SIMON MCLEAY MYAUTOMOTIVE

Hi Simon, MyAutomotive is quite a new player in the automotive market. What sort of involvement have you had in the world of cars?

Correct; we are quite new. In prior roles, I was heavily involved in the marketing side of motorsport — around the NZV8s and the Toyota Racing Series — which I quite enjoy, so I’d often be at the track, or involved in some way.

Did this translate into the idea behind launching MyAutomotive?

We actually started from a business named Trade Tools, servicing the automotive sector, whereby we used a sales van as a mobile alternative to a retail store. That gave us a good idea of the service aspect, and the unique needs of the automotive market, as, to a degree, they were customers we were already dealing with.

What exactly is MyAutomotive?

MyAutomotive is essentially a one-stop online automotive parts and products store. We offer customers the ease of shopping online within the comfort of their own home or business, with purchased products delivered to their door at competitive prices.

What’s the advantage of purchasing from MyAutomotive instead of buying online from overseas?

As we are New Zealand based, any warranty or damage issues can be rectified quickly, and you get a human element through friendly, local people at our help desk — “online comfort” could be a way to look at it. For us, it’s about service first, driven by having a customer support team based in New Zealand that enables fast delivery, quick response to questions, and competitive prices.

We’ve seen that you offer free freight on local sales. That must be a big help for purchasers?

Indeed. As a general rule, if you’re buying online, it’s got to be shipped — we’ll ship, freight free, anywhere in mainland New Zealand. We don’t want to post misleading information, so we publish the final product price as inclusive of GST and freight — you know what price you’re going to pay. Our customers tell us again and again that “freight free” is a major part of their buying decision.

As a relatively new entrant to the automotive retail market, how comprehensive is your product range?

We started late last year with around 800 product lines, and are now on around 4000. We aim to have 100,000 items listed by the end of the year, and to cover every category relevant to the automotive sector — for example, we’re going to be including tyres in our range in the future. Basically, the aim is to have you covered when working in, on, or around a car.

That’s pretty impressive. Any thoughts of opening a physical retail store in the future?

No, we would never operate a retail store, due to certain complexities. The way we look at it, it’s better to excel at one thing, and, for us, that’s online. We aim to become a sort of online supermarket for the automotive sector; a local equivalent to overseas suppliers, in effect.

Sounds like a great addition to our scene’s market; thanks for your time, Simon.