Last winter Amazon announced that it plans to sell products made by auto parts manufacturers. These products include everything from wiper blades to car batteries in the $48 billion annual auto parts market. Now there are growing fears that the e-commerce giant is about to do to the big four auto parts stores what it did to bookstores, reports the Commercial Appeal. Since Amazon’s announcement, the stock price of the big four auto parts resellers– AutoZone, O’Reilly Automotive, Advance Auto Parts, and Genuine Parts Co. are down 25%, 23%, 34%, and 7% respectively.
Some analysts say Amazon’s initial foray could immediately see the company take a $5 billion slice of the auto parts market–with more pain coming to the big four as Amazon continues to compete on price. Even now, Amazon is massively undercutting AutoZone, for example, on the price of a popular car battery. AutoZone sells it for $216, but Amazon customers can grab the same for just $166.
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