Parts All Over's new direct store now live

Parts All Over has now launched it's own direct online store. And we are launching with the entire catalogue of DBA (Disc Brakes Australia) brake rotors. You can now buy any DBA rotor in stock anywhere in the country, direct from Parts All Over. Best of all we ship free to any business address in major capital cities. So if you can have it delivered to work, the price you see is the price you pay.

We are very pleased to launch our own store with such a great quality product as DBA's disc brake rotors. They have an amazing range from straight replacements for OE parts at great prices, through the upgraded street replacement series available in either slotted left and right varieties or cross drilled. We have put a table together on our Part Finder page that sets out the benefits of both. There are DBA products for passenger cars, 4x4's and light commercials.

Up from the street series there are two performance series (4000 and 5000) using superior materials, patented technologies, built to incredibly fine tolerances and hand finished. Within both series you can select from standard, slotted left/right pairs or cross drilled options. 4000 series are great for you if you are looking for sensational street performance or even Motorsport. The 5000 series are available on fewer models but offer genuine high performance on high performance vehicles. The 5000 series are all two piece rotors with replacement rotors available individually.

DBA rotors are also available in the USA and Europe but our initial offering is limited to Australian buyers.

The Parts All Over store is built with the same technology and features that we offer to other commercial sellers who use the partsallover.com.au platform to help buyers rapidly identify and purchase the best parts and accessories options for their car at the best price.

Top 4 online trends for the Australian auto aftermarket in 2011

The online GST campaign by Australia’s big retailers has focused consumers on buying from online sites like no other recent event. Anecdotal evidence from established online retailers report a step change increase in online sales as a result. No matter which side of the argument you are on, understanding how your customers are behaving is vital.

Here's how we see the big online trends at the start of 2011

1. Improved confidence in online buying. The big retailers campaign has legitimised online buying as a mainstream option. Lack of confidence in receiving what you order has been the single biggest concern holding Australians back from buying online. Increased trust in online sites will accelerate growth.
2. NBN starting to come on stream in mainland states. Every previous increase in online speed has seen an equivalent growth in online transactions. This time the reliability and responsiveness on online sites will be even greater than the pure speed increase suggests. Buying online will be much better experience.
3. Growth of mobile shopping. By the end of the year, half of all smartphone owners expect to be shopping using their mobile. Mobile shopping offers existing retailers a major opportunity but ignore it at your peril. Customers will use the technology to find nearby alternatives and cheaper prices elsewhere.
4. Social Media. Much hyped, the world of Facebook, Twitter and Blogs has been on every trend list for the last few years. For many, actual results have been a bit disappointing. But compare social media with the general growth of online advertising and this new side of the business is maturing much faster and producing better results much earlier in its lifecycle. It will be well worth the effort to persist.

Our top 3 tips

• Retailers need to focus on local search first. Most online use is still in doing the research not the actual buying. You get the most immediate value from making sure your local customers find you when searching online. The trick is knowing what they are searching for.
• Don't think about selling online unless you are prepared to ship items the same day. Don’t build profits into shipping, absorb whatever costs you can because consumers compare on cost+shipping. Online a lack of transparency or less than perfect customer service is very public and a long lasting problem for you.
• You can compete without the lowest price but a highly restrictive returns policy will destroy customer confidence in buying from you. (see Trend 1)

Drive Car of the Year Award

Parts All Over is extremely proud to be an official partner of Drive Car of the Year being announced next Friday 27 Nov. We are sponsoring the Best AWD over $40,000 and Best AWD under $40,000 categories. Don't forget the people's choice award vote is still open until Thursday 26 so there is still time to make you voice heard.

Jobs and Photos

We are looking for an experienced parts interpreter with multi- franchise or general retail experience to drive our research and take our catalogue to the next level. See the full details here.

and one for everyone else ... we want a lot more photo content on Parts All Over.

Photos help people instantly confirm that the part is the one they are looking for. We are working with a number of people to make it better. But you can also help!

On any part detail page without an image there is now a button to "Add a Photo". If you have a photo from the past or can snap something you have laying around, please share it. All photos are checked and optimised before being published so you won't see it straight away.
Even photos of packs help people understand more about what the words mean.

And where you are listing something for sale, photo should always be added. Check out the listing for alloys without a photo - would you buy without seeing what they looked like?

Tell the world you are Selling on PartsAllOver

When you list something for sale on parts all over you can now get an RSS feed of your items. That means you can show them in you Facebook or MySpace pages or on your member profile in the Share and Network section of PartsAllOver.

Listing on PartsAllOver is free and there are no time limits on how long you can advertise, so its perfect for unusual or obscure items that would be too expensive to advertise other places. Just logon to Sell Free with your Ning ID to start.

Below your listings there is now an RSS link and instructions for how to display your items on various social networks

New site update for PartsAllOver today

We've rolled out some cosmetic changes to PartsAllOver today, especially with Sell Free. They are designed to make entering a listing clearer and easier. Included are:

• Roll over tips to help you fill in the form
• New layout to group like information
• Less wasted space

There are also new how to videos under Share and Network on Selling, Buying and Registering. If you have trouble understanding the best way to do something, check them out for tips.

And don't forget to leave us feedback about any issues

FAQ's Quickest way to add Parts and Cars, Logging In

Some FAQs on the new PartsAllOver release

Can't find you car or a specific part?

The quickest way to add something to PartsAllOver is to Sell it. We are giving priority to adding any part someone wants to sell. That includes linking it to the vehicle(s) it fits, so of course they will start to show in your search options as well.

The PartsAllOver database is over a million parts and 7000 odd vehicles and we have a new version in preparation with over two million parts. To be visible and useful to you, we need to link parts with vehicles and cross reference them to equivalent parts from aftermarket or performance manufacturers. If you want to sell a part Free, enter the listing, we will verify it, link it and publish. Look out for our sixty second Sell It Free Video next week.

Updated 27 May

Removed details of login issue now fixed