Thursday January 7th, 2010
Top Story: Interview with Pierre, owner of Orlando Scooter Shop and Chinesescooterpartsstore.com
 This month we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Pierre Lepoureau from Orlando Scooter Shop. His company is a premier drop ship and wholesale customer for Partsforscooters.com. He has been able to use our drop ship program to his complete advantage by deploying successful websites with modern design techniques and highly searchable content. We were able to get some great answers from him concerning our industry and how he has been able to leverage his company in today's competitive market.
Please tell us about your business and how you started. - Our business started about 3.5 years ago when gas prices were climbing. It was obvious to us that scooters would be the most cost effective method for transportation.
Do you have a funny or interesting story you would like to share? Ha ha yes, one story is that I was able to acquire a 1989 Diesel Mercedes Benz on an even trade with a TNG 49.5cc Scooter – imagine that! My employees love telling customers that we "even accept trades for luxury cars!"
What are some of the greatest challenges your business faces? - Time in the market is a major factor for any online seller. Our competitors are about 3-5 years ahead of us and the internet is about popularity. We work every day to market our products and services and will continue to drive our business forward indefinitely.
What is unusual or unique about your business, in comparison to your competitors or similar businesses? - What sets us apart is we provide personal and undivided attention to our customers. I believe a lot of other scooter part web sites do not provide the attention required to facilitate and help their customers. It’s not just about the sale; it is also about providing honest and good customer service which translates into repeat sales and a sense of a team environment.
Did you see an effect on your business from the economy? - Our team has certainly felt this new economy no doubt. I have also seen how these scooter manufacturers seem to be opening fictitious business to sell retail or are going bankrupt. However, we are still pretty consistent since we provide all scooter related services beyond scooter parts. Scooter parts are a major part of service repair and maintenance.
In what ways has Partsforscooters.com benefited your company? - This is very easy to answer, it's quality. When ordering from PartsForScooters.com we receive quality parts along with a team to back us up with any of our scooter part needs. It’s also beneficial to be so close to the warehouse in St. Petersburg, Florida.
As a respected drop ship partner with Partsforscooters.com, what are the features you like best about the drop ship program? - The monthly updates come in handy for inventory tracking and the personal attention received from the partsforscooters.com sales team.
Do you have any new products or services you would like to showcase? - Yes, we have our new parts web site that we just made live, Chinesescooterpartsstore.com
Thanks to Pierre for sharing his experiences and expertise with us. We certainly enjoyed his story about trading a Mercedes for a scooter and we'll be sure to pass it on. Chinesescooterparts.com is a perfect example of how using our drop ship program gives maximum control over product expansion to dealers. Check out the further benefits this program offers:
- The "Ship From" address on packing slips displays Drop Shippers
company information, not ours
- Automated order processing through our web store for all Drop Shippers
- Customizable CSV import file with stock status
- Available weekly file updates
- Access and availability to sell our over 3,000+ parts inventory
- Our drop ship program is developed and fully managed in-house
Learn more about this and other great dealer incentive programs offered by Partsforscooters.com. Email marketing@partsforscooters.com to speak with one of our specialists today!
Industry News: Tank Sports Closed, Leaves Dealers Unfulfilled, as Reported from Guido Ebert's blog. blog.http://site.guidoebert.com/
Tank Sports, Inc., a distributor of scooters, motorcycles, ATVs and buggies, is no longer in business, leaving hundreds of dealers without replacement parts and support.
Tank imported and distributed vehicles from its office and warehouse in El Monte, Calif. The company served approximately 300 dealers in the United States.
“It was a total surprise,” one dealer from Southern California told me. “As of late, they advertised total blow-out prices, and I thought they were just trying to liquidate the old stock to replace with new stock, but it turns out they closed.”
The dealer I talked with is based only 20 miles away from Tank’s offices. “I ended up running into the owner, and so I asked him, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘Well, I had a meeting with the bank and they decided to take it (the operation) over’."
“Nobody knew it was going to go out of business. Nobody knew. And one of the employees at the business confirmed to me, ‘Yes, Tank is not coming back’.”
Tank was originally incorporated in California in 2001 as “Bi-Tank, Inc.”; changed its name to “Tank Sports, Inc.” in 2004; acquired the Redcat brand in Jan. 2007, increasing the company's dealer number in the ATV market; and purchased People's Motor International Co. Ltd. (PMI) of China in Nov. 2007, increasing its product mix with PMI’s Dazon brand of 90cc to 1100cc buggies. It’s unclear what impact the closing of the U.S.-based operation will have on PMI’s ops in China.
Once publicly traded, Tank sought and in Jan. 2009 was granted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the opportunity to suspend its duty to file reports with the SEC.
Telephone calls to two of Tank’s listed numbers went unanswered.
Even though Tank is out of business you can rely on Partsforscooters.com to provide stock and performance parts for most Tank Scooter models with the following engines:
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Featured Products
  Check out our all new Dirt Bike Stand with a Built in Parts Tray. This New MX Bike Aluminum Stand is a great solution for lifting motocross bikes at the shop, race track, trail or home garage. With all Aluminum construction you can use this mx stand to easily maintain and service your motocross or dirt bike and even use it to store your bike when not in use! Part #: 207-12.
  Remember to check out all of the awesome brands we now carry such as PJ1 Lubricants and Oils along with our Uni Air Filters and Products!
  Have a look at this handy storage pouch that mounts under the seat of your scooter. This clever design is a great place to store valuables and small items to grab quickly when you're on the go. Part #: 172-40.
  Don't forget to stock up on our complete line of in-stock Kenda brand tires and innertubes along with our full selection of K&N Air Filters and Oil Filters!
  We have a great water-pump repair kit for Minarelli 2-stroke water -cooled engines that you should check out. These kits have everything needed including bearings, seals, pins and propeller. Have one in your shop for a quick repair. Make on an otherwise time consuming process into a quick turn around repair for your customer. Grab one today! Part #: 159-53
Click here to check out our complete selection of repair kits available for every kind of job from carburetor repair, body and plastic repair to tire and innertube repair kits.
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Company News
 Partsforscooters.com will be exhibiting at the 2010 Dealer Expo in Indianapolis, IN. We'll be at Booth # 5521 (location may change) and we're handing out official Partsforscooters.com hats to the first 1,000 visitors! Stop by our booth and say hello to our crew and pick up a free hat!
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Interesting Facts
-The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank™, and assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that's not why it's called PageRank. It's actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.
-Google's name is a play on the word googol, which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, "Mathematics and the Imagination" by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web.
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