Direct Customer Engagement!

 

Taken at face value, liftedvehicles.com is another online vehicle marketplace site. By the way, the only online vehicle marketplace site exclusively for new and used lifted vehicles for sale. I'm going to reveal something: you have a massive opportunity that you're not aware of. During the previous 12 years of having the Only Lifted Trucks site up, I received numerous emails and messages from social media sites from people asking me, What kind of lift does it have, Who makes those wheels, What kind of tires are on it, Who makes the bumper, Where can I get fender flares like those? I was having conversations with people who weren't interested in buying the vehicle listed but were interested in purchasing specific accessories it had. Mark Cuban's question to everyone who enters the Shark Tank is, "What is your customer acquisition cost?" Those that I directed the answer to and went on to purchase: it cost that manufacturer and retailer zero to acquire those customers. For aftermarket companies, the vehicle listings on my site serve as a marketing showcase platform for your products.

I had a reseller certificate and got set up with a wholesaler. I had no intention of selling anything; I wanted to see the pricing and margins on the aftermarket products. The wholesaler would tell me that they could give a discount on specific brands. I have had multiple conversations with individuals who have a single product or a handful of products, and listened to them tell me about how challenging it was to get even a phone call with a wholesaler/distributor, and that they had to hire a person who had the connections, pay them a fee, and a percentage of the wholesale order. If your product retails for $100, with the current process, your margins are minimal, and to make any significant money, you have to do volume or sell directly to the consumer.

So here's what's happening early in 2026: I'm building an aftermarket ecommerce site for companies with a direct-to-consumer sales channel. Only US-based companies are allowed to have their products on, and I will offer a tiered commission rate based on company size. I’m breaking down barriers for aspiring entrepreneurs with a product ready to hit the market. No longer will they have to pay a middleman and sacrifice their hard-earned margins on top of what they already allocate to wholesalers or distributors. If their garage is their warehouse, UPS is their distributor, and my platform is their sales channel —that's fine. When I look at the numbers, getting your product into a retailer or wholesaler, you're still having a problem because they don't care whether your product sells or not. Walmart will test market a product for a set period of time, and whatever doesn't sell, you get back. There's no money for advertising when you have a product with thin margins. My platform will allow small companies to keep the majority—or all—the margin they would've had to give up by going wholesale. I will have a featured section dedicated just to these types of companies to showcase their products. The site will be cross-promoted with liftedvehicles.com.

My previous article regarding banner advertising on liftedvehicles.com for aftermarket companies. US-based aftermarket companies that secure a slot on the site will also have additional exposure on the e-commerce site. Until October 31, 2025, banner slots are half price to be on liftedvehicles.com.

There are many used lifted vehicle dealers in the US, and with what I said in the beginning, if I'm a manufacturer of the accessories that are used on lifted vehicles, I'd be reaching out to those dealers to make a deal for using your products, as they are going to get exposure on my site. I would particularly reach out to the used dealer Lifted Trucks, as they currently retail approximately 8K lifted vehicles a year. That number will be growing with their recently announced $150M credit line for expansion. Their site is also a showcase marketplace for aftermarket accessories.

With both sites, the low-hanging fruit —the enthusiasts — will come. I'm focusing on expanding both the lifted vehicle ownership in the US, as that will directly expand my future customer base for my listing site. As part of that, pushing out to where the organic growth and untapped real revenue dollars are for lifted vehicle dealers and aftermarket companies. Those are consumers who are unaware of lifted vehicles and the aftermarket components added to them.