Building an E-Commerce Business it

Building an E-Commerce Business

It is important that all vehicle owners get wheels that are liked by them, at the lowest possible and within the fastest possible period. It is not enough that wheels function well as probably most wheels in the market now present do, but it is important that buyers check out how the wheels will look on their particular vehicle. The main effort from this new organization will be to make the cars look more beautiful. Even with this being the main effort, the organization will have to look at the business and provide all facilities that are being provided by other major sellers of wheels through the Internet. At the same time, there are some 600,000 odd sites on the Internet dealing with wheels and related material. The important point is to determine what was called "unique selling proposition." While there are a number of sellers, the main emphasis by them for sales is on price, but that will get a new entrant in a long queue and make it very difficult for the organization to reach the top. That is the reason, it is important to decide why buyers should the product that is being sold by this organization, though in practice the product may be no different from the items sold by others. This difference can only come from image, and that is what has been sought in this effort.

Industry Analysis

The concept that is being talked about is not something that was not discovered now; it has existed since 1983 when Superbuytires was started. That organization was not a product of the present age, and their main effort was on selling of wheels. The organization is situated at 9040 E. Rosecrans Ave, Bellflower CA 90706 USA. Their telephone numbers are given as (562) 6030-5848, with two fax numbers. The site is their link to their dealers and the site has facilities for their dealers to log on. They try to sell Asanti and Dub wheels in their own space, while others may advertise in the site. Special fitting on different brands of cars may also be collected from the site. On going through the site, it is clear that they are selling wheels as they the facilities that they have are regarding different brands of wheels that are available, and they expect customers to know what wheel they would like for their car. Only one special section exists, where the fixed wheels on a Mercedes 8 can be seen. (Superbuytires)

Thus the greatest efforts are on selling of wheels, while the efforts of our new site will be on fixing 'the wheel most liked by the owner' on the car. The efforts of the present organizations are to sell wheels, while the efforts of the new planned site will be to satisfy the mental desire for vehicle owners to beautify their cars. This is expected to broaden the market for wheels, as many of the car owners cannot afford to go in for a new car, but they would like to make their cars more beautiful and thus mentally satisfy themselves that they have 'improved' their cars. Thus one may say that we are not talking to the section of owners who want more power and other specific things from their cars, but we are looking at car owners who want more beauty from their cars. We are not in the business of selling wheel sets and related material, but we are in the business of selling beauty for cars.

Competitive Analysis

There are sellers of wheels who are more oriented to selling of wheels, and one such organization is VCT wheels. They offer the customers a lot of choice in brands Absolute, ADR, Akita, Akuza, Alba, Alt, American Racing, Armano, Asanti, Baccarat, Boze, Cabo, Daat, Dakar, Damani, Davin, DBL-G, DeCorsa, Demoda, Detata, Devino, Diablo, Diamo, Dip, DOA, Dolce, Donz, Driv, Dub, Dvinci, DVS, Eco, Edge, Elite, Emo, Enkei, Erotica, Etx, Excessspin, Ferretti, Fierro, Foose, Forte, Foxx, Fusion, G-Racing, Gazario, Gen-X, GFG, Gianelle, Giovanna, Greed, Helo, Ice Metal, Ion, Jesse James, Kaizer, Kaotik, Katana, KMC, KMC Racing, KMC XD-Series, Koky, Kronix, Kruz, Lenso, Lexani Limited, Lionhart, Lorenzo, Mazzi, MHT, Mob Mondera, Nakayama, Neeper, Niche, Nitza, NS Racing, Oasis, Omega, Panther, Pinnacle, Polo, Racing Hart, Rozzi, RSS, RS Limited, Sacchi, Sendel, Sinister, Spinning, Sporza, Stern, Strada, Streetspin, Tenzo, Tezzen, TIS, TSW, UAS, Vault, VCT, Veloche, Volt, X2O, Xoni, Zinik. This is a total of 106 brands, and even more may be available. These are only the regular brands that are available there. They also have special brands like Scarface, Capone, Gitano and Kingpin which are not regular brands which are available at other places, but are made especially for this organization. This is probably designed and delivered specifically for this organization as these are made especially for the customers that this organization targets - "you're not the type of Gangsta they want to mess around with." (VCT Wheels) They also claim to have designed some original changes in wheels of SUVs and this was a wheel with deep lips and distinctive styling. They also say that they have new styles coming out soon.

Then the organization starts describing why it thinks customers should come to them - they say that they sell custom wheels and spinners at really wholesale prices. According to the organization they try to bring custom rims at very low prices for the customers and their prices are lower than the manufacturer's suggested retail prices by more than 30 to 50%. To the customer this would mean much lower prices than what they would pay even at the local shop for the same rim. They are able to do this as they bulk the wheel rims in bulk and pass on the benefit they get to their customers. This is what makes their specialized rims even cheaper than the prices of lower quality material that one would get from the local shop. How the difference in quality comes is not made clear. The point remains however that they sell at lower prices. This business practice is maintained by them for they want the business from the customer for many years to come and not only for the present set of changes that the customer desires. According to them, this also brings them a lot of customers through reference from other customers.

According to them their service at the shop is also excellent, and this is what has made them the biggest sellers of wheel sets in the nation. The sets they sell to the customers are checked by their mechanics before the sets leave the shop. They also try to meet the specifications of the companies through "use plus-sizing techniques to match up your new wheels to stay as close to factory stock heights." (VCT Wheels) This means that the wheel that is used is of a bigger size and that permits the tire to become smaller. This effect is recommended by them, and they are willing to pack it within covering material for a wheel and tire package with complete mounting and balancing and then deliver the set to the customer. For this purpose they have the readymade machines for hunter mounting and balancing. They also use value added items like chrome value stems, stick on weights and road force balancing equipment.

For wheels which are to be just shipped to a customer, they are shrink-wrapping and packaging the material for the delivery to be safe. They even take insurance for the package while it is under shipping. When the customer orders wheel spinning adaptors apart from wheels, the items are shipped separately for safety reasons. The organization claims that they are the oldest among all the organizations in the business. To improve their sales, the organization is now accepting American Express cards, Discover cards, MasterCard, Visa credit or check cards and Western Union cards. (VCT Wheels)

Thus it is clear that the organization has made a lot of effort in selling their products and the same facilities will have to be offered by any new entrant in the business.

This makes it clear as to the facilities that will have to be offered by any new organization competing with them and these can be summarized for easy reference. First point is that the organization will have to offer 106 or so brands that are available, and there has to be promises of new brands being available when they are ready. Second point is that the seller should be very conversant with wheels and even made some changes to the design to prove their competence. The third point is that they claim to sell at low prices which are achieved by purchase at wholesale prices. The fourth point is that they get a lot of references from satisfied customers. The fifth point is that they claim use of latest technology, as that seems to impress the customers favorably.

Along with this is their use of add-ons which seem to cast a favorable impression on the customers. The sixth point is that they accept credit cards and other cards, so that the customers find it easy to pay for the purchase, and the company also can ensure that they do not end up losing any money due to cheating by the customers. All these points are important and have to be covered within the plans for the new organization of instantwheel.com. Even with this, since this site will be the newest of all sites, it will have a natural disadvantage. To cover this disadvantage up, it would be better to tie up or purchase an organization which has existed for a long time, so that 'a wealth of experience' can be claimed for instantwheel.com.

Unique Selling Position

For any business to be a successful business, the organization has to have a Unique selling position. This means that this particular position sets them apart from other business in that area. Here the main source of our business is through Internet, and this makes it essential that our Web site is different from the Websites of others. (Don't Re-Invent the Wheel...Improve on it) if it is just a copy of other sites that exist on the Web, then it will just be a waste of money trying to sell it through the Internet. The effort has to be on developing a site that is better than the other sites, and there are many of them. All of them just talk about the choice that they will provide and the cheap price at which they will sell it. When you copy someone else, you cannot be number one, and we have the objective to be number one in the business of selling wheels.

It is very important to find out what the people are interested in, and this can be found out by talking to people and the websites where they assemble in chat rooms. It is important to get on to the chat rooms and find out details. This will take quite some time in doing, though it will take much less time, than conducting market research. The costs also will be much less than the tens of thousands of dollars that would have been required for market research if done directly, with questionnaires and going from house to house. However the requirement for starting on this is the development of Unique Selling Proposition, and then conducting the research on the market is possible. These also make it possible for the entire set up to be set up in a manner where the person thinking of it originally is a venture partner. (Don't Re-Invent the Wheel...Improve on it)

Customer needs for this product is very simple - they have bought a cheap car and on the second hand market. This does not fit the image that they would like to project of themselves as an individual, and they would like to change the car to one which would project an image of being specially built and designed for them. The reason why they are buying the wheel set is because of their need to build the car to a level of themselves that they would like to project. Remember the line "you're not the type of Gangsta they want to mess around with." (VCT Wheels) These people certainly have developed an understanding of the people who are buying their products, and this is just the reason which has been stated.

Next is the question of the 4Ps - Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. These are quite clear as we are talking about wheel sets for the cars, and that is the product we are trying to sell. Regarding Price, it is a little difficult to answer as we are clearly not talking in terms of the lowest price possible - there are many others who are already trying to go on that path. This has also been made clear already - "When you copy someone else, you cannot be number one, and we have the objective to be number one in the business of selling wheels." Thus the price has to be economical for us to go through this path, and that depends on the price for which the wheel sets are finally purchased, the costs that we have to incur for their collection and distribution all over the country, insurance, etc. At the same time, it will have to be lower than the costs for which these are sold in the local market. Regarding place, the question is quite clear and they will have to go from us directly to the customer, as we have to maintain our links with the customer.

When we try to distribute the product through local agents, then the local agents will end up having more influence over the customer than our influence over the customer. For this purpose we shall have to develop agreements with home delivery organizations who will pick up the product from our store, or their local warehouses/offices, take it to the places where the customers stay, and deliver it to them, or have the arrangement of sending an information to the customer to pick the item up from their offices or warehouses there. Since we are talking in terms of large quantities to be dealt with, the difference in costs with selling it through local agents is not expected to be high. At the same time, we avoid the risk of the local agent picking up the business on his own and our efforts for developing the client being lost. Regarding Promotion, it will have to be done through the Internet as that is the medium we are using for our contact with the customer. The promotion can be done in selected sites of automobile sellers, automobile magazines, fashion sites, car race sites, etc.

WIFM: Regarding our gains, it is quite simple and can be tackled in two ways - either as a commission from the manufacturers based on the sales that we get them, or as a direct profit through purchases from the manufacturers and sales to the customers. The final decision on this will depend on the financial situation of the organization after the full details of investments are known.

Acquisition Plan

Grassroots Marketing - the position of the company is clear and it should not be thought of as a company trying to sell products from the shop or some other similar point. It is an organization that sells to customers all over America through Internet, and shipped directly to the houses of the customers. This is felt to be the easiest and most economic method for the customers. At the same time, the customers would like to call us up and verify whether it is a real organization or just an address for collecting money. For this purpose we will have to acquire a telephone number which they can call. Instantwheel.com will be an organization which will have marketing persons to reply to the queries from customers, and try their best to satisfy the customers. The organization should be devoted to customer satisfaction, and customers should depend on instantwheel.com for all their needs. (F.A.Q. And Site Help)

Contests or sweepstakes - Instantwheel.com will be an organization based on developing the beauty of cars, and the contest should develop that image further. Thus it should organize a contest for the most beautiful car in United States. To participate in this contest, car owners will have to send photographs of their full car, properly decorated to Instantwheel.com and these pictures will be featured in the website. Then a poll will be taken from the visitors to the site, and those who have some dealings with the organization regarding the most beautiful car. The car which is judged as the most beautiful by the greatest number of people will be given an award with a new set of the latest set of wheels, so that the car may look even better.

Advertising - it is clear that the site will be to sell wheels for cars so that the cars may look beautiful. Thus the emphasis will have to be on contacting potential customers in areas where they visit. This will have to be on the Internet only as the activities of the site will be on the Internet only. It is expected that these persons normally visit automobile sites where they are kept informed of the latest development in technology of automobiles or where the methods of beautifying cars are taken up. The exact names of such sites will have to be found out after a certain amount of research is carried out in the matter. Then one can think of advertising in these sites through mutual links, or payment of money as decided to be appropriate after the details are fully obtained.

SEM - the wheels are the most important part of the car, and as visible as the rest of the body. When the wheels get old, they cannot be renewed like the rest of the body through painting but has to be changed and wheels when they look old tell people that the car is old. Make people believe your car is new with new wheels.