U.S. Auto Parts bought many of its bumpers, headlights and mirrors directly from manufacturers in Asia, then sold them online for well below dealer prices. Its websites and eBay listings covered parts for thousands of makes and models, from mirrors to engine parts. It shipped from its own warehouses. The company went public in early 2007, as do-it-yourself buyers were moving online.

Matching Part to Car

The company started in 1995 selling auto parts, and it moved its business onto the internet. The bet was that car owners and small repair shops would buy parts online if the catalog was deep and the price was right. The hard part was matching the right part to the right vehicle. U.S. Auto Parts built its own catalog data to solve it.

Renamed CarParts.com

U.S. Auto Parts priced its IPO at $10 a share in February 2007 on the Nasdaq. In the years that followed, search engine changes and competition hurt its traffic. The stock spent long stretches at low levels. The company later invested in new distribution centers to ship parts faster across the country. In 2020 it renamed itself CarParts.com, and it remains publicly traded.

Cover: Car 2F-77-77, Alfred Stieglitz. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a motor car in the street (car parts).