Car and light truck aftermarket climbed by more than $23 billion from 2021 through 2025. Some channels did better than others.
Fort Wayne, Ind.—The Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) car and light truck aftermarket climbed by more than $23 billion at user-price during 2021 through 2025. Never before had the U.S. aftermarket been subjected to such a sales increase, with a fall in volume followed immediately by an “unprecedented rebound,” according to the latest Lang Aftermarket iReport.
“While the DIFM aftermarket was able to regain its sales footing, the five distribution channels supplying the car and light truck aftermarket did not all participate equally in the DIFM market’s roller coaster rebound,” states the analysis.
The following are highlights from the report.
Aftermarket Distribution Channels
Five major distribution channels supply the U.S. car and light truck aftermarket: Traditional, Integrated, Specialized, Import, and OE. Each channel bore a different share of the 2020 Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) product decline, and each contributed differently to the DIFM market recovery during 2021 through 2025.
Three of the five major channels expanded their DIFM market share as they weathered the 2020 market drop and navigated the following years of DIFM recovery. In contrast, two channels lost a significant portion of their DIFM share from 2019, the year before COVID, to 2025.
Traditional Channel Affected by DIFM Sales Shift
The Traditional channel (Traditional Warehouses and Traditional Jobbers) ranked second in 2019 DIFM product volume and captured nearly a 25% share at user-price, its high-water mark, as the DIFM market changed significantly.
The Traditional channel lost nearly one-fifth of its DIFM sales in 2020, experiencing the largest DIFM market share loss of any channel.
This trend continued during the aftermarket’s DIFM recovery from 2021 through 2025. The Traditional channel’s DIFM share continued to shrink, down the most of any channel by 2025 compared to 2019, despite a modest gain in DIFM sales.
Integrated Channel Wins in the DIFM Growth Changes
In the Integrated channel, products do not change hands (or franchise affiliation) from the time they are purchased from manufacturers until they are sold to installers and other end-users. The Integrated channel captured the largest share of 2019 DIFM product sales, more than 31%, and held its DIFM sales loss in 2020 to a moderate level.
Beginning in 2021, the Integrated channel led the DIFM market rebound, with its DIFM volume increasing nearly 40% from 2020 to 2025, driven by the expanding commercial market sales of retail auto parts stores.
By 2025, the Integrated channel had expanded its DIFM share by a significantly greater amount than any other channel.
Specialized Channel Decreases in DIFM Strength
The Specialized channel is characterized by its involvement in a particular aftermarket segment or a select group of products. From nearly 14% of the 2019 DIFM product volume, the Specialized channel steadily declined in DIFM product sales and share. By 2025, it had experienced the greatest percentage loss of DIFM share of any channel.
Despite the overall DIFM market recording nearly a 15% volume gain between 2019 and 2025 (overcoming the DIFM drop in 2020), the Specialized channel’s volume fell.
Import Channel Surges in DIFM Sales
The Import channel consists of Import Warehouses and Import Jobbers and specializes in products for foreign nameplates (imports and transplants). It was one of only three channels to gain car and light truck DIFM product share between 2019 and 2025, achieving the largest percentage gain among channels.
The Import channel also recorded the highest annual DIFM product growth rate from 2019 to 2025, propelled by its focus on foreign nameplate products, the fastest-expanding DIFM market segment.
Comments are closed.