Making Progress
It’s been a few months since we began the expansion of the Clickable online store. We said 2014 would be about broadening our product range, and we certainly hit the ground running. Since the beginning of the year we’ve doubled the parts selection available on our website, but we still have a long way to go before we get to where we want to be. We’re focussed on building the business that we want long term -- that is, one that we would want to buy from. For us, Clickable is about creating sustainable value to our customers and not about simple, perceived short-term gains. We’ve undoubtedly met friction and difficulties in certain areas and ruffled a few feathers since we opened our doors, but we hear every comment and suggestion and we continue to work towards building out a complete range of parts for all modern BMWs.
As you would expect, with any dramatic expansion there are always going to be some growing pains, and we recognise there are still areas that we need to improve. Inventory is one aspect we’re working to fix, as some new products have proven to be incredibly popular, far exceeding even our own expectations. As many of these parts are on back-order with our overseas suppliers, it can mean some months before we can restock, putting us in the unfortunate position of having to turn our customers away. There’s a fine balance when trying to order the right amount of product in from suppliers, especially when we haven’t sold those parts in great volumes before. We’re finding ways of doing a better job, and each phone call and order we receive from you helps to give us a better understanding of what parts we need to keep more of on our shelves.
It’s important to note that we have no plans to offer bodywork parts, interior trims, or motors. Almost all of those types of parts can almost only be sourced through either a wrecker or BMW dealership. Part of our expansion included offering more value-add products such as our Autoglym selection of car care products, and to a lesser extent, our premium selection of Motul oils. We are hoping to continue to release more mechanical maintenance parts that provide greater value and convenience to our customers, as well as eventually offering some performance-oriented options. As enthusiasts ourselves, we’re keen to begin offering performance parts in the long-term, but right now our focus is on our core business. That means building a complete range of high quality maintenance parts at reasonable and logical pricing.
But reasonable is a subjective term. We’ve always been frustrated by the high prices for BMW parts locally, so we see it as our job to find that sweet spot between great OEM alternatives and offering reasonable pricing. Anyone that buys online understands that there more options available than ever before, and we’ve always viewed our pricing as an overall cost when compared with overseas suppliers. Being an Australian business however, our biggest advantage still comes from our quick delivery, our 12 month warranty, and our parts that are specifically designed for Australian-delivered (hot climate, right-hand-drive) BMWs. Getting our pricing right is absolutely something we take seriously, but our reputation still stands on our commitment to quality.
The second half of 2014 will be about continuing this momentum. In the coming months we’ll be offering even more radiators and thermostats from original equipment supplier to BMW, Behr Hella, as well as working on improving our packaging. Parts and pricing are just one aspect of Clickable -- making sure our customers enjoy their buying experience is paramount in everything we do.
We’re lucky enough to have built a strong customer base in the almost three years we’ve been open. There’s no mystery surrounding it, we simply strive to offer a great customer experience together with good prices and quality parts, and our customers recognise that. We want to reiterate that we truly appreciate the patience that our customers have shown us during our early years, and during the growth yet-to-come.