Maryland, July 2022 — YCP Solidiance is proud to once again be part of the Auto Care Association’s Factbook for 2023, through research and insights from our CEO Pilar Dieter and Partner Leon Cheng.
The Factbook is a multi-awarded industry report that takes an in-depth look at the current automotive industry landscape, and emerging trends that will shape the sector for the long-term. For the 2023 Factbook, our Professionals continued their analysis of China’s automotive aftermarket, focusing on the growth of the e-commerce segment.
The Chinese automotive aftermarket has had some form of e-commerce since 2003 with the advent of the “early period” through Taobao and JD, and experienced its largest growth period in 2017, with the industry’s upstream players collaborating on a more optimized supply chain system that allowed for more sophisticated and efficient e-commerce experiences. Three distinct business models are credited for the success of the industry: B2C, B2B, and O2O.
China’s O2O e-commerce aftermarket is relatively mature, with full integration between online and offline platforms and services, thus increasing service quality and efficiency. Four key development characteristics within the space have been identified as crucial to its growth:
- Efficient and diversified service mode: Standard service processes and quality requirements must be unified to improve service quality
- Specialized and subdivided vertical fields: A variety of platforms with various service modes are distributed into further categorized fields, with platforms creating their own brand advantages
- Transparent and rich product selection: Featuring all kinds of automotive products with transparent prices, as well as standardized packages for maintenance and car beauty
- Young generation of consumers: Catering to digital natives Millennials and Gen Z, with the user base gradually expanding in response to changing habits
These characteristics, as well as in-depth case studies on several successful O2O e-commerce aftermarket brands, are also explored in YCP Solidiance’s analysis. A full copy of the 2023 Auto Care Factbook is available for download here.