Mix equal parts of a penchant for fast parts accessibility, an entrepreneur’s industry passion and singular focus on keeping customers’ trucks delivering goods on time. The result: pioneer and innovator David Seewack and his growing digital online marketplace, finditparts.com.
His sights are realistically set on revolutionizing e-commerce for commercial vehicle parts (and beyond). There has to be a new and better way to get the right parts to the motor carriers seeking them now, not later.
Seewack and his business partners have lived and breathed truck and trailer parts for 20+ years. Actually, his enthusiasm and his impatience to add more services and educate more fleet and parts managers to rely on his service have produced a new resource.
“We will win business and grow our capabilities with customer service, not low price,” he explained. “Our intention is not to be a category killer, but to enhance the digital process with easy to find, easy to buy, and if necessary, easy to return. Our goal is to wow them, and they’ll be back, even if we’re the customer’s second choice.
“Our mantra with customers is to under-promise and over-deliver, and that’s with the everyday part or the hard to find one. Plus, in three clicks or less, a truck operator can find it, buy it, and even track their order,” said Seewack. The firm has a committed call center staff. In 20 short months, finditparts.com has developed access to 2.5 million parts.
“WDs can ship for next-day delivery, and we had to match that, plus add more value,” recalled Seewack, who detected a wasteful nature where people searched for parts, calling multiple people and fumbling with notebooks and catalogs. “It can be very inefficient, and the truck supply chain is so fragmented.”
At the operation’s foundation is a comprehensive supply chain with strategic fulfillment partners. “We really want connectivity with the supply network—efficiency is the key for our business and for our customers,” he said. He reports a vital factor to the growth is the availability of top brand names, including Cummins, Caterpillar, Grote, Timken, Donaldson, SKF, Meritor, Stemco and Truck Lite.
Today, the company ships orders to every customer by regular ground shipping—50% of the orders are for “next day.” Customers receive a complete dashboard tool, including purchase activity, status of order and tracking numbers.
Aside from the digital business (70% of the business), finditparts.com maintains its call center with bi-lingual “parts detectives” to answer questions, find and identify parts (often exchanging jpeg parts photos to add comfort), and a real plus: “to establish a personal working relationship with customers,” he says.
Recently, the site added 3D photography. Seewack notes, “It’s making a real difference in customers’ eyes… you can rotate the part 360 degrees.” When asked if he’s content with the current level of customer satisfaction, Seewack says, “You bet, but there’s so much more to come.”
Within the next 30 days, finditparts.com will add:
• A redesigned website with easy user interface and a stronger search engine tool.
• Even more parts accessibility (3/4 million more added), including electrical parts, air brakes and remanufactured components (“we don’t choose to handle cores”).
• Intensified marketing efforts—“going beyond word of mouth or Googling,” plus a new mobile app to “speed the process of finding a parts with as few as two clicks.”
• For repeat customers, a company charge account (payable through PayPal), billed net in 30 days, and the ability to charge the orders. (There’s no credit card acceptance yet, as the company is still working to make the system work right for customers.)
• For light trucks/passenger cars, a new automated online catalog (foreign and domestic).
Finditparts.com’s long-term goal: “to be as effective and efficient as amazon.com in its category.” Seewack is a non-stop doer with significant, consistent growth generated from thousands of new and repeat fleet customers.
