Start an Aftermarket Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Distributor

1. 1

   Understand your place in the chain

   You sit between parts manufacturers and the retail counter: dealerships, repair shops, and parts stores buy from you at wholesale and resell at 35 to 50 percent margins. Your own margin sits below that, in the 15 to 30 percent range, earned on volume, availability, and service. This is a B2B business; riders are your customers' customers, not yours. The automotive equivalent, an OEM and aftermarket parts distributor for car dealers, is a separate card.

2. 2

   Secure manufacturer supply lines

   Establish accounts and distribution agreements with the aftermarket manufacturers whose parts and accessories your dealer and shop customers want. Negotiate pricing, exclusivity where possible, and dating terms. The breadth and reliability of your supply lines determine whether shops can count on you as their source.

3. 3

   Build the warehouse and logistics

   Inventory is the business. Set up a warehouse, an inventory and order-management system, and reliable outbound logistics so shops get parts fast, often same or next day. Capital tied up in inventory and the speed of fulfillment are the two levers that make or break distribution economics.

4. 4

   Focus the catalog on fast movers

   Do not try to stock everything on day one. Concentrate on the high-turn consumables and popular accessories your accounts reorder constantly, and use manufacturer drop-ship for the long tail. Fast turn protects your cash and your margin; dead inventory kills distributors quietly.

5. 5

   Win dealer and shop accounts

   Your customers are businesses, so sell on availability, terms, and reliability, not on a single low price. Offer good dating, easy reordering, and fast fulfillment, and build the relationships that make you a shop's default supplier. Account retention and reorder frequency drive the whole model.

6. 6

   Scale on service and turn

   Grow by adding accounts and deepening share of each account's parts spend, funded by inventory turn rather than markup. Watch fill rate, days of inventory, and receivables closely, because a distributor lives on working-capital discipline. Add categories and territory only as your logistics can support the service level accounts expect.

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