Patriot
Patriot’s switch from Trademotion to RevolutionParts revived their online parts business
Patriot dealership (with franchises that include Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Callaway) had a serious need for a website revival. Parts Director and E-Commerce Specialist Chris Hagen had been brought in to help move excess inventory as well as revive their parts selling website. Making the switch from TradeMotion to RevolutionParts was the first step.
“An artist can only paint a masterpiece if he has his materials, RevolutionParts not only has provided me with the tools to design and sell, they have more importantly allowed me to assemble a diverse team that can all work together to follow a simple process.”
Chris Hagen, Parts Director and E-Commerce Specialist at Patriot
As one of eBay’s Platinum Power Sellers, Christopher Hagen knows how to move parts online. He’d spent years learning the ins-and-outs of the automotive industry as a GM Master Technician, before moving over to a successful career in ecommerce.
Therefore, it was no surprise when in 2015, Jason Owens, owner of Patriot Buick GMC, reached out to Hagen — with a herculean task: to resurrect an abandoned parts website that had once held promise, but few believed was salvageable now.
Hagen recalls that the website, GMPartsHouse.com, had been “left behind during a staffing change the year before.” Undoubtedly, it was a colossal project, but he adds, “once our visions meshed, we realized that the growth of the department only had the sky as the limit.”
Immediately, Hagen identified two key issues which stood in the way:
- A blocky selling platform that was difficult to use and impossible to customize.
- A team of auto pros who excelled in technical knowledge but lacked in computer literacy.
A Clean Slate
Hagen’s first mission: to find a better platform — because “an artist can only paint a masterpiece if he has his materials,” he surmised. And the current materials just weren’t working.
In this case, those materials were TradeMotion’s platform, which proved difficult to use for even their most technology-savvy employees. For those less adept, it felt downright impossible… leaving only a small number of employees who could help.
Along with these struggles, there was no room for customization or design, no way to develop effective processes, and the platform certainly hadn’t helped reduce excess parts inventory.
Out with The Old, In with The New
Right away, Hagen terminated his agreement with TradeMotion — and implemented the RevolutionParts platform. This was a move that brought the immediate results he’d expected.
“The launch team there was great. I have a tendency to see my own vision of how something should appear and…we got it just right. I am constantly changing sales, banners and everything else which keeps us fresh and ahead of the curve,” Hagen happily reports.
Without A Process, You Have Chaos
Beyond having the right tools for the job, Hagen knows that a successful business needs the correct processes in place, explaining that “without a process, you have chaos.”
“Revolution Parts not only has provided me with the tools to design and sell…[they’ve] more importantly allowed me to assemble a diverse team that can all work together, following a simple process,” Hagen adds.
A Collaborative Approach to Parts Sales
The team at GM Parts House has an assorted set of skills. While all were experts in their knowledge of auto parts and accessories, many had little-to-no experience with computers or online sales.
One employee, Hagen recalls, “had minimal computer skills…he’s an old school parts counterperson and wanted nothing to do with technology or the internet.”
Nonetheless, when Hagen utilized RevolutionParts’ user profiles and automation features, he was able to streamline the process for these employees and make the platform easy-to-use for everyone.
Now, according to Hagen, that same employee “does order sweeps twice a day, performs VIN checks, utilizes my automated emails, and passes them down to processing/shipping.”
A Successful Partnership
It’s been a few years since the initial re-launch of GMPartsHouse.com.
Today, Hagen happily informs that “the re-launch went great, inventory leveled out and we started selling at ‘True profit’. All of this led to the offering of my current position as Parts Manager…I oversee all daily operations while still keeping GMPartshouse.com growing!”
Hagen accredits much of this success to his partnership with RevolutionParts, but hesitates to reveal that secret to his competitors, saying:
“Why would I want a competitor utilizing something that I know will work”?
