Although MarketPace delivered everything it claimed, says Morris, the data have been of little use in Boulder, Colorado, whose demographics are vastly different from those of Winder, Georgia. While Winder, a county seat with about 12,000 residents, is a stable, established town, Boulder is a commuter city about 18 miles northwest of Denver. The University of Colorado, which is located there, attracts students from all over the nation. As a result, the cars serviced in Boulder tend to be registered in other communities. Add to that a fleet of about 60,000 government cars and a high percentage of leased vehicles, which owners are likely to return before they need many replacement parts, and the result is a completely skewed demographic picture.
Boulder is a totally different country.
While Morris's experience may be an extreme example, Sheldon acknowledges that the average parts-store owner will always have information and a feel for the community that a database simply can't capture. But we can give them another tool for finding out who some of those customers are and what they need. Inspired by the early success of MarketPace, Triad last fall began marketing a forecasting system that will enable parts distributors to customize their inventory even further. Using inventory and sales information collected monthly from 2,000 distributors nationwide, Triad's new system estimates replacement rates for various part types on vehicles of different makes and ages. By combining actual sales data with demographic information about the vehicles in their trade area, Triad hopes to enable stores to calculate replacement rates and customize their inventory accordingly.