CarParts.com moved its A-Premium partnership from $45 million annualized run rate in Q1 2026 to $50 million in Q2 2026, according to Seeking Alpha reporting on the company's investor disclosures. The $5 million quarterly step-up came from routing A-Premium orders through the supplier's own last-mile network instead of handling fulfillment in-house. The company separately disclosed a target of 300,000 packages moving through partner last-mile by year-end, a signal that third-party logistics now anchor the growth model.
CarParts.com repositioned A-Premium from parts supplier to logistics partner. Orders placed on CarParts.com for A-Premium SKUs now ship direct from A-Premium facilities, bypassing CarParts.com warehouses. The retailer collects the customer transaction and margin, A-Premium collects fulfillment fees and avoids wholesale discount, and the customer receives a part routed from the nearest A-Premium node. The model converts a vendor relationship into a distribution asset without capital outlay for new square footage.
The mechanism works because automotive aftermarket suffers from density: a single SKU may sell once per quarter in a given metro, making dedicated inventory uneconomical. A-Premium already holds that inventory for its own direct business. By letting CarParts.com tap that stock, both parties solve a coverage problem—CarParts.com gains catalog depth, A-Premium gains order volume—and the customer sees the item as in-network. The partnership scales on software integration, not warehouse leases. Each new supplier added to the model expands addressable catalog without corresponding rent or labor.
The steal for a small physical-product brand: identify a supplier or manufacturer who already ships direct to consumers in your category. Propose a pass-through arrangement where you list their SKUs on your site, collect the order, and route fulfillment to them for a per-unit fee or rev-share. The supplier gets incremental volume without customer acquisition cost. You get catalog breadth without inventory risk. Start with one supplier and five high-demand SKUs they stock but you do not. Build the API handoff—order placed on your domain triggers an automated fulfillment request to theirs. Negotiate a 60/40 or 70/30 margin split after shipping cost, depending on who owns the customer file long-term. Run it for 90 days. If the supplier ships 500 units in that window, you've validated the model and can recruit the next supplier with proof.
Physical-product companies default to owning every link in the chain. CarParts.com isolated the highest-cost link—last-mile delivery and warehouse footprint—and outsourced it to a partner who already bore that cost. The quarter-over-quarter acceleration from $45M to $50M and the 300,000-package target confirm the model scales faster than vertical integration. For brands with supplier relationships and decent site traffic, the same handoff converts vendor into infrastructure.