How Aftermarket Competitors are Seizing the Spare Parts Opportunity
For after-sales leaders at industrial equipment manufacturers, genuine part sales and services have never been more important. Your customers are keeping equipment in service longer than ever before, driven by the need to maximize capital investments and navigate ongoing economic uncertainty.
McKinsey research indicates that the average lifespan of industrial machinery in North America has increased by nearly 20% over the past decade, with more than 60% of manufacturers reporting that parts and service revenue constitutes a growing share of their business. The same trends have been shared by our customers, with many reporting a steady increase in the share of their overall revenue from parts and services.
The shift in customer behavior is fueling explosive growth in the global spare parts market that should not be ignored. Recent research from Verified Market Research projects that the industrial machinery spare parts market will reach $1.7 billion globally by 2032, growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 5.51%. For industrial equipment manufacturers, this represents both a massive opportunity and a significant challenge: how to capture a larger share of the growing spare part market while meeting rising customer expectations for speed, convenience, and support.
Most after-sales leaders already know that genuine parts are critical for protecting equipment performance, safety, and brand reputation. The real challenge shouldn’t be convincing customers of the value of genuine parts; it’s making it easier for them to buy those parts and get the support they need, exactly when they need it to keep their equipment up and running.
As your aftermarket competitors become faster in simplifying their part sales experience, they are positioning themselves to take advantage of a growing spare parts market that should be a true growth driver for your business.
Defining the Terms: Genuine and Aftermarket Parts
Before we dive deeper, let’s make sure we’re speaking the same language. Industrial equipment “parts” can mean different things to different people.
For the sake of this article, here’s how we’ll use these terms:
- Genuine Parts: These are components and spare parts manufactured or certified by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). They’re engineered specifically for your equipment, rigorously tested, and backed by the OEM’s warranty and support.
- Aftermarket Parts: These refer to parts produced by third-party companies, not the OEM. While often marketed as alternatives, aftermarket parts may not meet the same engineering, quality, or warranty standards as genuine parts. Our OEM customers also have referred to these as “copycat parts,” “non-genuine parts”, or “counterfeit parts” to describe these third-party competitors.
Clarifying these terms up front ensures that everyone, whether in sales, service, operations, or distribution, has a shared understanding as we explore how after-sales leaders can capture more value in this evolving spare parts market.
Why Do Your Customers Choose Aftermarket Parts?
Despite knowing the risks, many equipment owners and service workers still turn to aftermarket parts when they need to make a repair to get their machine up and running. While cost can become a determining factor, the reasons often have little to do with price alone and everything to do with convenience, accessibility, and speed.
- Easier to Find and Buy
Aftermarket providers have invested heavily in user-friendly digital catalogs, intuitive search tools, and seamless ecommerce experiences. In some cases, they even sell on marketplaces because it allows them to take advantage of a digital infrastructure that is already built for ease of use. When it’s easier to locate, identify, and purchase apart from a third-party site than from the OEM, customers will often take the path of least resistance, even if they know it’s not the “official” option.
- Faster Response Times
Aftermarket sellers frequently offer rapid quoting, transparent pricing, self-service options, and expedited shipping. Your aftermarket part competitors’ entire business model is transactional, aiming for a quick parts procurement process. If a customer’s equipment is down, the speed of fulfillment can outweigh concerns about authenticity or long-term reliability.
- Perceived Cost Savings
While the upfront price of a non-genuine part may be lower, customers may not always consider the total cost of ownership. Non-genuine parts may save money upfront, but can increase the risk of equipment failure, voided warranties, or unplanned downtime. Establishing a strong after-sales relationship with your customers should include educating them about the total value of choosing genuine parts throughout the equipment lifecycle.
- Gaps in OEM Support or Availability
If genuine parts are not in stock, catalogs are out of date, or support teams are slow to respond, customers may feel they have no choice but to look elsewhere. A lack of self-service options or digital tools can make the OEM channel feel less accessible, regardless of whether you sell through ecommerce, support staff, or authorized partners. Your competitors that prioritize ease of use and transparency have a competitive advantage that wins over your customers.
- Aggressive Marketing and Outreach
For many OEMs, it’s a challenge to keep a strong relationship with the customer once the initial capital equipment sale is complete. Aftermarket providers are often highly proactive in targeting equipment owners, offering incentives, discounts, and digital marketing campaigns that reach customers before the OEM does. When aftermarket competitors invest in outreach, they will be top of mind when your customer needs replacement parts.
Your customers aren’t necessarily choosing aftermarket parts because they don’t believe in the value of genuine parts. They often choose them because the experience is easier, faster, and more transparent. For after-sales leaders selling genuine parts, the challenge is to remove these barriers and make buying genuine parts the obvious, hassle-free choice.
What are the Large Barriers to Selling More Genuine Spare Parts?
Even with the clear advantages of genuine parts, after-sales leaders know that turning belief into action isn’t always straightforward. The real obstacles aren’t about product quality or customer will, they’re about process, accessibility, and overall experience.
- Complex, Siloed Parts Data and Catalogs
Industrial equipment manufacturers often spend excessive funds to manage enormous catalogs that are frequently scattered across legacy systems, spreadsheets, PDFs, and disconnected databases. The fragmentation makes it difficult for both your internal teams and customers to quickly identify the right part, resulting in missed sales, costly errors, and frustrated customers.
- Customer Friction and Lost Opportunities
Buyers expect the same seamless experience they get from leading B2C ecommerce platforms. But when sourcing genuine parts, they’re often met with slow response times, hard-to-navigate catalogs, and manual quoting processes. If it’s easier to identify and order a non-genuine part online, customers will take that route, even if they know it’s not the best option for their equipment.
- Limited Self-Service and Digital Tools
Relying on phone calls, emails, or outdated portals to handle parts inquiries and orders puts your after-sales business at a disadvantage. Without intuitive, self-service digital tools, customers are left waiting for support or forced to navigate cumbersome processes, giving aftermarket competitors an opening to win business.
- Pressure from Digital-First Aftermarket Competitors
Aftermarket providers have embraced digital selling by offering slick online catalogs, utilizing established marketplaces, and providing rapid delivery. Their focused, transactional approach raises the bar for customer expectations and puts additional pressure on manufacturers to modernize the after-sales experience if they want to compete.
- Internal Bottlenecks and Resource Constraints
For many after-sales teams, the challenge of technical resources makes it difficult to keep catalogs up to date, respond quickly to customer needs, or launch new digital initiatives. Manual processes reliant on technical resources lead to slower sales cycles, more support tickets, and lost revenue opportunities.
Even when customers believe in the value of genuine parts, they’ll choose the path of least resistance. If that path leads to an aftermarket provider with a better digital experience, manufacturers risk losing both immediate sales and long-term customer loyalty.
How CDS Partable Empowers After-Sales Leaders Simplify Genuine Part Sales
Modern after-sales success is more than selling genuine parts and knowing they are the best for servicing equipment. It’s about making genuine parts the easiest, fastest, and most reliable choice for your customers in their time of need. That is where CDS Partable steps in.
CDS Partable removes the friction from the entire process:
- Unified, Digital Part Catalogs: Customers and/or support can instantly identify and order the exact genuine part they need without additional technical resources or waiting for manual quotes.
- Self-Service and Speed: Enable customers to buy anytime, anywhere, with an ecommerce experience that rivals the best aftermarket competitors.
- Actionable Insights: Use data to proactively support customers, drive predictive maintenance, and optimize your after-sales strategy to be customer-centric.
The result? Higher genuine parts sales, reduced support costs, and customer experience that keeps you top of mind long after the initial equipment sale. Digitizing your genuine parts procurement processes can empower after-sales teams to streamline parts identification, simplify procurement, and deliver a standout customer experience that makes choosing genuine parts the simplest option.
Ready to beat the competition and transform your genuine parts business?
Download the Ultimate Guide to Hidden Revenue and discover proven strategies to maximize genuine parts sales and customer lifetime value.
Back to Blog
