Ring reveals how to get the most profit from bulb sales

Bulbs are a fantastic profit opportunity for both you and workshops, according to Ring Automotive, but is the industry making the most of the upselling openings? Henry Bisson, marketing director, analyses the opportunities “regularly missed” and offers suggestions on how to get the most profit from bulb sales.

Replacement car bulbs are one of the fastest moving and profitable product lines in the aftermarket, but it’s up to staff to find the best opportunities to upsell to their customers.

Firstly, there are increased bulb sales opportunities for the forward lighting on modern vehicles. This is easily demonstrated by comparing the value of replacing halogens bulbs with an upgrade halogen.

Whether it be a H4 or H7 (the common references for halogen headlamps), workshops can earn extra profit through selling upgrades. To replace a dipped beam H7 can typically cost anywhere between £5 and £10; therefore, for a pair, motorists will be looking at a cost of between £10 and £20. Yet, if they bought an upgrade bulb, like the Xenon200 from Ring, that puts 200% more light on the road, for safer better driving, it will cost motorists £39.99.

By offering premium bulb upgrades that improve drivers’ visibility, workshops could increase their sales by 50% and once customers see the improvement for themselves, they rarely go back to standard bulbs and continue to fit higher value performance halogens. This ensures an increase in profits. Selling performance bulbs is about working smarter. Workshops can simply ask the customer if they want brighter or whiter lights. Most motorists don’t know such bulbs exist but do want better lighting for their vehicle.

On top of selling performance bulbs, workshops should be replacing bulbs in pairs when replacing a blown bulb in a paired lighting system. If one headlamp or brake light goes, replacing the bulb in the other at the same time produces an even light output to aid driver’s vision. Plus, it provides a higher level of customer service.

Headlamps work at the same time; therefore, it is logical to presume that if one headlamp bulb goes, the other bulb in the other unit will also fail shortly. A motorist is likely to be frustrated to have to replace another bulb soon after having a car in the workshop, so it’s always worth replacing bulbs in pairs for these reasons. This extra professional advice, delivered with confidence can lead to extra sales (for both you and workshop) but also opens the door to sell upgrade bulbs, which come as pairs.

Performance upgrades are not exclusive to the forward lighting on vehicles either. Rear performance lighting upgrades are available too, such as the Ring Rapid Response range. These are high intensity bulbs designed to offer up to 20% more luminous power and faster illumination. Drivers following vehicles using these upgrade bulbs will see them earlier and, therefore, have more time to react.

With retail values of £3.99 per pair for some of the most common replacement bulbs, such as R382, R380, R207 and R245, both you and workshops should see profits increasing with the sale of these bulbs.

Whilst the lighting market is constantly changing, Ring is keen to stress that it still presents significant opportunities for the aftermarket – the future for bulbs remains bright!