Brian Lounsberry has had only one resume in his life. It was written on yellow-lined paper and read “I can weld and have my own tools.”
He successfully used it to get a job at a local garage which began his twenty-five year journey to CEO of MidwayPlus, the SAAS company he co-founded focused on revolutionizing the automotive aftermarket industry.
Brian established himself as a tenacious leader with a keen eye on improving efficiency by working his way through every facet of the industry. In the body shop, he learned all aspects of operations and within wholesale distribution, he managed sales, marketing, operations, website and software design.
Brian's breadth of experience allowed him to do what he does best, make things better. He never took “no” for an answer and was committed to finding a solution for the industry. His vision for MidwayPlus was to develop a technology for aftermarket brands to have more business choices, build better relationships, and showcase their products in an easier and more efficient way.
Lounsberry is a member of Performance Racing Industry (PRI) and Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), where he also served on the board of directors.
Greg Atkins has built and sold successful IT companies throughout his tenure.
Greg's innate ability to optimize a company's operating capabilities, while maximizing customer satisfaction have made him a key component to the success of launching MidwayPlus.
Greg's clear understanding of business strategies and financial policies are due, not only to his degree in economics, but his years of honing his business acumen at Motovicity Distribution and The I.T. Management Group.
Greg's solution-oriented approach to work closely with our business partners ensures an efficient and world-class client experience.
In his more than 20-year career in the automotive industry, MidwayPlus co-founder Albert Reda has built over $100M in business revenue.
Albert's unprecedented sales and marketing know-how have helped to catapult several up-starts into brand leaders in the High-Performance market segment.
Albert has an unparalleled talent of bringing resellers and brands together and is the cornerstone of MidwayPlus' mantra ‘it's all about connections.'
After working as a full-stack developer for many years, Steven Christy decided to take the plunge into starting his own business.
Steve is not just a MidwayPlus co-founder, his agile knowledge of business applications and scalable e-commerce websites have resulted in total annual revenues of more than 40M yearly sales on multiple online platforms.
Steve's vast back-end knowledge and training have been critical to build MidwayPlus into the successful software tool it is today.
Your Competitive Advantage Starts with Our Digital Business Hub
Today’s best brands seek faster, more meaningful connections with their buyers—creating premium shopping experiences that are effortless, efficient, and fully within their control. MidwayPlus empowers you to build stronger relationships, manage your business on your terms, and create seamless interactions that drive loyalty and growth.
Experience the power of complete control for your brand, where you set the pace, engage directly with your customers, and customize your operations for maximum impact. At the same time, give your buyers the freedom they crave—the ability to shop and interact with your brand whenever it suits them best. MidwayPlus makes business smoother, more efficient, and focused on what matters: delivering exceptional, flexible experiences that keep customers coming back.
As An Aftermarket Automotive Parts Manufacturer, Are You Tired Of Having No Visibility, No Control, But All The Risk?
You've come this far growing your business, but are you now running into roadblocks trying to diversify your channel and scale your business?
You Design And Build The Best Products In The Aftermarket Industry, You're The Obvious Choice For The Right Buyers, But...
You don't have enough visibility to make the best business decisions so you can sell on your terms.
Often you don't even know how much inventory is left, only to find out after a product is out of stock that you need to ramp up production now, all the while there would have been time 2 weeks earlier.
You don't have a clear picture of who's actually buying your products. You don't even get to set your prices, and sometimes you might be wondering if your products are purposely being held back, but you just don't know for sure.
That's why you're probably thinking "If we could sell direct to consumers and dealers in addition to distributors, we could really get ahead."
Makes sense.
But there's a glaring problem.
Your Operations Are Too Reliant On Tribal Knowledge, Prone To Mistakes, And Difficult To Change
Just processing orders is time consuming and costing your CSRs a lot of time with the back and forth between phone calls, emails, and customer requests.
Orders are manually entered, manually charged, you have to manually notify the production team, ensure it fits in the schedule, you have to verify the parts and raw materials are there, and you have to manually keep the customer in the loop as to the timing and status.
There are 10 different ways to make a mistake that screws up the order. Maybe that doesn't happen often, but you want it to never happen.
Also, you may not be used to stocking your own products, but even if you are, you still have to figure out how to scale your shipping capacity.
If you're really honest about things, your current processes aren't ready to sell more product to a significantly larger number of customers. But the future is in multi-channel. Your go-to market strategy should be all of the above—consumers, valuable dealers, and wholesale distributors.
Selling across the entire channel means you're going to have to address these operational challenges once and for all. How?
You're Going To Need The Right Tools In Place To Sell Direct
What Are Your Options?
- Build A Custom B2B Aftermarket Automotive eCommerce Platform
- Buy Something On The Market
- Or just stick With The Status Quo
Maybe you've thought about building something yourself—your own custom portal so you can get everything you want. But be prepared to spend no less than $100,000 and upwards of up to $1M.
That means hiring developers to build and maintain it—a significant cost upfront and ongoing and delays you going to market by at least a year.
You could try building something in WordPress with WooCommerce, Shopify, or some other eCommerce platform and maybe cut your time to market to 6 months, but how much configuring, hacking, and custom web development are you going to need to make it work, the right way, like a B2B aftermarket automotive eCommerce platform should work?
That means paying an agency who almost suredly doesn't know the industry.
Never mind all the integrations with your ERP, cloud and/or legacy systems, and the data management that are required to make it work—also skillsets beyond 99% of ecom agencies.
Even if you do get one of these solutions to work, how are you getting eyeballs on it? That's a whole separate agency you have to hire just to generate high quality traffic.
Even if you do get a handle on all these things, there's another problem:
The Most Dangerous Thing Everyone Wants To Ignore That Could Shut You Down Entirely If You Do
Sales tax collecting, handling, filing, and compliance is a labyrinth of complexity that no one seems to have answers to.
Chances are, you don't know how to do it, but if you're one of the few that do, you know what a huge pain it is to manage.
Which is why it's so easy to ignore, but you know you can't.
And if you ship nationally, which you probably do, that's up to 50 states you have to comply with.
But that's not the whole picture.
Do you know how many tax jurisdictions there are just in the US?
Over 11,000!
Where do you even begin to finally get compliant?
There are entire seminars you can attend to try and get this sorted out, but most of the time you leave more confused, have more questions than answers, and you've wasted your time and money.
What About Sticking With The Status Quo?
Maybe you're thinking, "This is a lot, maybe too much. Maybe we should stick it out with how we've always done things."
That sentiment is understandable, but there's one more thing you need to know:
The ONE Thing Everyone In The B2B Aftermarket Automotive eCommerce Industry Is Whispering About, But No One Wants To Talk About
In , manufacturers are already quietly shifting away from their reliance on legacy channel options to sell more volume at a higher margin.
BUT soon the industry won't be whispering, it'll be ringing alarm bells.
What are we talking about?
As more manufacturers continue to make the switch, legacy options are drying up. The choice to go to market is quickly becoming a limited pool of options. As these options are bought up and M&A's rule today's landscape, be assured, they are not thinking about your future market position.
So if you're not evolving your go-to market strategy, things are only going to get more difficult.
Pretty soon the tides will turn and the manufacturers who waited too long will be scrambling to change their operations and supply chain to sell direct. That's when you'll hear the alarm bells:
Some will lose market share. Some will go out of business altogether. There will be layoffs, scale backs, and bankruptcies. We don't want these things to happen to you.
That's why you need to make the switch NOW, while you can, before this trend becomes a real threat to your business and so you're not scrambling later trying to catch up at the same time everyone else is—when it will cost you more.
- You need to take control of your B2B transactions and sell on your terms
- You need to adjust your operations to support it
- You need the right tools in place to make that happen, that integrate with your systems, are sales tax compliant, and don't require hundreds of hours of training to use
How do you make it happen?
One-Step B2B Sales, Direct To Your Dealer Network On The Aftermarket Automotive eCommerce Platform With 100% Done-For-You Sales Tax Compliant Order Processing, Fully Integrated With Your Systems
Go to market selling direct in 90 days instead of 6, 9, or even 12 months with the B2B aftermarket automotive eCommerce marketplace for manufacturers that gives you everything you need to sell direct to dealers.
Without adding overhead and without having to spend thousands of dollars building something in-house.
Always Be In-The-Know
Your Company Store Dashboard lets you view metrics in context, status for open orders, backorders, and balances, top customers, your recent feed posts, relevant customer data, and more.
Manage Your Product Data
Manage products, specify key info, categories, pricing, packaging and shipping, compliance, warranties, returns, special rules, and more, fully integrated with your ERP.
Configure Freight & Order Settings
Specify fulfillment expectations, backorder deposit requirements, shipping cutoffs, dropship settings, international settings, shipping methods and more.
Track Metrics & Data
See key metrics for sales, averages, orders, customers, searches, conversions, and uncover hidden insights into your buyers behaviors and product preferences. Drill down to monthly views, specific customers, and SKUs.
Build Your Own Promos
Construct custom coupon, rebate, and discount sale offers with eligibility settings for timing, products, and target amounts.
With a lot more.
Built By Aftermarket Industry Professionals For Your Aftermarket Business
With decades of industry experience in our team and having worked on both sides of the B2B aftermarket transaction, we've considered every challenge, nuance, and circumstance that manufacturers and resellers face and have built the tools to meet each one so manufacturers can take control of their sales and supply chain to scale their business and so resellers can have the easiest B2B purchasing experience possible.
What Do You Get As A Brand With MidwayPlus?
Everything you need scale your aftermarket manufacturing business without having to increase your overhead.
Everything In One Place
Get total visibility into your entire sales channel and supply chain in one platform that lets you see everything around every transaction so you'll never be in the dark again.
Resellers Place Their Orders
Let resellers place their own orders whenever they want, 24/7 365, so you can free up 50% of your CSRs' time when orders are managed automatically.
Automatic Order Processing
Eliminate all the back-and-forth hassle when orders are processed, status and inventory are updated, and everyone on both sides is notified—all automatically.
Order & Shipping Visibility
Keep your customers in-the-know when they can check stock, receive order confirmations, view orders and backorders online, and get shipment notifications.
Accurate Shipping Quotes
Enable your buyers to see accurate shipping costs that account for discounts, upcharges, and free freight thresholds before they confirm their orders without having to contact you for a quote.
Designed For Integrations
Our team will help you configure integrations to your ERP, EDI, inventory, accounting, and retail portal, including Oracle Netsuite, Quickbooks, Stripe, outside channel partners, and 3rd-party logistics.
Invite-Only Audience
Your products are not for everyone. Control who can buy from you with free, invite-only access for only the resellers you choose.
Market To Your Buyers
Gain access to our exclusive network, promote your products, announce new ones, share listing updates, and offer promos to them through our integrated news feed.
Built-In Shopping Cart
Process and fulfill 100s of orders a day with the built-in retail shopping cart, fully integrated with your ERP + EDI extensions.
Define Your Promotions
Move inventory on your terms when you can create and manage all your B2B promotions, coupons, and customer rebates from one platform.
Built-In Analytics
Get key metrics at your fingertips and know exactly what your dealers are buying from your online store front, and how often, so you can prioritize what sells and innovate on what's in demand.
100% Sales Tax Compliance
Scale your business without having to worry about whether our platform is sales tax compliant when every reseller's exemption certificates are automatically authenticated and managed.
Live Inventory Feed
Eliminate the excess calls and emails from customers who simply need an inventory check when they can see if something's in stock from your online store and optionally limit sales to only in-stock items.
One-Click Decisions
Recover even more time for your CSRs and enable them to give better, faster service when they can see an order's status in an instant and approve or deny requests with a click of a button without a phone call or email.
Custom Listings & Pricing
Include images, videos, and documents, discontinued and supersede products, tiered pricing, bulk pricing on SKU, scheduled pricing, time limits, reseller access control, and more.
Access Anywhere
MidwayPlus is fully mobile / responsive and can be accessed on any device so you never have to be out of the loop on an important transaction or support request.
What Our Customers Are Saying
Stock Your Own Products, Move Your Buyers To Direct, And Increase Your Margins By Up To 30%.
BUT...you're probably still thinking "That's a BIG change for us, how do we scale operations?"
The MidwayPlus team has the insights, partner network, and expertise to advise you through scaling your inventory, shipping capacity, and overall supply chain every step of the way so you can meet the demand that comes with selling direct.
We've helped over 30 manufacturers, just like you, make the transition. When you become a MidwayPlus customer, it's my personal commitment to help facilitate yours to be simple and seamless so you can maximize your success.
How It Works
Here's what to expect when you onboard as a MidwayPlus customer
1. Qualifying, Data Gathering, & ERP
If we are a good match for each other and we believe we can help you, then MidwayPlus will provide you with a series templates that you will fill in so that we can collect your essential product data, product pricing, and stock information.
2. Platform Set Up & Branding
We'll get to work on processing the first set of information. In the meantime, you'll provide your brand assets that will be featured on your storefront. We'll also walk through your platform settings with you.
3. Integrations & Testing
We'll work with you to integrate payments, net terms, and freight as well as review any other customer-specific integrations or applications (CRM, ERP, etc.). We'll then test the product data/shopping experience.
4. Training & Launch Planning
We'll show you and your team all the ins-and-outs of how to manage accounting, marketing, sales, and customer service through your MidwayPlus portal, as well as how to get the most out of the news feed.
5. Launch
We'll discuss your launch promotions and help you set those up, best practices for jobber/dealer communication, how to invite your customers, and then your actual launch.
6. Post-Launch
We'll help you plan your post-launch strategy for engaging customers and how to handle rebates, running a sale, running a promotion, and how the news feed relates.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
For Manufacturers / Brands
What is MidwayPlus?
MidwayPlus is a B2B aftermarket automotive eCommerce software solution that connects manufacturers with the best resale partners for their business. Our solution improves the way automotive brands engage with their customers and the wholesale market.
Are you an online distributor?
No! We are very different. We do not set rules on who can gain access and price points for your products. You set your pricing, create your sales and promotions, and control who you sell to. Our software allows you to go to market in the way that best fits your business.
How long does it take to get onboarded?
Onboarding varies from as little as 2 weeks, but since MidwayPlus gives Brands flexibility to manage their products, pricing, and programs, the average onboarding period is 90 days with an additional few months to dial in the product.
How does a Brand onboard its resellers?
A Brand can easily invite its resellers to join through our simple-to-use Customer-Invite feature on our site.
Do resellers purchase directly from our company?
Yes! MidwayPlus facilitates the searching, shopping, and order management of Resellers so that they can easily buy your products directly from you.
Can we see other brands' information or can another brand see our brand's information?
No. MidwayPlus will never share individual Brand data with any other party. This includes your product data, pricing, programs, sales, and incentives. Brands' product data will be available to Resellers as part of their shopping experience, but each Brand controls which Resellers can see their pricing and programs.
Can a reseller see another reseller's information?
No. MidwayPlus will never share Reseller information with other Resellers. Brands will be able to see the profile a Reseller creates for the site and certain attributes of a Reseller, such as type of business, specialty, etc. This benefits the Reseller by allowing Brands to target Resellers with special programs.
Does MidwayPlus share sales, reseller, and/or service levels data with anyone?
MidwayPlus will only share data regarding your sales, purchases, and service levels with your company.
As a brand, can we block a reseller from purchasing our product?
Yes. Brands have full control over who can buy their product and see their pricing. MidwayPlus provides the tool to make this process easy to manage.
As a brand, can we restrict the shipment of our product to territories or states?
Yes. Brands can add state-by-state and country-by-country restrictions of where their products can ship to. This can be done on the individual SKU level, so a Brand may opt to restrict only parts of their catalog to certain states.
How do we engage our resellers or prospects?
MidwayPlus offers several tools to help engage your Resellers and/or prospects. These include tiered pricing, rebates, coupons, discount programs, and freight programs. You will also be able to promote your products and Brand on our internal newsfeed for Resellers.
What is a Brand Storefront?
Think of a Brand Storefront as your public profile for the Resellers to see. Resellers can navigate to your Storefront and see relevant information about your Brand and a list of your products that they can purchase directly from your Storefront.
How do we use the MidwayPlus Newsfeed?
The MidwayPlus Newsfeed is a wonderful place to promote your Brand. You can alert Resellers to upcoming promotions, new parts (even pre-sell new parts!), and attendance at industry events.
How do we manage all the resellers tax documents?
In short: you no longer need to. MidwayPlus manages all sales tax documents, collection, remittance, and filing. The sales tax liability and filing requirements—for over 11,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.—rest with MidwayPlus.
A Reseller contacted me and said they should not be charged sales tax when buying our products through MidwayPlus. How should I respond?
MidwayPlus works with Sales Tax software companies and consultants to make sure we are always in compliance with the laws regarding sales tax in over 11,000 taxing jurisdictions. We follow the rules per state and if we are asking for a document, it's because the law requires the buyer to prove their tax exemption. Please ask the Reseller to contact MidwayPlus so we can make sure we have all their tax exemption certificates on file.
How do we get paid?
Your company will, with our help, establish a direct relationship with our payment processor. Typically, you will be paid in 2 to 4 days from the date of an order.
Do we get a payment from MidwayPlus or our reseller?
You will be getting paid directly from the Reseller, via our Payment Processor. The remittance advice you receive from the Payment Processor will have the Reseller's name and not MidwayPlus'.
How is shipping calculated?
Using your own carrier accounts and product data, we will calculate the shipping charges. We can include any rules you may have for the shipping calculations, such as discounts, upcharges, or free freight thresholds. We will include the shipping charges in the total amount charges the Reseller and the Payment Processor will pass those charges to you when sending the payment for the order.
Can we ship from a 3PL?
Yes! If you authorize us and tell where a product ships from you can ship from anywhere. Ask us about our integrations with 3PLs.
Can we restrict orders to allow only in-stock items to be purchased?
Yes. You will have the option to allow backorders or to only place orders for products in stock.
How fast do we need to ship products?
Resellers and consumers have come to expect receiving their products quickly. MidwayPlus does not enforce a shipping turn-around time, but we recommend working to get your products out the door both quickly and consistently. You will be able to add a shipping lead-time to your settings to help MidwayPlus set expectations with the Reseller regarding how quickly your ship products.
Can we cancel an order?
Yes. There may be times that it is necessary to cancel an order. MidwayPlus has workflows built in to guide the messaging and refund to the Reseller.
Can a reseller cancel an order?
Resellers' ability to cancel an order are subject to your company's settings within the MidwayPlus platform. The reseller can request to cancel, yet you must authorize the request.
Can we embed videos on product details when shopping?
Yes. You may attach up to 2 videos per product. The links to these videos are presented to the Reseller as they are viewing your products, either within your storefront or within a more general, multi-Brand search results screen.
Can we include documents on the product detail when shopping?
Yes. You may attach up to 4 documents per product. The links to these documents are presented to the Reseller as they are viewing your products, either within your storefront or within a more general, multi-Brand search results screen.
How do we manage discontinued/superseded products?
Within the MidwayPlus Product Manager, you will be able to flag parts as discontinued, superseded, or both. If superseded, the MidwayPlus search engine will point Resellers to your new part.
Can we have multiple price tiers?
Yes. You can have as many as six standard pricing tiers. These tiers are the base price from which all other discounts are calculated.
Can we offer bulk pricing on an SKU?
Yes, in addition to the six standard price tiers, you can have up to 2 quantity breaks.
Can we edit the price of a product quickly?
You can very quickly edit the price of one part through your MidwayPlus Product Manager. For updates to many parts, you can easily download a current price list, modify prices in Excel, and re-upload to MidwayPlus.
How do we handle a scheduled price increase?
All price increases have an effective date. You can make the effective date today out to any point in the future.
Who sets the pricing for Resellers?
You do.
Can all resellers see our storefront and products?
All Resellers will be able to see your products, but you control who can see your pricing and inventory.
Can we choose who we want to sell to?
Yes! You have full control over which Resellers can buy your products or even see your pricing.
Can we see all Resellers on the platform?
You will always be able to see the Resellers you have done transactions with and have explicitly authorized to buy your product. However, making MidwayPlus a productive platform for Resellers prevents us from showing a list of all Resellers to any Brand. You can promote visibility of your Brand to your existing buyer network by using the MidwayPlus Newsfeed and targeting prospects with Sales and other Programs.
What kind of sales are possible?
Among the types of sales and promotions you can create are: limited time discount, one-time use coupon code, rebates, free items, freight promotions, and quantity breaks.
Can we offer shipping deals?
Yes! We allow you to create several shipping deals to both optimize your shipping and to incentivize the Resellers.
Can we offer a reseller a rebate?
Yes! Not only can you offer a Reseller a rebate, if a rebate is earned it is only available to use on your products!
Can we schedule a sale and limit it by time?
Yes! You can schedule both the start and end of a sale.
Is the inventory update via API or manual?
We would prefer to use an API to update available inventory on your MidwayPlus storefront. We can also accommodate inventory files being uploaded to our system or made available to us for download from your systems. If needed, you can also update inventory levels manually in your MidwayPlus Product Manager.
Can we integrate our ERP or QuickBooks?
We have several integrations to popular ERP and Accounting packages, such as QuickBooks and NetSuite. Check with us to learn what is available. If we do not yet have an integration to your preferred system, we'd be happy to discuss creating one for you.
