On the occasion of its Elite Customer Conference in Lyon on 20 and 21 February, Marketparts unveiled its new platform and model: the world's leading spare parts marketplace is becoming entirely transactional.
More than 15,000 registered distributors in 125 countries can now access nearly 26 million offers on 10 million products. To support its growth, Marketparts has just finished a new funding round and is opening two new subsidiaries in the United States and India.
Marketparts is the first BtoB marketplace entirely dedicated to car, truck and 2-wheeler spare parts.. Launched in 2020, it initially started connecting buyers (parts wholesalers) with sellers (distributors and equipment manufacturers). A few weeks after launch, the company had to deal with the Covid-19 crisis which quickly built awareness of the opportunities digital technology offered for the aftermarket industry.
Marketparts is drawing on the success of this initial stage as it enters a new phase of development with a new business model: a fully transactional marketplace. “We surveyed our most representative clients to better understand their needs”, says Christophe Riberolle, Marketparts co-founder and CEO. “They all said that to take things further, we needed to go from an intermediary model to a distribution model, providing services such as logistics and payment terms. This is how we decided to change our business model.”
Marketparts hosted around fifteen tier 1 parts manufacturers on 20 and 21 February at its first Elite Customer Conference. At this event, the startup explained in detail to these strategic partners the evolution of its model as well as the new services now available to both vendors and buyers.
Priority to services
Marketparts is now offering its vendors (distributors or parts manufacturers) to handle all transactions with buyers, who are all parts distributors. This is a condition to access the site.
With this service, Marketparts can offer the products of its sellers in the areas they select at the price they set. “We don’t want to take the place of traditional distributors. They are actually our clients. We enable our sellers to access areas or customers they may not be able to serve directly. Few sellers consider the actual costs of opening an account, managing business relations, invoicing, shipping and completing customs formalities. Marketparts is a unique turnkey solution that handles all of these issues in an extremely competitive way.”
To ensure a high quality of service, Marketplace can directly connect to seller, parts manufacturer and distributor stock to highlight available parts offers in real time. This is standard in many markets, but still rare in the international aftermarket industry.
Payment security is a key issue for sellers. Marketplace has partnered with Fintech companies to offer nearly real-time payment terms to its buyers on the platform. This is an essential condition for B2Bgrowth and unique in the spare parts business. Today, 80% of current Marketparts buyers are eligible for the Buy Now, Pay Later option.
Marketparts is also positioning itself as a global media and a virtual trade show featuring a permanent showroom and marketing initiatives for brands, tailored to a large target audience of professionals.
Marketparts also offers Exclusive Deals, which are targeted marketing campaigns for product families and geographic areas. Equipment manufacturers such as NTN-SNR, NRF and more are already running these campaigns.
Providing market intelligence
After three years in business, Marketparts now has a unique and powerful database: the marketplace knows where millions of items are sold and at what price.
The company offers this price monitoring service to parts manufacturers so they can determine the right price positioning in any area.
Expanding to new markets
By definition, Marketparts has global reach. The marketplace uses its Lyon warehouse to effectively manage logistics flows between European warehouses and its buyers and sellers.
Marketparts is accelerating its global expansion by opening two subsidiaries in March and April 2023 in the United States (Chicago) and India (Chennai). “In B2B, it’s important to reassure buyers by offering local in-person support. This is the primary objective of these two subsidiaries”, says Mr Riberolle.
Closing a new funding round
In February 2023, Marketparts closed its second round of funding for €3.4 million from institutional partners and data industry players, as well as parts manufacturers who believe in Marketparts’ model. “We’re thrilled that Eucon group founders Maurice and Marcel Oosenbrugh are among the new Marketparts investors”, says Mr Riberolle.
Reaching 30,000 distributor clients around the world
More than 15,000 distributors in 125 countries are now connected to the marketplace, with nearly 80 new accounts opened every day.
Marketparts receives BtoB orders that can reach tens of thousands of euros, which is a clear difference from BtoBtoC marketplaces that serve individuals or repair shops with average basket sizes of a few dozen euros.
The marketplace now provides buyers nearly 26 million offers (on 10 million products) and aims to expand this to 50 million by the end of the year.