WINNING THE MARKETPLACE RACE

Case Study By: Retailbiz, Special Report 2

Since beginning in 1979, Australian company Speedmaster has grown from a hobby shop to an international brand serving customers across the globe.

Much of its success has come from selling on marketplaces including Amazon and eBay, with the help of ChannelAdvisor. Speedmaster is a manufacturer of aftermarket automotive components. 

Established in 1979, the company has grown from a hobbyist engine shop to delivering high-quality products to a mass global market.

It is one of very few automotive aftermarket companies who design, develop, test and manufacture products in their own facilities.

Their products and components range from standard V8 replacement parts through to cylinder heads for Top Fuel Dragsters. By 2017, Speedmaster became Australia’s number one automotive aftermarket brand online store, which increased the focus on sustaining their online presence.

Speedmaster’s primary goal is to create automotive products inspired by old and new technology. As such, Speedmaster focuses on innovation through its three key pillars: people, products and approach. The company operates bricks-and-mortar facilities as well as an online presence. Its main office is located in Campbelltown, New South Wales, with distribution centres in Sydney, Australia and California, US. A ChannelAdvisor customer since 2009, Speedmaster currently utilises ChannelAdvisor’s Marketplaces platform to support its selling efforts on Amazon. The company employs over 400 staff in Australia and the US dedicated to e-commerce, including product development, customer service and marketing.

SITUATION

Speedmaster’s online presence started in the early 2000s and was a reflection of the resources available at the time. In 2013, the company expanded globally. Speedmaster wanted to not only sustain its growth but to become the largest automotive aftermarket brand. With the help of ChannelAdvisor, Speedmaster rolled out on Amazon US in 2014.

“Our aim is to be globally recognised as a brand,” says Jason Kencevski, CEO of Speedmaster. “Being a certified and approved brand on Amazon adds credibility to that.”

Speedmaster used ChannelAdvisor to standardise its international operations and facilitate its growth. Once it achieved this and positioned itself as a market leader, it needed ChannelAdvisor’s support to ensure it retained its spot on top.

“Marketplaces keep raising the bar and we need to keep rising to the challenge. We need to ensure that we provide the best customer service and keep delivering on our value proposition and we needed a solution that would support us and scale with us,” says Kencevski.

SOLUTION

In 2015, the company utilised the ChannelAdvisor platform to support its foray into Amazon.

“One minute we’re not on Amazon and the next minute we’re on Amazon and it’s all sorted. I don’t even know how we did it to be honest,” says Kencevski.

The company now uses ChannelAdvisor’s Marketplaces Module, Digital Marketing Module and the Netsuite Connector to support its growth as it expands globally across marketplaces. Through ChannelAdvisor, Speedmaster has been able to standardise its operations and automate many operational functions, including marketing and customer- service communications.

“We chose to consolidate and expand our e-commerce operations with ChannelAdvisor because it ticked all the boxes we were looking for,” says Kencevski. “During our research, the ChannelAdvisor platform came across as the best solution in terms of its ability to automate processes, integrate with our other systems and help us improve the customer experience.”

In addition, the ChannelAdvisor platform allowed Speedmaster to streamline its data inputs and manage its presence on several marketplaces through a single data feed, thereby reducing the company’s administrative burden.

RESULTS

Speedmaster’s experience shows the importance of having a multi-marketplace strategy and what the different platforms have to offer.

“It’s been really interesting. We had instant success with eBay. It was really strong at the start and then continued to show slow growth. Amazon year-on-year shows really strong growth. It was a slow start, but it’s been consistently strong growth year-on-year.”

Speedmaster’s US experience reflects much of what retailers are experiencing in Australia with their early stage launches and is an important lesson to always keep long- term strategy in mind. “It wasn’t an overnight success but we continue to have that strong growth,” says Kencevski. “

That may just be the way the wheels turn with Amazon... In the first couple of years we were very, very strong. We’re now showing in excess of 30 per cent growth on Amazon year-on-year.” This growth trajectory has set Speedmaster up for success when it comes to scaling.

“It puts us in a good position because it’s not sporadic growth or overnight. We can sustain it as a business. “Our success in the US wouldn’t have been possible without the capabilities of the ChannelAdvisor platform. It’s been an invaluable tool across all our channels, especially on the marketplaces.”

Speedmaster utilises Amazon Prime and FBA for select items (approximately five per cent of the business) and Kencevski says this is working really well.

“It’s easy for consumers—you need something, you buy it. We use Prime ourselves as a business. We needed computer parts the other day because we’re updating our IT infrastructure and it was quicker to get them from Amazon because they had it in the Prime system than from the wholesaler or brand directly. They’re adding value and that’s helping brands. People love it.”

When it comes to succeeding on marketplaces, Kencevski says automation is key.

“Complying with everything and worrying about changes that happen all the time isn’t something that keeps us up at night. If we weren’t with ChannelAdvisor, remaining compliant would be a huge headache and stress.”.