Ordering car stuff from Amazon

"KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs" (kusabisensei)
07/30/2014 at 12:17 • Filed to: None

We order everything else from Amazon, but I can't wrap my head around why Bezos hasn't gone into "Let's warehouse a ton of car parts and have people order them with Amazon Prime shipping!"

It's not that different from his existing business model, other than the fact that it can be damn near impossible at times to find something if you don't know the part number on Amazon's search box.

#HowDidWeExistPriorToAmazonPrime

DISCUSSION (30)

For Sweden > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:18

Amazon sells car parts...

Mattbob > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:18

I order car parts with prime shipping all the time... This is already a thing.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > For Sweden
07/30/2014 at 12:20

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm off to make my Amazon Prime Membership worth the price increase.

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:21

I buy car parts on amazon all the time, I actually find cheaper parts on there for my 944 then anywhere else sometimes.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:22

Amazon has even been branching out (beta) into industrial supply.

/Still will probably buy the next rash of Ford parts from CJ Pony

//Free ship All The Things

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Mattbob
07/30/2014 at 12:24

sweetjesus.jpg

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/30/2014 at 12:27

But can Bezos free ship a Google barge?

/Free ship a Ship

//This might be equivalent to a Portable Hole in a Bag of Holding

NaturallyAspirated > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:28

I usually use RockAuto's site to get the correct part number, then search for the part number on Amazon. RockAuto is almost always cheaper, but once you factor in shipping cost vs Prime, it can go either way.

Once I ordered four struts and four brake rotors for a Taurus, and got them shipped 2nd day air via Prime.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:29

No, the equivalent to that would be free-shipping a ship air-mail that had a plane on board... with the packages.

yamahog > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:29

I ordered these bad boys through Amazon!

Kinja'd!!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00…

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/30/2014 at 12:30

If there's anyone who could harness the Astral Plane for logistics purposes, it's Bezos.

TurboSloth > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:31

55 Gallons of Oil

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Amazon sells car stuff.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > yamahog
07/30/2014 at 12:31

There ought to be an internet rule: If you can imagine it, it can be bought with free shipping on Amazon with Prime.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > TurboSloth
07/30/2014 at 12:33

Only $2500! What a deal!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:35

It'll probably be the ethereal plane. Higher theft rates (ethereal filchers), but they're not union. Githyanki? Union.

Kinja'd!!!

McMike > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:36

I don't trust the "Will this fit my car" database on Amazon yet.

Doesn't' mean I haven't ordered parts, it just means I cross reference between vendors to make damn sure it's the part I need.

N51fanatic > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:38

i bought some parts for my Forester Flip from Amazon, and my wifes CX-5. Amazon is a beast.

McMike > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:40

Rule.. 35?

chuck07 > TurboSloth
07/30/2014 at 12:40

I get the novelty and that people don't actually buy that from amazon. But at 220 quarts, that is $11 per qt. Cheaper to buy the individually wrapped ones.

deekster_caddy > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:41

Amazon should buy RockAuto. Their application guide makes it worth the purchase. Even when shopping locally, I'll pull up rockauto to look up part numbers.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 12:50

I think the problem with Amazon and car parts is that they already sell a ton of stuff. Warehousing car parts would take a couple more warehouses at least. And because car parts are so specific they would take up warehouse space that could be better suited to items that they can churn much more frequently.

And, maybe they just can't compete with Rockauto.

lone_liberal > NaturallyAspirated
07/30/2014 at 12:59

Same here. Rockauto is good for a lot of things, but their shipping can be really high sometimes. A thirty dollar water pump costs $20 to ship? No thanks.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 13:03

http://smile.amazon.com/automotive-aut…

Also while we're talking about Amazon, if you go through smile.amazon.com instead of just amazon.com they will make a donation to a charity of your choice based off your purchase. They are giving away money to charities but no one is talking about it.

If they plan to give away money, might as well make em give out money!

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > deekster_caddy
07/30/2014 at 13:32

In my case, I just have to pull up the BMW EPC and go from there. Tis a good thing to have that kind of OEM infomation readily available.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
07/30/2014 at 13:36

But a lot of Amazon's items are low velocity items. So unless you want to distinguish between low and glacial velocity items, they all kind of lump into "Doesn't need to slot into a high velocity unit pick active location in the warehouse"

Besides, their high velocity SKUs are already slotted into correct unit pick slots in the pick unit. Pick-to-Light works great for that use case.

#IWorkInLogistics

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 14:50

Does Amazon use pick to light? I've always kind of wondered that. With that speed and efficiency you'd thubk they'd take ad much human error as they can out of the equation. I've ordered a ton of really oddball stuff and always get it in two days via Prime. Unless it's shipped USPS. Then I never get it in two days.

Back to auto parts, though. There's got to be a reason why they don't stock a full barrage of parts. As you mentioned high volume items would be slotted correctly for ease of picking and replenishment. Is there no room for auto parts? Maybe its an EPA thing where they don't want to deal with hazmat stuff? Although I don't know if I buy hazmat as a reason either.

So, what's the answer? Are auto parts too specific? Maybe its a logistics answer? Are they really going to keep 150 power window motors for a 98 Volvo in a warehouse? Perhaps due to odd dimensions there's no way to efficiently pack them on a pallet? I don't really know the answer here, I'm kind of curious now that you brought it up.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > lone_liberal
07/30/2014 at 14:58

What really sucks about Rockauto is they won't allow local pickup, which I guess I can understand because then you have to pay someone to man the front end. But when you worked literally next door to the building your items were shipped from it gets frustrating.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
07/30/2014 at 15:03

Most places with high velocity SKUs in a unit pick scenario will generally use Pick to Light in a multilevel pick unit (Totes being moved by MHE)

Kinja'd!!!

unless they are small enough that they could fit into a A Frame Pick unit (Think someone like Avon Cosmetics).

Kinja'd!!!

Case pick has tended to go towards Vocollect or other voice picking which integrates with the WMS for pickticket control and tasking.

Pallet pick is still largely done completely on RF guns.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
07/30/2014 at 15:21

They still use WMS? Almost 10 years ago now I used to work at a DC for CVS pharmacy. Even though we were in a million sq ft building (OK, 988,000), everything was pick to tote (tote to belt), or case pick to belt. They kept talking about pick to light, but the last time I talked to someone who worked there last year they were still doing it this way.

Paper tickets always seemed an inferior way to do things. And the WMS system they used was wildly inaccurate about how much time each item should take to be picked. In a weird way logistics fascinates me. I see so many bad ways of doing things and like to see improvement.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
07/30/2014 at 15:26

There are far more automated Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) these days that do things like tasking, and allow for electronic order/ASN/etc bridging, and will even do a much better job integrating with enterprise management systems, material handling equipment (conveyors, A frame picking units, etc), PTL, Vocollect systems, etc, which mean the humans can focus their efforts more directly.

Things have come a long way in warehouse management and execution.