A $4 billion manufacturer of drivetrain products for the commercial and military vehicle industries is making it easier for customers to purchase parts online.

Meritor Inc., a supplier of axles, suspensions, transmissions related equipment parts for trucks, buses and on other on-road and off-road vehicles, has launched an updated version of MeritorPartsExpress.com, a B2B ecommerce site with an inventory of 100,000 aftermarket products.

Aftermarket parts are big business for Meritor, which is based in Troy, Michigan. For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2018, Meritor posted total revenue of $4.18 billion, an increase of 25.1% from $3.34 billion for fiscal 2017.

In fiscal 2018, sales from its aftermarket and industrial division grew year over year 13.8% to $1.024 billion from $900 million and represented 24.5% and 26.9%, respectively, of total sales.

In 2017 Meritor launched MeritorPartsXpress.com, enabling U.S. and Canadian clients to shop for parts on computers, smartphones or tablets. MeritorPartsXpress.com replaced the former ecommerce site, MeritorPartsOnline.com, for U.S. and Canadian customers.

The new website improved on the previous site by offering enhanced search with quick identification of replacement parts by Meritor part number and product line, competitor part number, or keyword, the company says. Online catalog navigation was designed to help customers correctly identify replacement parts. To assist in the part selection process, the website provides more than 40,000 images, including photographs and line drawings, as well as three-dimensional and 360-degree views of Meritor’s aftermarket products.

But a year after launching MeritorPartsXpress.com, customers needed access to more online inventory and bigger, better and faster ways to customize purchases, says Brett Penzkofer, Meritor’s vice president, aftermarket, North America.

“Customers are adopting MeritorPartsXpress rapidly, and based on usage and feedback, the platform is working well for them,” Penzkofer says. “By continuing to increase functionality on the site, we’re offering customers a more personalized experience along with valuable information, and we’re making it easy to do business with Meritor.”

The updated B2B ecommerce site from Meritor now includes new features to configure, search, find and buy parts online as well as check the order status from the manufacturer’s four distribution centers in Florence, Kentucky, Santa Fe Springs, California, Edmonton, Alberta and Mississauga, Ontario.

Other ecommerce site improvements include:

• Faster search for product lines, stocking levels and brand options;
• Authorized customers can create new guest accounts on MeritorPartsXpress.com to streamline ordering and monitor spending levels;
• A new online forms process permits customers to return products without contacting customer service.

“With these enhancements, MeritorPartsXpress.com will help warehouse distributors, manufacturers and dealers not only find parts more quickly but also assist them in making important business decisions to grow their businesses,” Penzkofer says.

Meritor isn’t saying how much it is spending to update its B2B ecommerce site for aftermarket parts or disclosing other specifics such as annual web sales.

But MeritorPartsXpress.com is growing, the company says. The average number of site visitors per day has increased 65% since MeritorPartsXpress.com launched in April 2017, Meritor says.

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to B2BecNews, published 4x/week, covering technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. B2BecNews is owned by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes DigitalCommerce360.com, Internet Retailer and Internet Health Management. Follow Mark Brohan, director of B2B ecommerce research, on Twitter @markbrohan.

Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when new B2BecNews content is published.