So a friend of mine has decided he wants to become a Parts Unlimited dealer and start his own internet store. He doesn't plan on being a millionaire anytime soon, of course, just to make a couple bucks to support his own motorcycle habit. Has anyone had any experience with this? Do they make you carry an inventory is it drop ship? What kind of initial investment is involved? Is he a nutjob with crazy dreams?
as far as my rep tells me, you must have a retail store front to be a parts unltd dealer, and have to make a XXXX amout purchase up front...
he is right, cant do it out of your home either, they come out and check out the location. I bet they get thousands of requests like that. I was one of them
Have him call his Local PU rep and he can explain everything. Is he nut for getting into the motorcycle industry? Yep....
yeah, you have to have a store front and make a minimum order of X amount of $$$$ from what i've heard from the reps, PU isnt very internet sales friendly
Tucker Rocky will drop ship with no fee, but they will need proof of your location with pics or a rep visit first. They also require an initial order. All of these things are possible to sidestep if you are super sneaky.
Hmmm where do I start about parts unlimted, they carry more parts i needed, than expected. Expect a visit to make sure you are legit, then the inital order to become a dealer is 5000, 5000 dollars in SHIPABLE merchandise, remember that word, it will be on your test, which may be different in some states. they have a gazillion levels, Silver, gold and platinum, then Plat ++++++++, silver is 20,000 something a year gold is around 36,000 and the first plat level is 50,000. Those are yearly average numbers. For the most part they are a good company, but make sure when you order, write down everything, from who you talk to when ordering, to anyone in tech, when asking about products to order. If not your word to them is shyt, if a problem arises. Keep your returns to a limit since it finally determines how much they want for a restocking fee. You can return products up to 180 days but there needs to be a return authorization number and you have 14 days to get it returned or they will send it back and you will have to obtain another Ra number. So Ghey! Returned terms will be credited to your account within 6weeks, even if they mess the order up, you have to re-order and pay for the item until they decide to credit your account in 6 weeks sometimes i've seen it earlier. The online ordering feature is nice, you get to see what's in stock and where it's in stock. Outside of some of the dumb quirks it's a good account to have. Supporting the racing habit, I'm not sure it will do that especially doing it on the net. The mark up is very minimal to be competitive, and you will amass a whloe bunch of new friends, conversations will go like this what do YOU get this part for lol! If your firend gose this route mayb you can get everyone you know to order just give it to them at cost if you cant put up the cash yourself our first order was 10,000 after i mentioned the AT COST prices, now everyone thinks it's a yearly thing.
i worked for a dealer who was a Silver dealer, i could get stuff cheaper from Indysuperbikes as Joe public than i could as a dealer, unless you are going to do 50K plus a year you wont be able to compete with the likes of Kneedraggers, Indysuperbikes, Hard racing etc
