What Does Success in Online Parts Actually Look Like?
Estimated read time: 10 minutes
Five dealerships. Five different operations. One thing in common: they found customers beyond their zip code.
When dealers hear about eCommerce success, it's easy to picture some massive operation.
A warehouse. A dozen employees. Thousands of orders flying out the door. And sure, those operations exist.
But that's not the whole story.
Automotive News recently took a closer look at the online parts opportunity and found dealerships at very different stages building meaningful new business online.
Some are doing hundreds of thousands a month. Some are doing $50,000. One is doing around $20,000 with one person handling the operation.
That's kind of the point: You don't have to build somebody else's online parts business.
Success Doesn't Start at $500K a Month.
$20,431 IN 30 DAYS
Dover CDJR: One Person. 103 Orders. No Chaos.
Let's start at the smaller end. At Dover Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, the online operation isn't being run by an eCommerce department. It's essentially a one-person operation. Over one 30-day period:
“It's just me and a label printer.”
He was able to pull this off by building fool-proof processes. Orders move through a repeatable workflow. Fraud checks are built in. Labels are generated automatically. And instead of trying to do everything at once, the operation works through orders one at a time.}
The person running it summed it up pretty well:
"It's just me and a label printer."
And maybe even better:
"No chaos. Just structure."
Why This Story Matters
$20,000 a month probably isn't going to make the cover of Automotive News.
It can still be meaningful incremental revenue for a dealership and you don't need ten employees to get there.
$25K → 50K-60K/MONTH
Murfreesboro Nissan: Start Small. Get Consistent. Grow.
Murfreesboro Nissan is another good reminder that eCommerce doesn't have to start big.
Parts specialist Ian Bellamy runs the dealership's online operation himself. In October 2024, the store was doing around $25,000/month. From there, it grew to $50K–60K/month.
- 205Orders
- $208Average Order Value
- 1Person Operation
A recent snapshot showed $52,237 in sales from 205 orders, with a $208 average order value.
Automotive News highlighted the dealership for exactly this reason: even a smaller, single-point dealership can find meaningful opportunities online.
And Ian isn't pretending it happened overnight.
"It's a slow build at first… if you stay consistent… it's worth it"
That's probably better advice than “go big.”
He Built Around What One Person Could Handle.
- Shipping visibility.
- Automated replies for common customer questions.
- A routine for processing orders.
- Simple tools that cut down repetitive work.
And when volume started testing his capacity, he controlled the pace of growth instead of letting the operation turn into a mess.
That’s how a Parts Department adding another revenue lane is done.
~$200K/MONTH
Gateway GMC: It Started With a Neighboring Dealership’s Parts Order.
Craig Shield's story starts in receiving. One day, Gateway GMC's normal parts delivery showed up. Except part of it wasn't theirs.The driver had accidentally delivered an order meant for another local GM dealership.
Craig noticed something immediately: Their order was about four times bigger than Gateway's. Then he saw two words in the comments: Amazon and eBay. He took a picture and sent it to his dealer principal.
“Look at what they're doing in online parts sales; maybe this is something we should look at.”
Six years later:
- ~$200KPer month online
- 1312 Of Gateway's total parts sales
But there's something else about Craig's story that's more interesting than the revenue number.
His Parts Department Doesn't Close When the Dealership Does.
“If the dealership is closed at 2 a.m. or if there's bad weather in Dallas, I'm still selling.”
Gateway gets calls from customers all over the country looking for parts they couldn't find somewhere else. That's the real shift: Your local market doesn't have to be the end of your market.
- Gateway GMC, Dallas · local radius
- Online orders shipped nationwide
Illustrative
~$50K → $450K+/MONTH
Parkway Chevrolet: Capturing the Demand That Already Lives Online.
When Robert St. Romain Jr. arrived at Parkway Chevrolet, the dealership already sold parts online.
There was just one problem. In Robert's words:
“It was a mess.”
People were working on it, but nobody really owned it. Robert streamlined the technology, organized the systems and processes, and put dedicated attention behind the business. Parkway went from roughly:
But Robert's explanation for why online matters is much simpler than the growth chart.Parkway went from roughly:
“There are a lot of customers out there, and our competitors were taking the business.”
The customers existed before Parkway organized its eCommerce operation. Parkway just wasn't getting enough of them.
The Other Number Worth Watching: Repeat Business.
Robert's team treats every online buyer like they're buying a million-dollar part.
- Packaging matters.
- Communication matters.
- Customer service matters.
And according to Robert:
Of the online business is from repeat customers.
Robert St. Romain Jr., Parkway Chevrolet
Online doesn't have to mean anonymous one-and-done transactions. Do it well enough, and you're building another customer base.
AND THEN THERE'S PARAGON.
They Already Had eCommerce. They Just Started Taking It Seriously.
Online doesn't have to mean anonymous one-and-done transactions. Do it well enough, and you're building another customer base.
Then they started paying attention:
-
Where they started$35–40K per month online“Set it and forgot it.”
-
What they focused on
- Search Ads
- SEO
- Amazon
- eBay
- + Better product photography
-
Result in 4 months$500K per month onlineNo additional staff
The part that will probably surprise more Parts Managers? No additional staff. Paragon didn't build a warehouse either. It created more throughput with the people and infrastructure it already had.
Brian's takeaway:
“Dealers can't afford to leave 80% of the business out there for independents to take.”
Notice What None of These Stories Have in Common?
- They didn't all start with the same budget.
- They didn't all have the same number of people.
- They didn't all sell the same brand.
- They didn't all grow at the same speed.
- And they definitely didn't all end up at the same monthly revenue.
They started capturing demand that was already out there.
-
For DoverThat meant 103 orders.
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For MurfreesboroIt meant building a one-person operation past $50,000 a month.
-
For GatewayIt meant realizing another dealer was already reaching customers they weren't.
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For ParkwayIt meant putting structure behind an opportunity that had been sitting there all along.
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For ParagonIt meant finally treating eCommerce like a real revenue channel.
That's what makes these stories useful.
See What Online Parts Could Look Like for Your Dealership
You don't need Gateway's operation, Parkway's team, or Paragon's volume. Start with your dealership, your people, and your goals.
Talk with an eCommerce Expert