With the MyToyota Store, Toyota Material Handling is Changing How Parts Are Sold
Toyota Material Handling is the number-one selling brand of forklifts in North America, supported by their distributed network of local dealers serving customers across the United States.
Until recently, there was no way to purchase Toyota Material Handling OEM parts online. Customers who needed parts for forklifts or other material handling equipment used the company’s online dealer locator to find a dealer in their area. To make a purchase, they would pick up the phone to call a sales representative, taking the sale offline.
However, business buyers’ habits are changing. More B2B buyers are making purchases online than ever before, but the manufacturing industry as a whole has been cautious about launching an online store that could compete with their dealers for sales. Toyota Material Handling saw an opportunity to cement its position at the forefront of the B2B marketplace revolution – and offer a new resource to drive sales for its network of dealers – by investing in a direct online sales channel. In April 2019, they seized the opportunity by launching a Mirakl-powered Marketplace: the MyToyota Store.
One-stop shopping for Toyota customers with equipment in the field
Toyota Material Handling used Mirakl’s complete turnkey solution to develop an online marketplace so that it would meet the growing demand for service parts online. Now, with the MyToyota Store, Toyota Material Handling is offering the only online source for real Toyota Genuine Forklift Parts, offering customers quick access to more than 600,000 parts. With their marketplace, Toyota Material Handling isn’t just responding to demand for online availability of service parts. It’s also attracting the next generation of B2B buyers to the Toyota Material Handling brand. And it’s a smart move: 87% of business buyers across all age demographics (and 97% of millennials) are already making business purchases through marketplaces.The online B2B marketplace trend is gaining momentum. Business buyers expect the same selection, ease of use, and convenience as they already have in their personal purchases. With its extensive catalog of parts and next day shipping & pickup options in the continental United States, MyToyota Store offers just that. The results are already speaking for themselves: parts sales on MyToyota Store are growing by 220% year-over-year.
How to avoid channel conflict: invite distributors to become sellers
Toyota Material Handling’s extensive dealer network is one of its greatest assets, and as the company considered its eCommerce options, it knew that the dealers needed to be at the center of the experience. All of the parts and equipment available on MyToyota Store are offered, sold, and fulfilled exclusively by Toyota Material Handling’s network of authorized material handling dealers.“It was critical for our authorized dealers to join us online in an effort to upgrade the customer experience in the material handling industry,” said Nick Ostergaard, Manager of Digital Transformation for Toyota Material Handling USA. “The marketplace model provides the perfect solution.”Now, Toyota Material Handling customers have direct online access to the company’s nationwide network of industry experts, who are standing by to help customers solve challenges and optimize productivity. And with the MyToyota Store, the manufacturer is able to offer more consistent pricing to customers across the U.S., both online and offline. The MyToyota Store is also a resource for Toyota Material Handling’s dealer network, giving them the tools to manage online orders, messages, and customer service without having to build out their own online interface – and without introducing any of the channel conflict that would have been caused if Toyota Material Handling chose to sell direct to consumer. “We architected it so that the sales were through them,” said Ostergaard. “This website, rather than being a competing channel, is really an extension of their sales force.”
The impact: discovering new customers & strengthening relationships
Thanks to the introduction of an online marketplace for OEM parts and equipment, Toyota Material Handling is actually discovering customers that its local dealers weren’t aware of – introducing opportunities to build new, valuable long-term relationships. With the MyToyota Store, 70% of orders are placed by new customers who have no purchase history on record with Toyota or its dealers in the past five years.
The time is right to launch a B2B marketplace
The launch of the MyToyota Store puts Toyota Material Handling at the forefront of the accelerating B2B marketplace revolution. 50% of manufacturers across industries are already planning to launch an online marketplace and invite channel partners to be sellers, driven by the need to meet customer demand, build more direct customer relationships, and access more end customer demand data. And for hundreds of organizations, partnering, rather than building, their marketplace solutions make it possible to deploy more rapidly.
When you partner with Mirakl to launch your new marketplace, you gain an advantage over the other manufacturers racing to climb aboard the B2B marketplace revolution. Mirakl has supported organizations like Toyota Material Handling, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Siemens Mobility, and Satair by dramatically accelerating time to market, delivering full functionality and scalability at launch, and substantially lowering cost and risk.
Contact Mirakl’s marketplace experts today to kick start the launch of your marketplace.
