International launches Fleetrite.com, giving customers real-time access to entire parts inventory

International Motors is revolutionizing the retail online parts purchasing experience.

Today the company is launching Fleetrite.com, a new e-commerce portal developed in collaboration between the OEM and its dealers that makes the company’s entire parts portfolio — from International OEM parts to Fleetrite all-makes components and third-party aftermarket components — available to all customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For the first time ever, Fleetrite.com enables any International customer, whether a fleet, owner-operator or independent service shop, to search 400,000 part numbers in a single catalog, with real-time availability, pricing and shipping information along with a simple, easy-to-use interface and single self-service transaction portal to simplify parts management and improve uptime across the North American trucking sector.

Jordan Birch, vice president, Parts, at International, says the new website provides a landmark “end-to-end parts buying experience” never before seen in the dealer space.

“Fleetrite.com puts the entire International parts catalog in the customer’s hands. Find the part, see where it is, know when you’ll have it — all without picking up the phone. That’s what keeps trucks earning.”

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Birch says the new Fleetrite.com is the product of more than a year of collaboration between the OEM and its dealer network. He says International enlisted 13 dealers and more than 30 dealer associates for a co-creation group that designed the site. During development, Birch says the group stripped its previous online ordering tools back to the framework to determine what exactly a revolutionary e-commerce site would look like and then developed Fleetrite.com from there.

“We have been building this with our dealers the whole way,” he says.

A beta version of the site was live for three months before Thursday’s launch, and Birch says during that time International was in constant contact with its dealer partners to receive input from their teams and testing customers to maximize the functionality and user intuitiveness of the site ahead of its full rollout.

“We aren’t going into this blind,” he says. “We already have received input and that will continue to be a big piece of this” as the site continues to be enhanced. “We have layered the voice of the customer into everything.”

International also worked closely with its vendors throughout the development process, requesting product information and identifying 100,000 high-moving lines that required detailed attributes in advanced of Thursday’s launch. And Birch says it’s just the start. Additional product information will be added to the site regularly to ensure customers are receiving as much information as possible when searching for a component.

The streamlined also site brings the inventories of more than 600 International and IC bus dealers together in a single place and gives buyers real-time parts availability across three sources at once: a local dealer’s shelf, an International parts distribution center and online inventory. The company says this enables buyers to see where a part is and when it will arrive before placing an order. Additionally, once placed, all orders are logged for tracking and reordering in a customer’s purchase history.

To order from Fleetrite.com, will customers create an account and select their dealer’s location. From there, they can search by VIN, vehicle, SKU or part category and see transparent pricing and inventory. International states parts can be ordered and shipped to the dealer or direct to location. Beyond tracking parts from order to delivery, International says direct ordering is available via API integration for national fleets.

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Birch believes Fleetrite.com will be a boon to the company’s dealer network.

“Our intent is to drive customers to dealers,” he says, citing the site’s ability to not only enhance procurement efficiency for large fleet customers but also attract customers with older equipment who may not have previously ordered many parts from dealers.

Nathan Barber of Hill International Trucks, one of the co-designers of Fleetrite.com, agrees.

“Our customers range from large fleets to owner-operators and independent repair shops, each with vastly different parts needs,” he says. “Fleetrite.com brings everything together in one easy-to-use solution, allowing customers to search and cross-reference parts while seeing live inventory on our shelves and at the local PDC. It makes the parts buying experience easier and keeps customers coming back.”

“We are extremely confident the customer experience will be something that in all respects is industry-leading,” Birch says.

RigDig (owned by Fusable, parent company of TPS), reports there are more than 1,965,000 verified vehicles 5-years-old or more in the U.S. trucking population, which conveys the vast size of the non-warranty parts market.

Additionally, the decision to anchor the site around the Fleetrite brand stems from its recognition and longevity across the parts industry.

Fleetrite was created in 1969 and today offers more than 10,000 active part numbers across over 100 categories. Fleetrite covers components for International and IC Bus models as well as all-makes components for other nameplates, and all Fleetrite parts carry an 18-month parts-and-labor warranty when installed within the International dealer network.

Birch also notes because Fleetrite.com was fully designed, developed and is managed by International, the company will be able to nimbly advance the site as e-commerce capabilities and customer expectations evolve.

“The site is fully developed based on what we needed to do today, but we are going to continue to improve the experience based on dealer and customer feedback,” he says.