After customers, the most important thing an automotive repair shop needs is parts.

Most shops are willing to change their suppliers to get the parts they need when they need them, and the growth of online automotive parts sources gives repair shops more choices for sourcing those parts, a recent survey found.

Fully 89% of independent automotive service providers are likely to switch parts suppliers when there is an opportunity to improve margins and drive efficiency. That rate goes up to 93% among service providers that earn more than $1 million in annual service revenue, says a survey conducted in June by Openbay, an online auto services marketplace and software provider that tracks information on repair costs in geographic regions in the U.S.

Repair shops have six primary channels for obtaining parts and the options help create price competition, the report notes. National retail distributors and chains, including AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, which is No. 109 in the 2018 B2B E-Commerce 300, O’Reilly Auto Parts and NAPA, led the way with 35.2%. All of those companies sell in stores and online. Web-only retailers, such as Amazon.com and RockAuto.com, were fifth at 6.2%.

Automotive service providers are willing to switch suppliers when they offer parts at lower costs and with consistent delivery, according to the survey of 185 repair shops. “Such opportunities are more bountiful than ever, thanks to the proliferation of online parts catalogs and e-commerce retailers,” says a summary of the Openbay 2017 Independent Automotive Service Provider Survey.

Openbay also analyzed its own online marketplace data and found online parts suppliers are an increasingly viable alternative because of the lead time in appointment bookings. About 50% of repair-shop customers book service more than two days in advance, approximately 26% request next-day service and 24% request same-day service.

Openbay, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., is privately held. Investors include Stage 1 Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and individual investors. The marketplace lists 5,000 to 6,000 active repair facilities located in all major metropolitan areas.

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