Jordan Hettinga oversees initiatives that are designed to make it faster, easier and less labor-intensive for new-vehicle dealerships to sell original equipment replacement and repair parts in the eBay online marketplace. Hettinger, previously an executive with Snap-On Tools, says he aims to help dealers keep turning their parts departments' inventory.
On how franchised dealerships can list retail parts on eBay Motors
Many of our 1,000-plus OEM dealers are brought in through third-party partners that create listings for dealerships using OEM parts data. These partners can tap directly into the dealership management system to provide inventory control between the listing and the dealership's inventory records. These partners also have special pricing that enables listing larger volumes of parts.
For high-volume dealers, many of these sellers come through partners such as WHI, OEConnection and RevolutionParts. Through these listing solutions, sellers get benefits, including an eBay storefront and the associated listing fee discount. These partners provide a fast way to list inventory directly from the DMS.
On how eBay helps parts department managers and employees run a mail-order business
We have a variety of training resources available online to sellers of parts and accessories. Additionally, the partners I mentioned before have a ton of support available for working with dealers directly.
The partners will work you through an onboarding process to help you understand what it takes to be a better online retailer. They help sellers get a grasp on best practices, shipping and packaging expectations in the industry, and more. Our partners are well equipped to help dealerships with a successful e-business strategy.
On eBay Motors' initiatives to help dealerships get into mail-order parts sales
We continue to work on growing authorized reseller programs for OEM dealerships. These are programs we've created with the OEMs to help build trust with buyers — to help give better visibility that the part they're buying is authentic and from an OEM dealership.
One of the things that comes up regularly is obsolete inventory — what do we do for it? EBay is a great way for dealerships to start listing and selling parts on the platform. It's even easier if you're using a third-party partner; your obsolete inventory already exists in your DMS. It's a great way to try to clear out inventory that tends to be a pain point for some dealerships.
On how eBay helps reduce returns by helping buyers find the right part
We have built algorithms that connect the largest catalog of parts and auto inventory in the world, with unique visual diagrams based on car make and model. Buyers can search for the part they are looking for with just one click and be guaranteed that it is right for their vehicle.
Shop by Diagram is a new feature that we rolled out in August. It supports vehicles from 1995 to the present model year. We have plans to expand this feature to include older-model vehicles.
What's really useful for OEM dealers is that anytime a consumer engages and tells us their vehicle information when they are purchasing a part, we provide that information to the seller directly.
