.

“I’m not here to take business away from the dealership and the traditional bricks-and-mortar distributor,” he says.

“There’s still a place for those businesses, but what we are is a complementary channel. There are a lot of people heading online to buy their parts and plenty that even go online to buy direct from the US, but that’s crazy – why would you buy parts online from the US when we have so many great suppliers here in Australia? To me buyparts.com.au is about facilitating that transaction.

“I know I’ve prodded the bear in terms of putting a lot of people on notice. We get phone calls about it, but you know what? I think it’s better for the industry. We’re waking the industry up and saying, c’mon guys, there’s a better way of doing it.

“The benefit we have is that we focus on our core, which is online. The retailer who is a bricks-and-mortar retailer, who then tries to add an online business, well – it’s a different methodology, a different mindset, a different way to market. If we can attract multi-billion-dollar organisations to partner with us to get their products online, and not build their own online store, then we’ve got to have something pretty special.”

For more information visit www.buyparts.com.au. You can find Buyparts.com.au at Melbourne’s 2014 International Truck, Trailer & Equipment Show on stand MA19.

Buyparts.com.au to launch at ITTES

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