New Japan Racing, Concaver and Rota wheels, and a pinch of automation
2021-12-14 10:25:24 by Willem
Our wheel selection got over a thousand new wheel models, as two of our main supplier's interfaces and updates were automated. Availabilities, prices and models are now updated in real-time, and for example JR wheels now show an exact eta if they are not in stock at the central warehouse. Japan Racing models are listed up to the newest JR42, and Rota has over 60 models listed as well.
The new wheel models
Like promised in the headline, our shop just got updated with a ton of new wheel models and brands. Here are (in an alphabetic order) the models and brands that were automated during the weekend. The links take you directly to the wheel selector with the listing of the brand's models.Among others, these brands now have full automation, meaning the model range, prices, and most importantly availability and ETAs are automatically update. Concaver and Japan Racing wheels have an exact eta for arrival, if they are not available at the central warehouse. The date can change +- two weeks, but in the big picture it is very important to know whether wheels are going to come in February, or if will take all the way to May for them to arrive. We have requested the ETA information from other brands as well, and will update it automatically if and when we get the information. Delivery times for stock wheels are between 3 to 5 working days which it takes for courier packages to move within Europe. Models which are not in stock will have an ETA in their title, and also have a longer expected availability time.
[h2A good time to order wheels Many models are now readily available, either directly in the central warehouse or coming in February or May. When the season comes and wheels are sold by the dozens every day, the availability can change, and popular models can simply run out of stock. Wheels are always delivered in the order they were placed on order, so if you'r after let's say the popular Japan Racing JR3 model, it might not be a terrible idea to place an order now that the stocks are high and there no rush in the packing department.
Installation service available in early 2022
Since we got it for a great price, we bought a gas-station and worksop just next to our current location in Pornainen. The place is names Race Point, and will open in early 2022. All of our operations will move to the new location, which enables us to provide a comprehensive service as well as more flexible hours for pickup. We are also investing in starting our own garage/service for installation. We will not compete with the cheapest oil-change, but in stead will focus on quality and working with sports cars and for example big diameter wheels and low profile tires. In the spring, you can get wheels with tires already fitted, or even get a full turn-key service for the new rims.Some technical background
The Race.Fi webshop has 120770 items in it's database at the time of writing, and many times more items which are not listed, are available through sales. Managing and keeping such an amount of items up to date is a time consuming and demanding endeavor, even when working with batch-runs from excel sheets. This is where automation comes into the picture. During fall, we have developed new interfaces and functionality into our system, which allows us to automate stock, price and product information updates and run them even several times a day. Currently, roughly 25 % of the items in our database are updated automatically.Up to date product information, prices, availability and models are one of the key factors in making sales. During spring, when the season is at it's peak, there is little to no time to do updates, and coincidentally that is the time where all this information should be up to date for quick, hassle-free deliveries. Automation will do this, and even when we work overtime in sales, the product data will be updated consistently, without delay, and eliminating any human errors which are more likely when working in a hurry.
Our aim is to increase the percentage of automatically updated products to around 50 % of our listed items, and first focus it on the most important ranges like all the wheels, suspension parts like Eibach and D2, as well as drivetrain parts such as Quaife.
