Mazda helps its dealers create their own online parts and accessories stores using IBM WebSphere Commerce

At Mazda we, obviously, sell cars, and I’m on the parts end of that. We sell the service parts and accessories, and I work with all of the dealer systems for ordering and inventory and all that that can entail. Our consumers are the youngest. Our target audience are the youngest, so, of course, they’re very Internet savvy. And our dealers are having issues getting their presence out on the Internet, and so they asked us to help them come up with ideas so they can actually sell their parts on the Internet to their customers.

Mazda had originally chosen eGlobal to be their Commerce provider and came back to us with this newest initiative to really enable their dealers to be able to sell. It’s a B-to-B-to-C play that eGlobal Solutions is helping Mazda with on WebSphere Commerce 6.0.
Features and functions of extended sites in 6.0 have been leveraged in a way that is new.

With the extended-site version of Commerce, Mazda has now been able to allow their dealers to have a Web presence, as far as selling parts online, and they can use the Mazda assets, the Mazda catalog, and they don’t have to go through taking their own pictures of the parts and to hiring a Web programmer and creating their own sites. Using the extended site, WebSphere Commerce 6, they can configure their own site, not being technical and have it up and running in literally 15 minutes. And so it’s enabling them to have a Web presence now that they’ve never had before. They don’t have to have a technical person in house to set this up or go hire a Web programmer to do it. They can upload their own logo. There’s two content spots on the home page, but the main content, the catalog is Mazda’s catalog. It’s Mazda’s assets and pictures. So as soon as we add a new accessory, then the dealer has it added to their extended site catalog as well, so they’re always up to date. Currently, we’re using MQ to talk between their extended site and our legacy mainframe system, as far as inventory and prices.

eGlobal has really been able to help Mazda accomplish what they want in terms of dealer enablement. They have a wide dealer network that’s really focused on a very young crowd of people. By using the Web effectively, they’re really driving to their core business, which is, for Mazda, a very young market, people who are used to using the Web. In this case, because of the fact that it’s a unique, not just a B-to-B or a B-to-C but enabling both our dealers and then consumers downstream, they’re able to really capture their brand message and do a great job with supporting their dealers, which is, at the bottom line, selling cars.

The dealers requested us to help them sell parts online, so we were able to use this new technology and enable them to sell their parts. And ultimately, if the dealers are selling more parts, then Mazda, as a corporation, is going to sell more parts and accessories for their Mazda cars.