GM Will Sell 45,000 Repair and Maintenance Parts Direct to You Online

Photo credit: GM

Photo credit: GM

  • GM already sells 5000 different parts online, but now you can get almost any part the company sells delivered direct to your door or to your local dealer, directly on GM’s various brand websites.

  • It’s not about saving you money on purchases—whether that’s new wiper blades or a personalization theme for your vehicle’s infotainment screen—but ensuring you have genuine GM parts and can get GM brands’ reward points for buying them.

  • In the future, customers may order such things as over-the-air upgrades and even electric vehicles directly online from GM.

General Motors is making it easier to buy replacement parts for its vehicles online. GM isn’t giving its new official parts portal a fancy name like CarBravo, the company’s new used-vehicle portal. Instead, the catalog of 45,000 repair and maintenance parts is simply being added to the automaker’s brand websites—such as Chevrolet.com, where GM has been selling some accessories online since 2015 and currently offers 5000 different products.

Shipping to Your Home or the Dealership

The automaker is touting two benefits for people who buy their parts directly from the company, and cost savings isn’t one of them. Instead, GM says that shoppers can be certain that the parts are “original equipment ACDelco and GM Genuine Parts that are compatible with their vehicles” and that purchases made through the online catalogs will be eligible for Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC rewards programs. Ordered parts can be delivered to a home or buyers can get those parts shipped to a local participating dealer. More than 800 GM dealers will participate in this program, and GM said it expects that online sales of parts and accessories will become a $40 billion marketplace by 2030.

Photo credit: GM

Photo credit: GM

You can see hints of GM’s overall plan in this move. By adding tens of thousands of parts to its online digital shopping sites, GM is expanding its digital storefront, a place where the automaker plans to sell not just these components, but also “accessories, digital products delivered over the air, and subscriptions through a single digital storefront,” the company said. In other words, today you buy an air filter, tomorrow you pay for some bonus safety feature for your connected car, and it’s all done through one e-commerce interface where your contact and payment information are already on file.

Subscriptions and Digital Upgrades

Today, GM requires subscriptions to access some parts of its connected services, including OnStar and the myChevrolet mobile app, but this segment of the industry is growing. GM offered up two examples of how customers could use the new digital store “to purchase upgrades such as improved capabilities for the Super Cruise advanced driver assistance system and personalization themes for in-vehicle screens.”

Future electric vehicle purchases could also be done entirely online as well. Last October, during its investor day, GM said it expects its annual software and subscription services could give the company “$20 billion to $25 billion in opportunities” in the future. “We are placing software and digital services at the center of every part of our business,” GM chief digital officer Edward Kummer said in a statement. “The future of GM retail lies at the intersection of digital and physical e-commerce. Whether it’s selling parts or vehicles, GM will meet our customers where it’s most convenient for them.”

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https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/gm-sell-45-000-repair-211200286.html