Sparks Toyota Brings Orders to 17-Year High with OEM Interactive

Sparks Toyota started selling parts online seventeen years ago in 2004. They initially experienced exponential growth and quickly became the top online vendor for Toyota parts.

Unfortunately, they had trouble meaningfully increasing sales as new competitors entered the market later on. Jamie Sutherland, Service & Parts Director at Sparks Toyota, told us that “with the increased focus of having an online presence by the factory, and the amount of OEM dealers that are selling online, it has become more difficult to acquire new customers.”

Increased competition is one of the most common pain points we hear about from current and prospective clients. As more parts departments start selling products online, it becomes more difficult for both new and existing vendors to communicate a unique value to their target audience.

Sutherland first reached out to OEM Interactive in 2019. He wanted to update the department’s approach to ecommerce and differentiate their online store from the competition in a crowded landscape. As a full-service marketing agency that specializes in parts ecommerce for both OEM and aftermarket, we were in a unique position to deliver the results he was looking for.

Our team got to work and immediately overhauled their entire online store. Sparks didn’t have to wait long to notice a difference—in fact, Sutherland reports that “by working with the OEM Interactive team, we [were] able to literally double our revenue in just one year.” While some aspects of brand development take time to translate into sales, updating the ecommerce interface helped Sparks bring in more customers overnight.

Consumer expectations have changed dramatically over the last 17 years. Simply offering digital sales was enough to set Sparks apart in 2004, but OEM Interactive is what enables them to stay ahead of other online stores. We don’t just want our partners to compete—we want them to set the gold standard among parts ecommerce vendors.

Today, Sparks generates over 1,500 orders per month and an average return on ad spend of roughly 250x. Along with these incredible results, Sutherland also points to customer service as one of our core strengths: “We truly feel like they’re just as invested in our growth as we are….[Working with OEM Interactive] is the best decision that we’ve made.”

At OEM Interactive, we have always viewed our partners’ success as our success, and we know we’re doing the right thing when we see them reach their full potential and shatter their goals. We don’t provide boilerplate, one-size-fits-all services because we understand that every client is unique—whether it be in operational size, budgets or goals. With that in mind, we do everything we can to understand the client’s needs and develop comprehensive solutions through close collaboration to help them achieve their short- and long-term goals. Sparks Toyota is a shining example of how our focused parts ecommerce marketing services can quickly take a department to the cutting edge of parts ecommerce.

OEM Interactive Helps Mazda Swag Become the #1 Mazda Accessory Vendor in the US

Randy Koch, Fixed Operations Director at Scherer Mazda, contacted OEM Interactive in 2016 to facilitate the creation of a new online store.

At that time, Scherer Mazda was a small Illinois Mazda dealership with no e-commerce infrastructure. With customers in his own region increasingly turning to online vendors, Koch knew he would have to expand his own audience. He wanted to grow his department by tapping into a thriving digital market that would allow him to sell to consumers across the country.

When Koch came to us for help with his site, we started out by developing a brand for their new online parts site. After some brainstorming, we came up with the name “Mazda Swag”—separating the ecommerce brand from the physical dealership in Illinois. Just five years later, Mazda Swag is now the largest seller of Mazda parts and accessories in the United States.

The OEM Interactive team worked tirelessly to create a comprehensive marketing strategy for the new Mazda Swag site. During monthly strategy meetings, we covered everything from PPC and retargeting campaigns to SEO, email marketing, and conversational AI.

While the online market gave Mazda Swag a new audience, it also came with much more competition. As an unknown ecommerce brand, they needed to give consumers a reason to choose them over other vendors. Our goal was to develop an exceptional customer experience from the ground up as quickly as possible.

Mazda Swag was able to generate an amazing $65,000 in online orders in their first month of selling parts online. They delivered more than 300 orders in the first 60 days and received Google’s “Trusted Store” badge within 90 days of getting started with OEM Interactive.

Incredibly, this was only the beginning of Mazda Swag’s newfound success in ecommerce. Today, the store generates over $150,000 in monthly sales—more than double the figure from their first month online. Similarly, their return on ad spend increased from $35 in the first 60 days to over $60 as of August 2021.

We work with Mazda Swag on a monthly basis, so they could take the store into their own hands at any time. Five years after the beginning of the contract, our relationship with their team is stronger than ever. We have no doubt that they will stay on top of the Mazda OEM Parts ecommerce market for years to come.

Randy Koch, Fixed Operations Director at Scherer Mazda, put it better than any of us could: “These guys are simply the best. They are in consistent communication with us, everything is 100 percent, and they continue to push me and our team to the next level.” With no signs of slowing down, we’re excited to see what the future holds for the Mazda Swag parts department.