Independent automotive repair shops have reported that they’ve increased their purchases of private label/store brand parts, according to a report by IMR Automotive Research and, in the face of pandemic uncertainty, this trend is expected to continue.

In 2018, when asked if they had increased their purchases of private label/store brand parts over the past two years, only 33.4% of shops said they had.  Now, 65.8% of shops said they had increased their purchases of private label/store brand parts says the report.

Independent auto repair shops expect to increase their purchases of private label/store brand parts as well.  Over the next year, 68.0% of shops state they plan to increase their purchases of these parts.

Historically, reasons for increasing purchases of private label/store brand parts revolved around ‘lower prices’, ‘immediately available/easier to get’, and ‘quality is equal or better than OEM parts’.

While all shops collectively put these as the highest priority, shops with one to three bays responded most emphatically that the immediate availability of store brand parts was the main factor driving the decision.

However, the pandemic has changed the dynamic across the board.

While availability held the stop spot, that position is now he unequivocally by price pressures brought on by the pandemic uncertainty. Some 33.9% of shops said this was the driving factor, with a further 19.2% stating a non-specific price issue. This translates into a total of more than 50% of decision to opt for private label/store automotive parts brand options are driven by price. Availability has been effectively pushed to third place, with other issues such as Better Quality, Same Quality as More Expensive Brands, Customer Preference, Fewer Comebacks, Better Reliability, Better Fit and Customers can’t tell the difference compared to OEM (albeit at t paltry 0.7%) filling out the remaining responses.

Visit IMR Automotive Research