U-R-G On the Go
An informative podcast for the United Recyclers Group. Each week we will feature an entertaining guest that will share their knowledge and information with you, providing you with tips and tools to help you become a more profitable business.
U-R-G On the Go
Boost Your Auto Parts Sales with eBay & WHI Solutions
Dave Young of WHI Solutions shares a compelling story about transforming automotive recycling through e-commerce innovation. Having celebrated 31 years with the company, Young's journey parallels the evolution of digital parts sales, particularly since WHI's acquisition by eBay in 2012.
What started as a technology gap has blossomed into a game-changing partnership. While WHI excelled at helping sellers list new aftermarket parts on eBay, they lacked specialized tools for the unique challenges of salvage yards. Enter URG (United Recyclers Group), whose industry expertise perfectly complemented WHI's technological capabilities. Together, they've developed solutions that address the specific needs of auto recyclers - from handling fitment data to incorporating mileage, condition, and other crucial details that differentiate recycled parts.
The results speak volumes: nearly 60 yards now collectively sell millions in parts monthly through the platform. URG members using WHI Solutions average a 25% revenue increase, with standout performers like Bessler Auto Parts achieving an astonishing 440% growth in just months. This success stems from the dramatic efficiency gains of bulk listing - what once required 30+ minutes of manual work per part now happens automatically at scale.
Beyond impressive numbers, Young emphasizes the mutually beneficial relationship that makes this partnership special. "It's good for everybody," he notes, describing the synergy that creates value for WHI, URG members, and parts buyers alike. He particularly values the community atmosphere at URG events, which feel more like "family reunions" than typical industry conferences.
For recyclers curious about boosting their digital sales channels, the process starts with a simple 30-minute conversation. WHI representatives work closely with each yard to understand their current operations, management system, and goals before crafting a personalized implementation plan. Experience this partnership firsthand by connecting through URG or meeting the WHI team at upcoming industry events like the ARA conference in Birmingham this October.
Welcome one and all to URG On the Go podcast. You are there and we are here. This is the URG podcast. It's the true voice of the automotive recycling industry. It was created for the pros that are on the go who have a need to know, that are on the go who have a need to know. And I'm DJ Harrington, better known as the cardiologist. I'm the co-host, but the real host of this whole program is the talented Amanda Morrison, who is director of member and vendor relations for URG. And, amanda, I'm doing great. I hope you're doing the same.
Speaker 2:I am DJ. Thanks so much for being on today. It's a little cloudy here, we've been kind of a little spotty with our internet and I think everyone's kind of having some issues today, but it's been a good day. Can't make them laugh.
Speaker 1:You have invited on a guest that I truly like as a person. I think he's a phenomenal guy. He has helped the industry so many times that this is great that he's partnered up with URG and I'll turn it over to you so you can introduce Dave to all of our listeners.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much, dj. Yes, so we've got Dave Young here with WHI Solutions. He has helped so many of our recyclers, our URG members, getting started on eBay and really kind of honing in on their practices and getting prepared for being on e-commerce. So, dave, thank you so much for being on today.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness, both of you are far too kind. I I. I don't know how helpful I've been, but I'm, I'm sure, grateful to be here and sure thankful for the partnership.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah yeah. We really enjoy working with you and and the team. You know we've got Krista Wolf and we've also got, you know, troy over there and and you know a bunch of people over there that really have helped our members and getting them onto the platform and making it a little bit easier for them to get comfortable with eBay. So I just kind of wanted to get started with kind of a background of how you got into this industry and how WHI kind of came about.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, for me personally, just last Friday was my 31 year anniversary with WHI Solutions, which I know I just made myself sound really old. I think I hired on when I was five, so maybe that would justify it. You know, and I would say this too I think at WHI, of course, we are automotive focused, and really our history has been in new aftermarket parts, and so salvage was always something that was kind of a mystery to us. I mean, it's certainly part of the industry, but a segment that we just didn't know a lot about. I think we knew there was opportunity there, we wanted to work with that group, and yet we just didn't have the relationships, we didn't have the knowledge about that, which I think was so exciting for us to partner with URG, because that's what you guys do, that's who you are and that's where your expertise is, and so I think it was so fun for us to bring our tools to the table and combine them with what URG has to really bring some magic to that whole marketplace.
Speaker 2:Definitely, and I completely agree with you there. I think it was such a need in the market. You know there are different avenues but I think being able to kind of hone in and securely feed your data through URG and be able to kind of partner with us and have your guys' avenue you know WHI solutions as an avenue I think has been such a great add for all of our recyclers. And you know we have some recyclers that are doing dual stores. Now you know where they'll you know, have one different integration and then they'll also have WHI integration. Can you tell us kind of how that's worked out for recyclers and how that's been beneficial?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I think for us it really started back in 2010 or 2011, when WHI created a tool to make it easy for part sellers to bulk list their inventory up on the eBay marketplace, and when we did that, we are like I say. Our focus was new aftermarket parts and also OE parts, and our customers that used our technology were so successful on eBay that it got eBay's attention and eBay acquired us in 2012. So now we're owned by eBay. My paychecks come from eBay, we're a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay and we're doing great with that.
Speaker 3:At the same time, there are so many unique things about salvage that make it different enough that our tool wasn't capable of enabling a seller of recycled parts to be successful on eBay. We could do it for new aftermarket parts, we could do it for OE parts, but we just didn't have the capability. Our tool just simply wasn't capacitated to help a salvage yard sell those parts. So we partnered with URG to help us understand what those nuances are, so that our tool would make that work. And now we have what? Almost 60 yards using our technology, selling millions of dollars every month on eBay. It's just been an exciting thing, and it's only been in the last few years that that's happened.
Speaker 2:Yep, I yep, I agree, and you know we've we've seen that, on average, urg members using WHI are seeing a 25% increase in monthly revenue just by making WHI part of their process. So you know, being able to scale up your business by 25% is is pretty huge, and so if you're able to get on it and be able to get even a demo scheduled with Dave or one of the representatives over at WHI and learn a little bit more, it's so beneficial to at least get the information going and talking about it and those different avenues right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean I think it really just comes down to what any of us would expect. What any of us would expect if we can make it easy for a yard to list their stuff on ebay, then, uh, it just works right. If we can make it easy for them to do that, if we can make it easy for parts buyers to find those items on the ebay marketplace, then naturally you're just gonna you're gonna sell more parts, it's gonna be more efficient and to make more money. So so that's been our goal all along. You know we we worked with URG to include things like mileage and condition and, you know, getting the right SKU numbers and everything.
Speaker 3:And so I think the integration we have, where we work together with your auto parts search tool to take the inventory out of the yard management system and bring it up to our environment in the cloud, where a yard can make adjustments to it they can add shipping parameters or adjust titles, whatever they want to do and once they're ready, hit a button and it launches all that stuff up to the eBay marketplace creates a professional looking listing for each item with all the images and all the part detail that really matters.
Speaker 3:I think part of that magic is creating those tiles, the titles that are so searchable and more effective in being found that you'll just sell more items. And then obviously, once that sale is made, we want to make it easy to facilitate that sale or to to to complete it. So often we can get that sale back down. So the detail goes back into the yards management system that the yard doesn't have to rekey manually what what's just taken place on the marketplace. They don't have to key the transaction, excuse me, it just all flows in automatically yeah, and I think that's, you know, another key piece that's huge.
Speaker 2:It's those, those little pieces that just make it that much easier to be able to utilize the tool and and not have to do three different steps in in in your process and have it automatically go into your yard management system. I think has been a huge plus for a lot of our yards and I've heard you know that the bulk upload has been a key piece that's made it a little bit easier for these yards. Can you give us a little bit more in depth what that looks like for the bulk upload?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, years ago, when eBay was still growing and these things were coming together, anybody who wanted to sell anything on eBay is doing it manually. You're taking a picture of an item, you're uploading that to eBay, then you're writing your own title. You're authoring your own title of what it is you're selling and, of course, the big thing is adding all the fitment data. Because when you're selling an auto part, you got to give the consumer confidence that the part they're looking for actually fits the vehicle they've got in their driveway. So you need to list all the fitment information. What are the list of vehicles that apply to this item you're selling? Of course, the condition of the part, the mileage, all those things need to be added up there as well.
Speaker 3:If you think about it, anybody who's doing that manually that's going to take 30 minutes or more for each item you're trying to sell. If you're trying to do that, you just can't really make any money doing it one at a time. You need a tool that allows you to do that in bulk, so that you can just take everything you've got in inventory and blast it all up there at the same time. Certainly, you want to make adjustments to things as you can or desire, but for the most part you want that as automated as possible, with as little manual effort as can be as possible with as little manual effort as can be.
Speaker 2:That's what our tool does. Yeah, it's a beautiful process. Honestly, I love this tool and I've just heard so many good things about it, and all my recyclers that are utilizing it have had such good luck on it. If you're using it properly and you really are utilizing it to the greatest extent that you can, you're going to see profit on it. You know you're going to see a real change in your business so well, I appreciate that. So let's, maybe is it time to take a break, dj.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why don't we take a break, and then we'll come back with Dave Young from WHI Solutions.
Speaker 4:URG can help you streamline your business for maximum efficiency and increased profits. Access powerful software and unique tools. Receive top-level training with industry experts. Network with hundreds of recyclers. Employ e-commerce solutions to boost business. Receive support, resources and discounts Starting at just $150 a month. It's the smartest investment you will make for your business this year. Go to u-r-gcom and click on becomea member. Your path to a profitable future is just a click away. That's you-r-gcom.
Speaker 2:All right, Welcome back. You are listening to URG On the Go podcast. Today we have Dave Young as our guest from WHI Solutions. Thank you again, Dave, for being on today. Today I just wanted to kind of touch again on the aspect of being able to set up a call and just discuss with you and demo the product. What does that kind of look like and what can we expect whenever I have a recycler come to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think every recycler has their own questions and their own needs and they often come with their own experience. Some recyclers have been selling on eBay for a long time, they're very comfortable with the process, they know what to expect, and others really are just still learning. So I think everyone deserves to have their own conversation about eBay Link from WHI and what it could possibly do for their own business. Really, it's not a big deal. All we got to do is set up a time to talk with them. There's a couple of different reps here at WHI and we break the country up into territories so, depending on where you're located, you will find the right rep who is assigned to your account and with that rep you can individually schedule a time to talk.
Speaker 3:For me, I like to bring on Troy Smith. Troy is on our implementation team and he's worked with a lot of the URG members to get them from start to finish up and live on eBay, and Troy is really good with answering a lot of the technical questions for those especially for those yards who really have experience. They know what they're looking for. They're looking for specific solutions to make what they're doing better and more efficient on their own side and Troy's helped me to answer some of those questions, but we can demonstrate the tool what it looks like, talk about how the flow would work and really be able to resolve any concern that a yard has about it.
Speaker 2:For sure. Yeah, and whenever you see yards kind of get onto the platform. I've seen I even have some stats here Bessler Auto Parts they grew 440% here from January to May. We have another yard that went and doubled their monthly sales from over to 105K in May. So just kind of crazy numbers there. I think you know people that are really getting some really good traction on there. What do you think some of the main tips and tricks and or questions that you get when people are starting out?
Speaker 3:You know those stats are exciting and certainly I'd love to guarantee those for everybody and I think people are going to have varied results. But if you're taking advantage of the tool and you're listing all the inventory you've got and you're responding to those customers' questions from the public the consumer public on eBay, responding to those customers' questions from the public, the consumer public on eBay, there's no reason that you can't have a positive seller rating and you're just going to sell stuff. It just happens. I think eBay has really become a place where people expect to find those items that are hard to find otherwise. It's a great place, especially when you're looking for a recycled item, to be able to search and locate what it is you're looking for, and so it's really a great match for a consumer and for the recycler to come together and find those items.
Speaker 3:You talk about that growth for these yards. I think a lot of that comes in just the idea that we make it easy to list a whole barrel full of your inventory. We make it easy for a consumer to find those items with all the images and with the proper titles that are that are designed to be searchable and found. Really, other than that, it's really up to the yard just to be responsive, to ship out things when they say they're going to ship them out and to describe their items properly. And if you're doing those kind of things, you're going to be successful.
Speaker 2:Definitely and are you able to speak a little bit to the way we feed inventory and ACES mapping and that kind of information? Are you able to touch a little bit on that and what the difference is there?
Speaker 3:Well, I think at a high level. The idea is that you know WHI has a parts catalog, but our parts catalog is really made up of manufacturers all over the industry who produce new aftermarket parts and almost any manufacturer you can think of, chances are they're in our catalog. What we don't have is really a catalog of recycled items, of course, because those are unique. This part is different than any other. It's got its own condition, its own mileage, its own history and in order to be able to list an item like that, we have to have some other data. That just helps us understand where those fit. And I think that's part of the marriage or the partnership with WHI and URG is URG is using industry standard data that can fit in our catalog, but creating those items or those part categories that those recycled items can be mapped to so that we can display them in our catalog and put them up on eBay. So really it's a technology partnership between URG and WHI that makes that happen.
Speaker 2:That's perfect. That's a perfect way to explain it. You can tell you've been on this a little bit, Dave.
Speaker 4:I love it. You know, you can tell you've been on this a little bit, dave.
Speaker 2:I love it and you know I think it's so. It's so fun to be able to have worked with you for for so many years now and been and we've spoke at a few different conferences and and I'm sure we'll be speaking at multiple conferences here in the future as well, and we'll see you at at ARA, as you're going to be at ARA here in Birmingham too, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, we'll be there. In fact, I think, if the stars align, our booth will be next to your booth again this year, which is great, because when customers have questions of us we can answer, we just point them to your booth and vice versa. It's kind of a great thing to have our booths teamed up next to each other there, and, um well, I don't. I don't want to sound too idealistic either, but I think the cool thing about the partnership with WHI and URG is it's really good for everybody. It's good for us because it helps get more volume and more product up on the eBay marketplace, which is our business, and it's good for the URG community because now we've got another avenue to help them sell items, and it's just one of those partnerships that's sort of good for everybody.
Speaker 3:I don't know that we have another partnership and, by the way, we have a lot of partnerships. That's just the way business happens but I don't know that we have another partnership that's been so mutually beneficial in such positive ways for every member of that partnership, and it's probably one of the funnest partnerships too. To be honest, it's so great. We go to these URG meetings and all of URG just seems like this massive family reunion, and I don't know of other meetings that we attend that have that same vibe. We go to meetings for other aftermarket distributors groups here and there in the industry and they're nice and all but URG. It's this different party. I hope that the recyclers know how lucky they are to be part of this group that just seems to have so much energy, so much community and we're so lucky to be a part of it. So it's just a fun partnership.
Speaker 2:It's so fun to hear you coming from outside the industry and kind of get an outside view of what you know, what it looks like, as you know, being in that bubble, because it's true, you know, at URG it is like a big family reunion and those conferences are some of the most work, hardworking, as well as most fun times that I've ever had. And you know, it's just, you know, a good time to be able to see everyone and connect and like with you guys being there. And you guys have been at our conference, I think, for the last five years, six years now it's been. It's been quite a few years now and love having you right next to us so that anytime we have someone ask about it and just point over to you, you go see Dave, my friend over there at WHI, and he'll help you out.
Speaker 3:So, and it's great, I don't want to yeah, I don't want to overstate it, but it's so funny I don't want to. Yeah, I don't want to overstate it, but it's so funny. I you go to these URG shows and I see more people hugging, I see more people laughing than any other other show. We go to Some of these other shows. You set your booth up and it's just, you know you're there to do business and you get in and you get out, you go to URG and it's kind of like like I really say it's like a big family reunion. I don't know how you guys have done that, but what a great community to be a part of.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Yeah, it's a great time. I mean, I would have never thought that, coming from I, was in the fashion industry before this. I worked in retail for a long time and I would have never thought I'd be in the automotive recycling industry. But here I am, six years later, and I'm I'm still loving it, and I think that's what's the coolest part you know about our partnership as well is you can see the benefit of it.
Speaker 2:You know, day to day, you have recyclers coming to you and saying, oh my gosh, I've made this profit, I've done this. Well, um, I've done, I've, I've been doing this and it's so much easier this way and finding different solutions for them to really actually grow their business and make their life easier, as well as their salespeople's lives easier. It's that's what I do it for. You know, I started out wanting to potentially own my own business and realize how dang hard it is to own your own business after graduating college and and that's kind of where my passion grew is helping other people grow their business, and I think that's where this, this piece, really kind of helps, and you can see the growth and the study numbers going up and up, and I had one.
Speaker 2:I've had a couple of recyclers actually say that their WHI store is now outperforming their original eBay store that they may have had previously. And you know, I do think part of it is the fact that WHI is owned by eBay as well and just kind of the enhancements that we've made and the traction that we've gotten and it's been such a great partnership. So we really appreciate you and we appreciate you coming to the conferences and looking forward to seeing you at ARA.
Speaker 3:So go ahead, I was going to say well, we, you know we genuinely are wanting to make our product the best it can be, and I think part of the reason that it's been successful is because we've received suggestions from recyclers of hey, add this, adjust that, do whatever at an opportune time where we've been able to focus our product team and our development team to really look at eBay link and make sure that we're accommodating all those things that make it easy for a recycler to be successful with the eBay experience.
Speaker 3:And you know other tools that have been around a long time. Maybe one of their advantages is they've been around a long time and they've got some legacy history. But the problem there too is you get steeped in some traditions and you may miss opportunities to do things. We feel like we're coming in with a fresh perspective and the opportunity to really listen, to find out what's missing, and you know we look at ourselves really as the outsiders, though it's it's your yards, it's your members, it's your group that has the knowledge of what's needed to be successful, and all we have to do is listen to those yards, understand what their challenges are and if we can take those and and give them the features and the tools to accomplish and overcome those challenges. That's where the win is, and I feel like we've been in this nice growth spurt where we've been able to do several releases adding new features to eBay link that were specifically requested by YARG for those very purposes, and that's just been exciting.
Speaker 2:I completely agree with you there and I agree, I think you know that's one thing that URG is really trying to do as well with all of our integrations is listen to the recyclers, get their feedback and make enhancements in order to make things better, because, you know, if technology is stagnant and we're just staying with what we came out with, then it's not going to be able to grow either, and I think that's something something that you've been, you guys have been really great about is, um, you know, working together to get those enhancements out for these recyclers, and doing it quickly as well. You know, I mean, development isn't easy, and so it's, it's been. You know, the path has been pretty good with with all of us and being able to work together, so I completely agree for sure.
Speaker 2:All right, well, we'll go ahead and take one more break and then we'll wrap it up here after the break.
Speaker 4:The URG Scholarship Foundation was founded in 2014 in honor of individuals who give their talent, time and, very often, their own finances to ensure the growth and success of the automotive recycling industry success of the automotive recycling industry. We understand college is not for everyone, so each year the foundation offers substantial financial scholarships to auto recycling employees and the children of employees that are attending four-year and technical or trade schools, to assist with their education. Don't leave money on the table. If you have a child or if you're interested in attending continuing education, this money is available to you. Go to u-r-gcom and click on the Scholarship Foundation tab. Urg keeping our industry strong through education.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome back to URG Omnigo podcast. Today we have Dave with WHI Solutions. Thank you again, dave, for being on. We just wanted to wrap up today and let you know how to get ahold of us and or to get a meeting going with Dave or one of the representatives over at WHI. So if you guys are interested in signing up, feel free to reach out to me, amorrison at u-r-gcom, or you can even email support. So support at u-r-gcom and I will get you looped in with one of the representatives over at WHI, like Dave, and then we will get a meeting scheduled. And that's by no means is it a commitment. It's just a demo, getting you some information. And Dave, what kind of is entailed in that first meeting? How long can they expect that meeting to go?
Speaker 3:You know, really, I think in 30 minutes or less we can cover whatever they need to understand or whatever questions they have. Certainly we can take as long as is needed, but I'm confident that we can do whatever is needed in 30 minutes. And you're absolutely right, amanda, I think the easiest thing to do is to reach out to URG and allow URG to kind of match you up with the appropriate WHI rep and together we can find a time that works for you, according to whatever works best in your schedule and have that conversation. And yeah, like you say, there's no commitment. We're happy to visit with you and find out where you're at.
Speaker 3:I think we're going to ask you a couple of things. We're going to ask you if you've been on eBay before, kind of what your seller ID is. We can kind of help understand what you're doing now and how you're doing it and what your goals are compared to what your current success rate is. We'll want to know what yard management system you're on. So you know a couple of those easy things that you probably already know off the top of your head and from there we can figure out what the next steps are.
Speaker 2:For sure, yep, and then we'll be seeing you at ARA as well in October in Birmingham too. So they'll be right next to the URG booth, and so if you guys want to talk face to face with one of the representatives there, it's a great time to be able to network and be able to understand and maybe see some other people that are also using the solution and kind of reference them. But we really are looking forward to seeing you at ARA as well. Do you guys have any fun plans while you're there? Are you coming in on that Wednesday or Thursday?
Speaker 3:Well, I know we're planning on it, we look forward to it. Yeah, I think it's 16th, 17th, 18th. I don't know if it starts on the 15th, but we'll be there, we look forward to it. I don't know if it starts on the 15th, but we'll be there, we look forward to it. It's always reminded that nothing replaces a face-to-face visit. Look, we love visiting with customers on the phone. Zoom is so helpful. Email's fabulous. You can't live without it. And those face-to-face meetings are irreplaceable, and so we're grateful to meet you in person. Come visit with us. Love to see you there at ARA.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And then, of course, you'll always be at URG. We're going to be in Denver in May next year, so you can also see us. That's a little bit further out, so definitely book an appointment before then. But you'll always be able to see them at the URG conference as well, and we're looking forward to being back in Denver. So we'll be a little bit closer and a little bit more centrally located, so we'll hopefully see some more people come and get their salespeople and all those different people to get there. So, dj, it looks like you're back. Did you have any questions for Dave before we end the podcast?
Speaker 1:No, I thought he was just fantastic.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I felt bad that I got disconnected because of Mike Conkle, of all people.
Speaker 2:No worries, no worries. Well, yes, it's been a great time talking to Dave and learning a little bit more about what we can do for recyclers and getting them hooked up to WHI and eBay solutions. So you know, that's something that you're interested in doing and learning about. Definitely reach out and we'll see you guys here coming up at ARA as well and then, but like I said before, then definitely reach out If you have any interest in it. We'll get you a demo scheduled. So thank you again. So much, dave.
Speaker 3:Thank you, amanda, dj and Amanda, it's so great to be with you today. Thank you for inviting me for the conversation. Love to visit anytime.
Speaker 2:Of course, thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening. He's a good guy.
Speaker 1:He's a good guy, Amanda.
Speaker 3:DJ says that about all the guys.
Speaker 2:Nah, he won't say it if he doesn't believe it.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't, and he's helped so many people. The thing of it is, a lot of the customers sit there wanting to know how they take advantage of eBay. And he had me from the first moment when he said and we'll teach you how to make more money. That's the first thing he said and he got my my ear. We'll teach you how to make more money. And Dave does that, and so does WHI solutions.
Speaker 2:So Yep, I completely agree. It's been great to have you on Dave, and it's been great to have you as a partner in business, and we're excited to see what this continued partnership looks like.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure we'll have you back.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we'll have you back on again. This was great, so thank you again, and thank you guys all for listening to URG on the go podcast and we'll see you next time.