Amazon for Spare Parts: Cross-selling with Digital Spare Parts Catalogs

While industrial companies are far from having exploited all the potential for digitization in service, the consumer sector is already a big step ahead. No wonder: Many consumers have long been impressed by the benefits of digitization. They willingly integrate cloud services, apps, and smart home devices into their everyday lives.  

Smart B2C companies are taking advantage of their customers' digital affinity: they are digitizing their purchasing process - and thus providing inspiration for new business models in the aftersales service of machinery and plant manufacturers. 

Amazon is the leader in online shopping. The success of the world's largest online retailer is primarily due to its extensive self-service functions: 

• Customers can browse the product range around the clock and independently complete, edit or cancel orders. 
• Subscriptions are set up in no time at all and strengthen customer loyalty. 
• A shipment tracking system shows when and with which service provider the goods will be delivered. 

However, Amazon attributes 35 percent of its sales to cross-selling. 

Cross-selling is a sales technique in which a salesperson suggests that customers buy additional products to an item already in their shopping cart. 

On Amazon, customers see matching product recommendations for each item. Typical phrases for this are "Is often bought together with ..." or "Customers who bought this item also bought ...".  

The "Is often bought together..." section shows customers various combinations that offer added value to the selected product and encourage them to fill up their shopping cart further. In this way, the marketplace manages to increase customer satisfaction and its own sales. 

Many items cannot be used on their own, but only in combination with others - for example, a hose coupling requires a tap connector. If buyers are made aware of this during the purchasing process, they usually accept the product recommendation gratefully. 

Cross-selling measures also help machine and plant manufacturers to generate revenue apart from new machine sales and to increase customer satisfaction. The spare parts business in particular offers cross-selling potential. 

Examples of cross-selling opportunities are: 

• Seal kits, which operators should have on hand when replacing valves 
• Filters for oil changes 
• Maintenance kits for wear parts 

It is frustrating when accessories are missing during an urgent repair of a stationary machine. So customers are even more likely to order the additional parts they need right away if they are told to do so when buying spare parts. 

In the past, salespeople would point out suitable accessories when ordering spare parts over the phone - assuming they had the relevant expertise. Today, digital spare parts catalogs can provide automatic recommendations for accessories. Often, personal consultation is no longer necessary at all.  

The result: product recommendations generate additional sales, especially if they are displayed in the right place and the additional items land in the shopping cart with a single click. They also lead to an effective reduction in the support workload. 

If you want to exploit the cross-selling potential in aftersales service and relieve your employees, you need 

• an overview of the spare parts portfolio 
• knowledge of which parts customers might need 
• a networked and up-to-date database 

Amazon's user interface is nothing more than a user-friendly look into the retailer's enterprise resource planning system. For machine manufacturers, a digital spare parts catalog serves this "shop window" function.  

The easiest way to merge data from different source systems such as an ERP and make it accessible to customers in an online shop is via a spare parts catalog and service information system such as Quanos SIS.one. 

All the relevant parts information on machines and plants is brought together in this system and made available to maintenance staff, service technicians, support staff, customers, and dealers. 

An intelligent spare parts system allocates spare parts precisely to the serial number and automatically suggests the accessories required. Customers thus receive service at a level they are used to from Amazon and Co. 

Cross-selling measures are just the beginning and open up further opportunities for increasing sales - for example in connection with human machine interfaces (HMI).  

These operating panels provide information about the status of a machine or support the user during maintenance or servicing work. For this purpose, manufacturers provide supporting texts, images, or animations on the displays.  

Information about required materials can be provided in the same way. This could work as follows, for example: 

• Sensors monitor the condition of the machine and sound an alarm if a value leaves the defined parameter corridor. 
• The technician then receives a checklist of the components to be checked via the HMI.  
• If the machine is connected to the manufacturer's spare parts catalog, it can identify itself by serial number and suggest available parts and suitable additional parts to the technician. 

Read more ideas for new business models in our blog post "Looking for New Business Models?". 

To ensure that your cross-selling measures are crowned with success, we would like to conclude with a few tips for implementation: 

1. Involve employees who are close to the customer and the product in the development of your cross-selling strategy. This will help you find out which product recommendations really make sense. 
2. Do not overwhelm customers and only offer additional items that are relevant to the spare part or machine.  
3. Make it as easy as possible to add additional items to the shopping cart.  
4. Be transparent and provide your customer with information on why a particular additional item is essential. 
5. Think about subscription models or discounts to make the purchase even more attractive for your customers.