The hidden margin leaks in spare parts: where OEMs lose money and how to plug the holes
Spare parts and maintenance services deliver margins up to four times higher than new equipment sales. Yet most OEMs capture only a fraction of potential aftermarket revenue.
The reason isn't product quality or brand strength. It's that genuine parts have become harder to buy than they should be, while non-genuine alternatives have become easier to find.
This blog uncovers the hidden leaks in the spare parts journey that drain revenue every day, and how to start closing the gaps.
The aftermarket margin engine is leaking
For industrial OEMs, the aftermarket is more than a revenue stream, it's the margin engine.
Equipment sales establish the customer relationship, but spare parts, accessories and maintenance services generate the recurring, high-margin revenue that builds long-term value.
The challenge is that this margin engine is leaking from multiple points. Buyers land on OEM websites, only to be redirected to a “where to buy” page where they still can’t complete transactions. Quote requests sit unanswered while buyers move on. Cross-sell opportunities disappear because no one captured the transaction data to identify them in the first place.
Each leak seems small on its own. But at scale, across thousands of parts, hundreds of dealers and dozens of markets, these friction points add up to millions in lost revenue and steadily declining market share in the very segment where OEMs should be strongest.
The pattern is clear: OEMs are selling the low-margin equipment while B2B customers increasingly expect the same fast, transparent, frictionless buying experiences they get in consumer commerce.
Here are the four most common leaks and what they’re really costing to your business.
Leak #1: The where-to-buy dropout
A maintenance technician visits your website looking for a specific part. The product information is there. The part number is correct. The fitment data checks out. Then they hit the "where to buy" button and get redirected to a dealer locator.
Some dealers may have a website. Some websites may support eCommerce. The part may be listed. Inventory may be accurate. Pricing may even be visible. But for buyers, too often, every step is still a guessing game.
By that point, most have already dropped out — especially in urgent maintenance scenarios where downtime costs money every minute and buyers can’t afford to wait through slow quote requests, unclear availability or fragmented purchasing flows.
More than just a transaction, you've lost visibility into what happened next. Did they call a dealer? Did they find the part somewhere else? Did they buy a non-genuine alternative because it was easier? You'll never know, because the digital thread broke the moment you sent them away.
This is the single most expensive handoff in the aftermarket journey. You've done the hard work of helping the buyer identify exactly what they need, then you've forced them back into a fragmented, manual process exactly when they're ready to buy.
The result: no transaction captured, no customer data captured and no way to measure how often this happens or what it costs you.
Leak #2: Out-of-stock dealer substitution
Here's a leak that's almost invisible to the OEM: A buyer contacts a dealer for a genuine part, but the dealer doesn't have it in stock. Lead time is uncertain. The customer needs it now.
To preserve the relationship and close the sale, the dealer recommends an alternative — often a competitor's product or a non-genuine substitute that's readily available.
The sale happens. The customer gets their part. The dealer protects the relationship. And the OEM loses the revenue, the margin and a piece of brand loyalty, often without ever knowing it happened.
This dynamic plays out thousands of times across a distributed dealer network. Dealers aren't trying to undermine the OEM — they're optimizing for what they can control, which is keeping the customer happy and closing the sale in front of them.
But from the OEM's perspective, this is a double loss. First, the immediate revenue and margin. Second, the strategic insight needed to fix the root cause, whether that's inventory allocation, demand forecasting or dealer stocking strategies.
Without visibility into these substitution events, OEMs can't solve the problem. The leak just continues.
Leak #3: Invisible cross-sell
Every spare parts transaction is also a signal. It tells you what the customer is working on, what equipment they're maintaining and what else they might need.
A replacement part often requires complementary accessories. A wear item suggests related consumables. A repair points to an upcoming maintenance cycle. But if the transaction happens outside your visibility — through a dealer's independent system or a third-party channel — you never see the signal.
The result: missed cross-sell and upsell opportunities at every transaction. You're solving for the immediate part request, but leaving money on the table because you can't identify what else the customer needs to complete the job.
Leak #4: The loyalty erosion effect
After-sales experience plays a bigger role in customer retention than the original equipment sale itself.
Every frustrating spare parts experience — slow quotes, unclear availability, difficult ordering processes — gradually weakens customer loyalty. According to Sana Commerce, 74% of B2B buyers said they would switch suppliers if another B2B digital store offered a better experience.
Over time, that shift impacts more than aftermarket revenue. Customers begin considering competitors for future equipment purchases too.
What starts as friction in the spare parts journey can ultimately cost OEMs the customer relationship altogether.
How to start plugging the leaks
The core solution is moving from fragmented dealer handoffs to a unified digital aftermarket experience that keeps dealers central to fulfillment while giving buyers the seamless journey they expect.
That means:
Aggregate inventory visibility across your dealer network. Instead of sending buyers to individual dealer websites or phone numbers, surface real-time availability across your entire network in your eCommerce. Let buyers see what's in stock, where it is and when they can get it.
Enable transactions on the OEM digital destination. Allow buyers to move from product discovery to purchase without leaving your ecosystem. Capture the transaction, the data and the customer relationship.
Route orders intelligently to the right fulfillment partner. Send orders to the dealer or distributor best positioned to fulfill based on location, inventory, territory agreements and service-level commitments. This protects the channel model while improving the customer experience.
Capture first-party data to close the feedback loop. Transaction and demand data reveal patterns you can't see from dealer locators or manual quote workflows. Use that insight to optimize inventory allocation, identify cross-sell opportunities and improve capture rate over time.
Expand your offering without increasing inventory burden. Onboard suppliers to list complementary accessories, consumables and spare parts, extending your catalog without holding additional stock. This turns your eCommerce into a single destination where buyers can find everything they need for after-sales repair, maintenance and service in one place.
This is what leading OEMs are already doing. ABB, for example, built a partner-fulfilled platform powered by Mirakl, where new customers now represent the majority of its base, while overall active users doubled within a year.
From margin leak to margin protection
B2B buyers expect a seamless experience: find what they need, check availability instantly and complete the purchase without friction. When your experience doesn't meet that standard but non-genuine alternatives do, you're losing on accessibility.
OEMs need to shift from thinking about aftermarket digitization as a channel conflict risk to recognizing it as a margin protection strategy that benefits the entire ecosystem.
