Expanded Truck Part Search Tool Reduces Downtime, Keeps Customers in the Loop

When a heavy-duty truck has broken down while there’s a job to be done or a load to be delivered, getting it back on the road as quickly as possible is a top priority.

And for parts distributors, that means the pressure is on, too. In a world of choice, the business that makes it easiest to find the right clutch cable or starter motor for the job wins.

“This really speeds their time to find the part they need, order it and then get back on the road, which is where they want to be instead of worrying about trying to find a part for a truck that’s down,” FleetPride Vice President of Digital Ken Clinchy told PYMNTS.

FleetPride, a distributor of parts and services for heavy-duty trucks and trailers, announced July 7 that it had added several new features to its eCommerce site to meet the needs of today’s fleets and heavy-duty repair facilities.

Providing Information on Availability, Location

One thing these customers need is availability and selection. In response, the company has increased the number of parts online from 400,000 to 670,000. These are available within the company’s network of distribution centers and branches.

“In the economic situation that we’re all in, it’s really important for us to make sure that our customers can see those parts that we have available and where they’re located to help them, especially if they’re in a truck-down situation,” said Victoria Roberts, the company’s senior director of marketing.

Fleets and repair facilities also need to be able to find the parts they need quickly and easily. This can be a challenge for an industry in which the cataloging is not as well developed as that in the consumer-oriented automotive aftermarket.

To make it easier to find these parts, the company has expanded the number of cross-references on the site to 4.5 million. This industry is driven by cross-reference when it comes to search, Clinchy said, adding that’s how most parts are found by shoppers.

With the cross-reference, shoppers can find parts that are of a different brand than the one they searched for, but have the same form, fit and function. This enables them to find an alternative if the part they’re looking for is out of stock, if they’re looking for an option at a different price point or if they want to find parts in other categories made by a brand they prefer.

“They can use the cross-reference to look for the right value proposition that fits the customer,” Clinchy said.

Other search functions allow customers to search for a brand name or for items that are on sale, regardless of brand.

Predicting What the Customer Needs

Customers also want to be able to get those parts in their online shopping cart as quickly as they can. A third new feature FleetPride has added is predictive search that, as the shopper is typing, guesses what they’re searching for based on popular searches on the site and shows them two or three options. The more they type, the more refined the options get.

This feature also enables customers to find a part in the search box and click on it to add it to their cart, rather than having to first go to a search results page.

“This is all part of us improving search to be able to sort through the hundreds of thousands of parts, which will expand to millions of parts as we continue to grow, and get customers to the part as quickly as possible,” Clinchy said.

For larger customers, FleetPride also offers other digital solutions such as electronic data interchange (EDI).

“We work with really small individual owner-operators all the way up to the biggest partners out there, and so we continuously work within our team to help develop our customer experience for them to make their lives easier,” Roberts said.

Offering Payment Options

In another way to streamline purchases, FleetPride offers three different payment options on the website: terms, credit card and cash on delivery (COD).

As these are business-to-business (B2B) transactions, a good portion of FleetPride’s customers are on terms. Those that qualify for terms can either pay online or via check or automated clearing house (ACH) through FleetPride’s accounts receivable (AR) department.

Another option, credit card, is preferred by some customers who use that payment method to get reward points.

The company also offers COD. Some customers — not a lot, but a good number, Clinchy said — prefer to manage their business on a cash and check basis.

“So, we did actually have to develop that option for customers online to be able to post-pay for parts when they pick them up or when we deliver because they really do just prefer to pay with cash or check because that’s how they manage their business,” Clinchy said.

FleetPride also offers a digital rebate program that customers need only register for to start earning money on the parts they buy online.

“With all the challenges that we’ve all had in the last few years with supply chain and whatnot, this is just another way to help our customers with those challenges,” Clinchy said.

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