Sparexhub sees pick-up in demand

Online car spare parts company benefits from shifting attention to e-commerce

PETALING JAYA: Sparexhub, an e-commerce platform offering genuine automotive spare parts, is seeing a pick-up in orders during the ongoing movement control order (MCO).

While new vehicle sales have been taking a beating, Sparexhub co-founder Devindran Ramanathan said there is still steady demand for after-market parts.

“Half of our sales this year have been during the MCO, with May being our best month to date where we registered RM50,000 in sales,” he told Starbiz.

“The MCO created awareness from traditional business operating models to e-commerce.

“Since the majority of suppliers in Malaysia are not online, our platform amplified in terms of value and purpose. Also, our logistics partner, being an essential service, was able to operate.”

Devindran said, however, that in light of the heightened interest for after-market parts, Sparexhub was not able to fulfil many of the enquiries completely during the lockdown period.

“But we took this opportunity to build our clientele database and customer engagements, since buyers were now willing to embrace e-commerce more convincingly. We have also started to work on the pipeline of interests generated during the MCO,” he added. To tackle the rise in Covid-19 infections in the country, the government implemented the MCO on March 18. On May 4, the conditional MCO (CMCO) was enforced to allow businesses to re-open to recover the economy.

The CMCO has been extended to June 9.

Sparexhub was co-founded in 2018 by Devindran and SM Brahmananda, both of whom have decades of experience in the local automotive industry.

Brahmananda said the Sparexhub portal serves as a centralised auto parts database, as well as a marketplace for branded, automotive spare parts, including aged parts.

According to its website, Sparexhub offers parts for models such as BMW, Mini, Motorrad, Mercedes Benz, Volvo and Volkswagen.

Brahmananda said Sparexhub will be focusing on these marques for now.

“Our research shows that European brands like BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche are high on the search lists of the on-line shoppers looking for auto parts, as local and common Japanese and Korean brands are easily found at the many physical stores.

“We want to strengthen our foundation with the pilot brands that have committed to work with us,” he said.

Devindran, meanwhile, said that the after-market segment was often considered an “after thought” in the automotive industry when it came to generating sales.

“Direct employment alone in the after-market sub-sector is close to 140,000 or approximately half of the total employed within the Malaysian automotive industry,” he said, adding that the Malaysian after-market segment is worth an estimated Rm20bil.

Last month, the Malaysian Automotive Association announced that it was revising downwards its 2020 total industry volume forecast to 400,000 units from 607,000 previously, due to the adverse impact of the Covid19 crisis. With the pandemic likely to have a severe impact on new car sales for a while, Sparexhub chief operating officer David Hector said the uncertain economic outlook actually provides a window of opportunity for after-market players.

“Traditional margins derived from the selling of a new car have long gone. Few are committed to the after sales business, ensuring customers are happy and processes are efficient.

“Customer are undoubtedly going to retain their cars longer and they will patronise trusted workshops that have their best interests at heart. Resale value of cars will be volatile for some time as dealerships continue to flush out existing stocks with attractive discounts and promotions. Car owners will keep their present cars longer until the uncertainty has abated,” he said.

“Half of our sales this year have been during the MCO, with May being our best month to date.” Devindran Ramanathan