Parts and accessories carry 32.6% gross margin, vs. 3 to 8% on new vehicles. Most of those dollars never make it into the deal. Ekho just made accessories a built-in step of every vehicle purchase.
Here's a number most dealers already know but rarely act on: parts and accessories carry an average gross margin of 32.6%, with top-performing dealers hitting 37.4%. Compare that to new vehicle margins of 3 to 8%. Accessories aren't just profitable. For many dealerships, they represent the difference between overall profitability and breaking even on unit sales.
Now here's the problem: most of those accessory dollars never make it into the vehicle deal. They live on a separate counter, in a separate conversation, often weeks after the buyer drives away. By then, those dollars have leaked to Amazon, aftermarket retailers, or the buyer's next Google search.
Not because the buyer didn't want to buy from their dealer. But because nobody asked at the right time.
Timing Is Everything
Dealers who offer accessories as part of the purchase process see attachment rates of 45 to 60%. Dealers who wait and hope buyers come back? 15 to 20%.
Same products. Same buyer. Same dealer. The only difference is when the offer happens.
Amazon figured this out years ago. "Frequently bought together" and "Customers also bought" account for 35% of Amazon's total revenue, over $200 billion a year. The principle is simple: show relevant products at the moment someone is already committed to buying.
A windshield for that side-by-side. A cover for that golf cart. A tower for that boat. A hitch for that truck. These aren't hard sells. They're natural additions to a purchase the buyer is already making. The question is whether your sales process surfaces them or ignores them.
Accessories, Built Into the Deal
That's what we built at Ekho. Accessories are now a built-in step in the vehicle purchase.
When a buyer is working through a deal, they see relevant accessories from your catalog, grouped by category, with photos, descriptions, and pricing. Toggle what they want. Skip what they don't. Selected accessories roll into the order total, flow through to the bill of sale, and become part of the transaction record. One deal, one transaction, accessories included.
The right products, at the right moment, in the flow where the buyer is already committed to spending.
This is the same psychology that drives 10 to 30% average order value increases across every e-commerce vertical. Applied to vehicle sales for the first time.
What the Buyer Sees
The experience is built to feel premium.
On the vehicle listing, accessories appear in a visual "Add-ons" section with product images, descriptions, and pricing. Pre-installed modifications show separately as "Included Upgrades" so buyers know what's already included. During the purchase flow itself, buyers can toggle individual add-ons on or off, with install type, availability, and pricing all visible. Everything they select rolls into the final transaction.
Zero-Touch Setup for Dealers
Here's what dealers actually have to do to make this work: almost nothing.
Ekho syncs your entire parts and accessories catalog directly from your DMS. Your inventory is already there, with names, part numbers, brands, stock quantities, and pricing pulled automatically. One source of truth, always current.
From the Admin Portal, enrich any item with better descriptions, updated pricing, and up to 10 images. Publish what you want to sell. Add accessories to a specific vehicle in a few clicks, or pull from saved groups so the right add-ons show up automatically.
Every inventory item has a clear view of which accessories are attached to it, which are selected by default, and which are optional. Configure once, and the buyer-facing experience updates instantly.
Accessory Groups: Set It Once, Apply It Everywhere
For dealers carrying dozens or hundreds of SKUs across multiple vehicle types, manually attaching accessories to every unit doesn't scale. That's why we built Accessory Groups.
Define a group once, scoped by vehicle type, make, model, or year range, and any matching inventory item inherits those accessories automatically. New unit arrives that fits the rule? Accessories are already attached. The catalog manages itself.
The Admin Portal: Your Complete Operations Hub
Accessories didn't ship in isolation. It's one piece of the Admin Portal, the central command center we built for dealers to manage their entire operation from one place.
Here's what's inside:
- Inventory Management — Full catalog control, vehicle photos, used vehicle reports, NHTSA recall tracking, compliance data
- Orders — Real-time deal tracking from purchase to delivery, action items, fulfillment coordination, preorder management
- Leads — Automatic capture from abandoned carts, inquiries, financing rejections, and AI Sales Agent conversations, with CRM forwarding
- Discounts & Promotions — Percentage or fixed-amount codes, vehicle targeting, scheduled promotions
- AI Sales Agent — Your always-on BDC rep. Engages buyers 24/7 across SMS and web chat, qualifies leads, books appointments, answers product and accessory questions, and forwards everything to your team via Slack and email
- Analytics — Sales performance, payment reports, financial reconciliation
The operating system for your dealership.
The Math
Let's make this concrete.
Say you're selling a $15,000 side-by-side, a $9,000 golf cart, or a $25,000 boat. With accessories surfaced as part of the deal, e-commerce data shows a 10 to 30% lift in average order value. On that side-by-side, that's $1,500 to $4,500 in incremental accessory revenue. On the golf cart, $900 to $2,700. At 32.6% gross margin, every deal generates hundreds to thousands in additional profit, with zero additional headcount.
Scale that across your monthly volume and accessories stop being a nice-to-have. They become one of your highest-margin revenue streams, captured automatically, at the exact moment the buyer is most willing to spend.
And because everything syncs from your DMS, the operational lift is zero. Your team keeps doing what they're doing. The revenue just shows up.
See It in Action
If you sell accessories and want to make them part of every deal, we'd love to show you how it works.
Book a demo and see the full Admin Portal in action. If you're already an Ekho client, check the Parts & Accessories page in your Admin Portal — your catalog might already be waiting.
