CARiD making mark as online auto accessories site

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What separates CARiD from the giants of retailing auto parts, such as Pep Boys or AutoZone?
Two million items from 700 different brands.

That’s how many aftermarket auto parts for cars and trucks are carried by the Jersey company, which got its start in Edison in 2008 but in 2010 expanded to its current Cranbury headquarters.

“CARiD’s founders saw this niche in the market … a place the average Joe could go to handle all their auto needs,” said Len Stavish, CARiD’s chief operating officer. “And I mean all their auto needs. CARiD carries everything from auto care and detailing to repair or performance parts, audio electronics (and more).

“(But) it would be impossible to store all those parts in any single retail location. If you think about all the parts for each make and model of vehicles (we have), how many stadium-sized warehouses would you need?”

That’s why CARiD focuses purely on Web sales.

Stavish put it in this pithy phrase: Clicks over bricks.

At least partially attributable to CARiD’s continuous 30 percent year-over-year growth is the fact that traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are losing out to e-commerce retailers across all types of products.

And that’s not slowing.

According to a five-year forecast done by Forrester Research in April, the U.S. e-commerce industry will top the $300 billion mark in sales this year and keep growing to nearly $500 billion by 2019.

That’s a slightly faster rate of growth than what was projected by the organization in a similar study performed in 2010.

So as more customers move to digital, CARiD is taking its warehouse to that realm.

“We’re able to create a virtual warehouse through a relationship with vendor and distributor networks,” Stavish said, explaining that the company operates on a dropship model.

CARiD had 3 million monthly visitors to its website back in 2013, scanning through its many products.

Though being able to offer so many products in a digital environment is a perk for CARiD, new auto parts enter the market each year. That’s difficult for the company, which has to stay ahead of product launches so it can provide an assurance to customers that what they are buying is right for their vehicle.

“It’s a challenge for this industry,” Stavish said. “Data acquired from the supply chain of sources is not always the best.”

Another characteristic of the e-commerce business that’s more of a question than a sure challenge: How interested are the digital-savvy millennials in buying car parts?

Stavish admits that millennials — and their car-buying habits, or lack thereof — have gotten a lot of attention.

CARiD markets to all generations, however, which is why Stavish feels the website hasn’t lost relevancy. And for the younger folks still interested in cars, CARiD has built up a social media presence — and even a platform of its own, my.CARiD.com, where car enthusiasts can post images of their vehicles — in hopes of attracting new customers.

CARiD’s checkered flag is securing its leadership in this budding e-commerce space, which is gaining more attention from potential competitors all the time.

“We questioned having to go out and buy our (physical footprint), and we’re having great results because of it,” Stavish said. “(And now) we believe we are the benchmark for what the online automotive parts and accessories industry is.”

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The biz in brief

Name: CARiD
Headquarters: Cranbury
Leadership: Len Stavish, COO
Founded: 2008
Employees: More than 50
Revenue: The company has grown year over year at a rate of 30 percent
One more thing: CARiD was recently selected to join the Google Trusted Stores program, which was created to help shoppers identify online merchants that offer a high-quality and safe shopping experience. Entrance to the program is awarded to e-commerce sites after they demonstrate a track record of on-time shipping and first-rate customer service. When shoppers make a purchase at a Google Trusted Store, they have the option to select free purchase protection from Google.

Wheel goes ’round

At one time, CARiD was averaging 200 returns annually because expensive chrome wheels were arriving scraped and scratched during shipping. The company’s reputation was getting just as scuffed.

Not to mention that handling returns is a labor-intensive process, requiring additional warehouse and customer service resources. Even if only one of four wheels is damaged, the whole set has to be stored for up to six weeks while a replacement wheel is ordered.

Even though this was a small percentage of all its annual shipments, CARiD worked with UPS to resolve this hassle.

The UPS Package Design and Test Lab analyzed CARiD’s existing packaging procedures and developed a new protective packaging process. The lab simulated real-world package transport scenarios to do that.

“We learned that something as simple as a wheel rubbing against cardboard can damage the chrome,” Craig Yvonnet, UPS account executive for CARiD, said in a media release.

The testing found a need for a 2-inch barrier in packaging, created through combining layers of foam, protective dividers and multiple boxes. Today, the company reports, very few wheels are returned to CARiD.