Aftermarket parts integration targets higher fill rates for salvage yards

APFusion’s APFusion/ShopEarl marketplace aims to help salvage yards raise parts fill rates by integrating aftermarket inventory directly into yard management systems. Buyers get real-time stock visibility and automated ordering, which CEO Alex Smith says can lift fill rates by 30%+ and cut purchase-order time by 90%+. For recyclers, it supports tighter sourcing and incremental revenue alongside used parts.

APFusion team members wearing ShopEarl and ‘I love Engine Sales’ shirts, pictured in an office setting. p — Left to right: Alex Smith, Byron Abrigg, Danny Wu and Joe Hyatt

APFusion is building a B2B marketplace that plugs into salvage yard management systems, providing buyers with real-time access to aftermarket inventory and automated ordering. Alex Smith, CEO, says yards can lift fill rates by more than 30% while cutting purchase-order time by over 90%. For recyclers, the model points to tighter parts sourcing and new revenue streams, alongside used stock in practice.

A multi-generation yard perspective shaping a practical digital toolset

Having a family business is special, and as I’ve seen firsthand, being able to pass it down from generation to generation is even more special. We exist to ensure that salvage yards like my family’s, which have been around for nearly a century, continue to thrive for another century, and we’re doing everything we can to make that happen.

Everything we build at APFusion, including our ShopEarl.com platform, is designed to address specific challenges that salvage yards face daily. We feel it’s our responsibility to help solve those challenges.

Digitising inventory and widening demand beyond local buyers

ShopEarl.com has been built specifically to help solve these challenges. This platform digitizes salvage yards’ products, making their inventory available for purchase with a single click of a button. Through our massive distribution network of both retail and wholesale customers, we better match supply and demand. In doing so, we alleviate these local constraints and help maximize their reach.

Over time, we’ll build more analytics into our platform to help salvage yards with their buying decisions.

Balancing AI-driven buying automation with relationship-led inside sales

AI will completely transform the shopping experience, and we will weave AI into every aspect of the ShopEarl.com buying experience. Agentic shopping is inevitable, and if done correctly, it can create a really beautiful experience.

With that said, we’re still investing in inside sales reps. The reason is that the automotive industry is highly relationship-driven, and people still prefer talking to a human. My dad likes to refer to a great salesman as a “warm blanket.” If something goes wrong, which happens from time to time, that’s simply part of life. People want to pick up the phone, speak with another human being, feel heard, and know it will be taken care of. It’s hard to predict the future, especially as AI seems to be changing at supersonic speed, but I don’t think the human-to-human connection is going anywhere anytime soon. If anything, people may value it even more.

Marketplace controls to prioritise trusted sellers and protect buyer experience

The buying experience is at the center of every decision we make. I hate for it to sound cliché, but the truth is you can’t build a legitimate, scalable marketplace business without a world-class buying experience. It would be foolish not to invest heavily in it.

As supply scales, it’s our job as a marketplace to control that supply. We have a sophisticated algorithm that determines which product the customer is served. This algorithm takes into account factors such as listing quality, the source vehicle from which the part was dismantled, the seller’s quality and price, to name a few. Great sellers get their listings served to customers more frequently, while bad sellers get their listings suppressed.

We don’t want customers to have to think about that when they visit ShopEarl.com. We will handle all the heavy lifting and ensure that the part they see is high-quality from a top-notch supplier.

Keeping buyers and sellers aligned as digital adoption accelerates

It’s simple in theory. Salvage yards want to sell more of their used inventory, and buyers want to find the perfect part at a low cost.

To do this, it’s our responsibility to provide salvage yards with the proper tooling to be successful and put them in a position to sell more of their used inventory. It’s also our responsibility as a marketplace to ensure that buyers can easily discover the perfect part, seamlessly transact, and have clear-cut policies to help them feel confident in their buying decision.

Roadmap focus: buyer experience and financing tools for sellers

In an attempt not to give away our roadmap, I’ll share two things that we are thinking deeply about.

The first is the buyer experience, and the second is seller financing.

I love the salvage industry; it’s been my entire life. If we do our job, we’ll create the necessary ecosystem for salvage yards to not only compete but scale. This will enable family businesses like mine to endure and pass them down from generation to generation.