All-Belarusian tire census

Probably every developing IT company once comes to the conclusion that its projects are a prospect, an opportunity to declare oneself, make money and secure a future. In general, what you need to do. First thoughts to create your own, your own, project started in 2009. And then a massive search of ideas began ...

The constant growth and development of the Internet and e-commerce have led to the direction of development. But sales are boring ... And the marketplace is more interesting. It was quite difficult to decide on the subject, there was a crazy idea to create even an online market with second-hand. However, in the end, stopped on the automotive theme.
And then went to an elementary mathematical calculation. Fast-moving goods are much more profitable in economic terms. The most wear parts of cars: filters, rollers, belts, tires, etc. From this list, we chose the largest and most interesting ones - tires. Changing all 4 is necessary at least once every three years, i.e. per year on average, 1.33 tires are replaced.

There are about 500 thousand cars in Minsk today, even 60% of them are active riders. Then:
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500,000 cars * 0.6 active * 1.33 wear tires / year = 399,000 tires per year.

With an average tire price of $ 100, the market volume is about $ 39.9 million per year. Even with minimal estimates of profit, with a 1% market share, we get about $ 399,000 a year (in fact, we bought into having 4 wheels in the car).

A feature of the site has become a way of monetization. The work of the system is based on the model of Pay Per Action (Cost Per Action) - placing advertiser’s information on partner sites calling for a specific action (registration, file download, questionnaire filling, etc.). The performance of the model is monitored by user cookies. However, the standard view of the model had to be customized.

Information of advertisers (price lists for goods) is placed on one site, and communication with the seller takes place directly through the advertising platform. The buyer selects the offer he likes and communicates with the advertising platform, and the manager, after clarifying the availability of the product and matching the price with the advertisers, transfers the contacts of the potential buyer directly to the seller to complete the transaction. The fact of the transaction is clarified with the seller and the buyer, and only in this case, the advertising platform accrues remuneration for each product sold through the system. For services rendered a contract of commission with the seller.

The constructed model is most focused on the buyer: it does not arise the need for a long search for the right product and clarification of the presence of different sellers. All these functions are performed directly by the advertising site manager, specifying only his wishes with the buyer.

The project started in August 2009. Working in the evenings and during the time free from the main occupation, the project was able to be “put on its feet” already on November 24 of the same year. In addition to the work of technical and art directors, it took several thousand dollars for the salary of the layout designer, copywriter, editor of the catalog, as well as for the maintenance of mobile phones. The first five sellers of auto parts are still located on the site. Today their number has increased several times. The project is constantly being improved and is developing as far as possible. We don’t have large investors, so we don’t have to enter the market as quickly as we would like and use only our own strength.

Now about the main difficulties:

1. Implement a workable buyer-advertising interaction model-advertiser platform. Many sellers thought that they were being deceived, some tried to deceive us by refuting the facts of selling goods through our system;
2. Assemble the base of all tires, all manufacturers, models and existing sizes;
3. Implement a call accounting and interaction system with sellers and buyers. Required feedback from buyers and sellers to analyze and optimize the system;
4. To adjust the constant updating of prices and fresh offers from sellers. Sellers do not understand the need for current prices for their offers, and many visitors leave with nothing, without having a real idea of ​​the current offers;
5. Create a separate accounting system for current offers for the manager, convenient and quick in finding the right product for a prompt response to the buyer.

And about unexpected discoveries:

1. There are no services with a similar business model in Belarus today;
2. In the car there are not only tires, but also disks, batteries.

The project itself is hanging here . We are waiting for interesting statements and wishes. If the implemented system is of interest to you and you want to know more - we will try to describe in more detail some aspects of the implementation and formation of the project.