In March 2026, IMR (a leading automotive research firm) surveyed 500 independent repair shops about how they actually order parts. The finding that should concern every aftermarket manufacturer and distributor: on the multi-supplier aggregator platforms where 56% of shops now place orders, brand does not register as a primary purchase driver. It wasn’t low. It was zero. Availability is first at 59%. Price is a distant second at 10%. Brand is absent.
This is not a survey quirk. It is a structural shift in how purchasing decisions get made. Platforms like PartsTech consolidate live inventory, pricing, and delivery options from multiple suppliers into a single search. When a technician can compare those factors side by side, the brand on the box becomes secondary to whether the part is in stock and how fast it arrives. The companies that lose share here usually assume the platform is neutral. It isn’t. It actively de-emphasizes the one thing most brand investment is meant to build: preference.
The implication is straightforward. If brand preference does not exist before someone opens the platform, it will not exist when the order is placed. The platform will not create it. An algorithm will not create it. It has to be created by someone who already believes the product is worth recommending. That is the competitive problem most aftermarket companies are not yet structured to solve. Worse, most are only investing in one side of the influence equation.
Incentivizing Buying Behavior on Two Paths
Manufacturers need the installer and counterperson to believe in the brand. Distributors need the shop to consolidate spend. Different levers…same end user…same platform. The question is whether you’re building preference on both paths or just one? Where there’s push, there’s pull…let’s look at both and what they mean to brand loyalty success.
Push: Building conviction in the people with influence
The Incentive Research Foundation’s 2025 study of automotive and manufacturing companies found that 83% run internal sales incentive reward and recognition programs. SPIFFs funded by manufacturers to distributor reps, sales contests, volume bonuses. Most companies already do some version of this.
The problem is the design. A few dollars per unit for a specific SKU this month. The SPIFF expires, the behavior stops, and the brand fails to develop the stickiness that survives a search where a cheaper alternative is one click away. I’ve watched this cycle repeat across industries. A manufacturer invests in a SPIFF, sees a short-term lift, struggles to prove what actually changed, pulls it back, and watches volume settle right back where it was before. That’s not motivation to continue buying from a brand. That’s a temporary discount wearing a different label.
The same IRF study separates top performers from the rest, and the design differences are significant. Top performers are 25% more likely to use incremental achievement targets instead of thresholds. 90% offer uncapped rewards, versus 63% of the rest. In my view, this signals confidence in the design and in the belief that the program funds itself through performance. In IRF case studies, that approach has driven 32% revenue increases and 30% market share gains.
These companies aren’t spending more carelessly. They’re building brand preference through training, expertise, recognition, and rewards that are memorable enough to matter. That conviction is what makes someone stick to a brand even when the platform shows a cheaper option with the same availability.
Pull: Creating structured loyalty with the people who purchase
Here’s the gap. That same IRF study found only 51% have programs reaching their channel partners. The people inside the company get structured motivation. The people outside, the ones deciding where the money goes, get a price sheet and a periodic rebate.
What looks like a pricing problem at the shop level is often a preference problem one layer up. Every shop keeps two or three active supplier accounts, and the first-call supplier captures most of the volume. Most loyalty programs aimed at shifting that ratio look the same: hit a quarterly threshold, earn a percentage back. NAPA Installer Rewards pays 1% once a shop clears $1,950 per quarter. Advance Auto Parts relaunched its structure in February 2026. When every major distributor offers 1 to 3%, the rebate subsidizes the purchasing pattern that already exists. It doesn’t reshape it.
Early in my career, I was designing a program with a building materials CEO who wanted one account removed from a program. “They only buy sticks from me, and I make nothing on them.” He was right. The program was rewarding volume without defining what kind of volume mattered. We restructured it so earnings were tied to the behaviors that actually drove profitability: cross-category purchasing, preferred product lines, and higher-margin items. That is the difference between a rebate and a program. A rebate pays for what already happened. A structured incentive or loyalty program defines what earns, and that definition is where purchasing economics change.
There’s An Urgent Need to Shift Focus from Price to Brand
The price-driven platform shift in automotive did not happen in a vacuum. It is accelerating because the economics are pushing every participant toward price sensitivity:
- Parts costs are up and shops are not absorbing them. Since the 25% tariff on auto parts kicked in May of 2025, pricing across the aftermarket has climbed steadily. Most shops are passing those increases straight through to the customer. That means every repair ticket is higher and every customer is one bad invoice away from asking “is there a cheaper option?”
- Trading down is real and accelerating. 1 in 4 consumers traded down to a cheaper tire on their last purchase. Nearly 9 in 10 shops have increased private label purchasing in two years. When the customer asks “what’s cheapest?” the shop picks whatever the platform shows first. No one is setting out to erode brand preference. It is simply what happens when discretionary spending tightens.
- The next generation doesn’t have brand preference. Two thirds of newer technicians are ordering through aggregator platforms and over 80% of them say availability is the only thing that matters. Not brand. Not relationship. This new generation is replacing the veteran technicians who relied on personal connections with trusted suppliers.
The companies that will hold and gain share in this market are the ones that build brand preference before the ordering moment. Not through advertising. Not through pricing. Through the people who shape the transaction: the counterperson who recommends with conviction because they have been trained and recognized for their expertise, and the shop owner who consolidates spend because the program makes growth feel worth pursuing. That’s where B2B incentive programs can really create stickiness and long-lasting loyalty.
When push and pull work together, preference compounds.
- The counterperson recommends the brand because they believe in it
- The shop buys more because it is earning toward a goal
- The program sponsor sees the lift and reinvests
And that preference becomes the thing a competitor cannot replicate with a lower price or faster delivery on a blind platform search.
The auto aftermarket companies still running flat rebates and rotating SPIFFs are just renting behavior month to month. The ones building programs on both sides of the equation are creating something much harder for competitors to displace: conviction that a brand is worth choosing even when the platform says it doesn’t have to be.
The Right Incentive Structure Delivers Loyalty & Longevity
A smart and strategic incentive or loyalty solution keeps your brand top of mind before a search query is made on an agnostic parts platform. It creates a reward structure that’s compelling enough for the tech to want to connect with you first. And it provides brand training that influences the end user to trust the tech’s first choice.
At Motivation Excellence, we have more than 40 years of experience building successful data-driven loyalty and incentive programs that focus on changing buying behavior over the long haul. Our clients regularly see:
- loyalty to their brand increase
- year over year sales gains for the life of the program
- stronger relationships with partners invested in mutual success
And, they see all of this with their incremental gains paying for the program, and then some. We’d love guide your business through a successful channel incentive program. Reach out via our Let’s Connect button on our website to set up a free consultation. While you’re on our website, explore all of our solutions to help you Inspire Extraordinary Performance with the people who mean most to your success.
