Why Do Backorders Exist? - YouTube

- Listen, I don't need to tell you guys

about how less than stellar 2020 was,

and while we won't get into details here,

I think it's more than fair to say

that 2020 was definitely one for the history books.

It was something.

We definitely did some things.

And while we may not be looking at the same implications

that we were in 2020,

there is still one thing that's carried over into 2021,

and that's the stress the last 18 months

have put on our supply chain.

We're not just talking wheels and tires here.

We're talking chicken wings to computer chips,

coffee, and even wheels, tires, and lift kits.

Inventory has been a bit of a struggle

and it definitely looks like

it's going to continue at least for a little while.

But what exactly is a backorder?

What does national backorder mean?

How does that affect you guys as the guy or gal

who needs their wheels, tire, suspension, or other parts,

including performance parts, 'cause we have those too.

Good news is I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets.

You guys can follow me on Instagram at @dusti.co

and today we're gonna be breaking down exactly

what a backorder is, how it works,

and of course what it means for you at the end.

At the end of the video,

we'll give you guys a few quick tips

if you're looking for wheels and tires,

but may be experiencing a backorder at this time.

All right, let's get it.

(dramatic music)

If you're watching this video

and you're wondering why it may seem familiar,

well that's 'cause it is.

See, way back in 2015 Sean actually made the same video,

and back then it taught me a lot about

how the world of wheels work in terms of supply chain.

And now while Sean's video is essentially still true

from a fundamental standpoint,

we wanted to bring you guys an updated version of this video

because quite frankly,

the world has changed quite a bit in the last few years,

especially in the last 18 months.

Like anything, time always marches on.

Nothing stays the same,

and the only constants in this world are death and taxes.

So first and foremost, what exactly is a backorder?

What does it even mean?

According to dictionary.com,

a backorder can be both a noun and a verb,

and for the purpose of today's video,

we're gonna focus on the action of placing a backorder,

otherwise known as the verb.

Dictionary defines the verb backorder as

placing an order for a product

that is temporarily out of stock.

Now, that by itself sounds really official

and fancy and technical,

but at the end of the day,

a backorder just means that there are no more

of that specific product in the inventory

of the United States,

hence being called a national backorder.

Let me break it down for you real quick.

I've been buying wheels for quite a while now.

While maybe not as long as some of you,

I bought my first set of custom wheels

when I was just 16 years old.

Just a cute little guy, really long hair, and dimples.

It was great.

I had no beard, it was weird.

No photos, we're not doing that.

My first set of wheels with a set of

American Racing Outlaw Ii reps that I slapped some

nasty 31X10.5R15 Firestone mud terrain 23 degree tires

that I thought was the coolest thing ever.

Back then, believe it or not a 31, that was a big tire,

'cause trucks came with like 245/65s.

See, growing up around this industry

I never really understood exactly what a backorder was

or really how the wheel world worked in general

until I started here at Custom Offsets.

So, because I didn't know it back then,

we're now gonna teach it to you guys.

Here's how it works.

(cartoon laughs maniacally)

- Finally.

- Custom Offsets has roughly 90,000 different

stock keeping units, or SKUs for short, on the website.

To stock just one set of four of that many different wheels

and tires would be something like

four and a half or $5 billion worth of inventory.

Now, listen, we love you guys.

Truly, we really do,

but that is way out of our leagues,

like, way out of our leagues.

For reference that's enough money to buy roughly

2,500 50 foot yachts,

or enough to buy five of the new Levi's Stadium.

Better yet, if you're feeling like you wanna give back

and be a little generous,

you could buy a cup of coffee for every college student

in America every day for their entire

college school year this year with that kind of money.

That's a lot of coffee.

Good news is you couldn't get that much coffee anyway,

because there's a coffee bean shortage.

It's great.

For that reason when you guys place an order,

one of two things happens.

Now, of course, we do stock a ton, and I mean a ton,

of popular wheels and tires,

somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 total wheels

and tires at any given time.

This is where we can roll the footage of all the tires

at the warehouse, where there's more Venom Powers

than you could ever want in your life,

Versatyres, Fuels, Moto Metal, it's all there.

We got it.

But we can't stock them all

meaning that if you order a wheel and tire package

that we don't have,

these are oftentimes shipped to us

from the manufacturer's warehouse.

See, now many of these manufacturer's warehouses

are either on the East Coast,

so Maine and Pennsylvania and all that stuff,

or the West Coast,

most notably California here.

That's where most of the big receiving ports are.

As long as the wheel or tire that you want

is in inventory in those warehouses, life is pretty simple.

They ship the products to us.

We mount them and balance them,

and then we put them on a pallet

and ship it to you for free, of course,

'cause that's what we do here at Custom Offsets,

and then you're right as rain.

In 10 to 15 days you've got your wheels at your door.

You're putting them on your truck.

You and your buddies are mobbing down

to the local Walmart meeting.

Everybody's happy.

Here's where it gets complicated.

Quite simply, a national back order on a specific wheel

or tire means that there are no more

of that particular product

available for purchase in the United States.

So, why is it that sometimes there are products listed

as backorder on our website,

but someone else may have them available for purchase?

Well, I can't speak for every certain circumstance.

This usually just means that whoever has

those wheels or tires for sale

has them sitting in a warehouse much like we do, right?

So, while this can be great for getting the wheels,

tires, or lift kit that you may want in a timely fashion,

not all retailers,

but some retailers will actually charge more as they know

that they have the only set available at that time.

One prime example of this is auto dealerships

who are notorious for doing this,

often calling it their regional market adjustment,

which is really just some crap about how

they have one car that you want and no one else has it.

It happens.

We don't do that here.

So, what were to happen if say you would

order a set of wheels that are on backorder.

So, when you guys order wheels from us,

we immediately open an order for your wheels

from the manufacturer,

at which time they're gonna give us an estimate

to when we can expect the wheels to arrive here

in the good ol' US of A.

Typically these backorders are somewhere between

four and six weeks,

but can be more or less depending on

where the wheels actually are in the supply chain.

Important note here, we're using the term wheels a lot,

but really this goes for anything.

It's wheels, it's tires, it's lift kits,

it's performance parts, it's lighting.

It's everything that we carry

generally speaking follows the same principles.

See, most wheels and tires actually come from

across the big pond and are made in countries like China,

Taiwan, Serbia, Indonesia, and of course others.

Once the wheels are actually made in their parent country,

they're loaded into boxes

and then loaded into big containers,

and then they load these containers

onto these massive cargo ships,

much like the one that we saw get stuck sideways

in the Suez Canal this year.

By the way, RIP to that boat captain.

He's not dead,

but he probably doesn't work in

the nautical line of work anymore.

I'm just gonna say that

when you make a mistake of that scale, it gets rough.

Once manufacturers have loaded the wheels

in their containers onto the ship,

the ship sets sail.

Here's the thing, the ocean is big,

like really big.

Like really, really, really big.

And while container ships are also pretty big,

they're still subject to the mercy of

the great big blue ocean,

which means that if the weather is not good,

the ships don't sail.

This can mean that ships can sometimes take

upwards of three to four additional weeks

to sail from the country of origin to the United States.

Now, once they arrive here in the good ol' US of A,

it takes another week or so

for that container full wheels to get unloaded.

And from there it gets shipped

from the port to us, Custom Offsets.

Sounds simple, right?

It is, but there's more curve balls

that come into play here.

Sometimes these containers will only contain

a few of the wheels that you want.

While you may be waiting for them,

someone else may have reserved those wheels before you did

simply by ordering them before you did.

Like, they were first.

It's just how it works.

In events like this it can mean that

you need to wait longer until the next container arrives

with the wheels or tires that you're looking for.

Not ideal, right?

I get it.

Additionally it's not uncommon for these containers

to face additional struggles along the way,

especially here in 2021.

From time to time,

it's possible to see containers

get stuck at places like the port,

sometimes upwards of two weeks or longer

while port workers work through the backlog

of all the container ships they have to unload.

There's a lot of stuff going on in shipping right now.

We made another video on this.

We can link it down below.

If you're interested in that you guys can check it out.

But for this reason,

when we say four to six week back order,

it's the best educated guess of a timeline

that the manufacturer can provide us

at the time of your order being placed.

Trust us.

We hate waiting for your wheels just as badly as you do,

so we get it.

We feel you.

It's not fun, but it's the state of the world right now.

So, let's say you're mid-build

and you need wheels ASAP Rocky, right?

What if you already took your stocks off

and you sold them to your buddy,

or a buddy's friend, or a friend of a friend of a buddy,

or heck maybe even some rando off a Craigslist

who had crazy hair and bad breath.

Listen, I'm not gonna judge.

Either way your truck is now sitting on jack stands

and you need wheels now, like yesterday now.

Good news on this one is that we actually have a way

that you guys can look at what wheels that we have

in stock in the warehouse right now, ready to ship.

Same goes for tires, right?

All you gotta do is head over to the website

and be sure to sort by quick delivery.

This is actually gonna allow you to view all the wheels

and tires that we have in the warehouse right now,

meaning that you can pick up a wheel and tire package

and have it to your door in 10 days with quick delivery.

It's pretty awesome,

and it's not just all the no-name wheels.

We have big movers.

Fuel, Moto Metal, XD, Venom Power tires, Versatyres.

There's a lot of good stuff in there.

This will at least get you rolling

and on your way to the local truck show

with all your buddies.

Because as everyone knows,

there's still some shows left this year.

And then once your dream wheels and tires

do come back into stock,

you can always sell the ones that you bought

to your buddy for like 75% of what you paid for them,

and then buy your other set.

It's like hashtag science.

It's pretty cool.

What do you guys think about all the backorder madness?

Has it affected you,

or have you been able to get the products

that you're looking for in a timely fashion?

Let us know down in the comments below,

and as always, please consider subscribing to the channel

if you haven't already,

so we can keep bringing you guys

the industry insight and truck trends

that you've come to love from us.

With that I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets,

and I'm gonna go eat some lunch.

Peace.

(upbeat music)

Swear to God,

if you put a picture of me at 16 in this video,

I'm gonna kill you.