Possible business idea - Motor trade related
Discussion
Hi everyone,
Signed up here looking for some advice, also have this topic on a couple of other sites so I can get different avenues of feedback . I currently run my own LTD company, retail based but always thinking of potential ideas to take advantage of.
Recently I have noticed what could be a huge gap in the market when it comes to a comparison site, based around lease cars. I haven't really gone in to detail much on the other sites but feel its probably necessary on here, I am looking for some advice when it comes to these sites. Things such as how they are ran, how payment is generated and at roughly what cost (PPC?) and so on.
Rather than having the comparison site generate fixed figures based on the information given (such as car insurance) I would prefer it to be a 'live platform' in the manner the customer enters their requirements, contact details and so on. The short but precise quote will then be put on a live system for suppliers to send there quotes across.
On the back end of the site the suppliers would have there own account so when the quote comes in there will only be a few brief boxes to fill in, they can then submit there offer. Quick, easy and tidy process.
The reason with it being a 'live' site rather than an instant generated quote is that the industry I am targeting, from past experience shows that pricing is flexible. So a supplier will be given the chance to add there own up to date quote and see what other suppliers are offering the same car at.
The market is rapidly growing and I would think I should have no problem getting suppliers on board offering a free account, majority of the market quote they offer the best price so the ones listed I would think are the most serious ones who can do this rather than just putting a front on? This should for the user give them a selection of quality and serious suppliers to deal with.
There is currently no other website like this. There is only one site close to it (not going to name drop but I am sure you know what site it is) lists all variations and you essentially have to flick your way through the options, calling one by one to see if they can beat the last quote!
As most of you have seen on here there is currently a thread about 700 pages long in total purely based around car lease prices and deals. What I hope to do is take this hassle out of it. You can simply sit back and wait for the offers to come rolling in and then choose which is best for you.
Any advice, information or tips is much appreciated.
Thanks
Signed up here looking for some advice, also have this topic on a couple of other sites so I can get different avenues of feedback . I currently run my own LTD company, retail based but always thinking of potential ideas to take advantage of.
Recently I have noticed what could be a huge gap in the market when it comes to a comparison site, based around lease cars. I haven't really gone in to detail much on the other sites but feel its probably necessary on here, I am looking for some advice when it comes to these sites. Things such as how they are ran, how payment is generated and at roughly what cost (PPC?) and so on.
Rather than having the comparison site generate fixed figures based on the information given (such as car insurance) I would prefer it to be a 'live platform' in the manner the customer enters their requirements, contact details and so on. The short but precise quote will then be put on a live system for suppliers to send there quotes across.
On the back end of the site the suppliers would have there own account so when the quote comes in there will only be a few brief boxes to fill in, they can then submit there offer. Quick, easy and tidy process.
The reason with it being a 'live' site rather than an instant generated quote is that the industry I am targeting, from past experience shows that pricing is flexible. So a supplier will be given the chance to add there own up to date quote and see what other suppliers are offering the same car at.
The market is rapidly growing and I would think I should have no problem getting suppliers on board offering a free account, majority of the market quote they offer the best price so the ones listed I would think are the most serious ones who can do this rather than just putting a front on? This should for the user give them a selection of quality and serious suppliers to deal with.
There is currently no other website like this. There is only one site close to it (not going to name drop but I am sure you know what site it is) lists all variations and you essentially have to flick your way through the options, calling one by one to see if they can beat the last quote!
As most of you have seen on here there is currently a thread about 700 pages long in total purely based around car lease prices and deals. What I hope to do is take this hassle out of it. You can simply sit back and wait for the offers to come rolling in and then choose which is best for you.
Any advice, information or tips is much appreciated.
Thanks
Il take a look in to it.
Another website similar is 'deliveryquotecompare', I have used them before with my other company. Basically list what size the parcel is, where its going etc and receive specific quotes back over 24 hours. Then you can choose the cheapest/best option.
I would also consider putting a small review section on, similar to Ebay so we can have premier suppliers who are selling more than others a some general feedback.
Im hoping some of the lease guys on here come by to see if they would be interested in putting there site on something like this.
Another website similar is 'deliveryquotecompare', I have used them before with my other company. Basically list what size the parcel is, where its going etc and receive specific quotes back over 24 hours. Then you can choose the cheapest/best option.
I would also consider putting a small review section on, similar to Ebay so we can have premier suppliers who are selling more than others a some general feedback.
Im hoping some of the lease guys on here come by to see if they would be interested in putting there site on something like this.
I run a small, but growing, family run leasing Company based in Kent.
I'll revisit this thread when I have had a bit more time to process your proposal. Meanwhile feel free to PM me and I'd be happy to assist any questions you have via email.
Edited by KarlS on Friday 22 January 10:48
Vividair said:
Hi everyone,
Signed up here looking for some advice, also have this topic on a couple of other sites so I can get different avenues of feedback . I currently run my own LTD company, retail based but always thinking of potential ideas to take advantage of.
Recently I have noticed what could be a huge gap in the market when it comes to a comparison site, based around lease cars. I haven't really gone in to detail much on the other sites but feel its probably necessary on here, I am looking for some advice when it comes to these sites. Things such as how they are ran, how payment is generated and at roughly what cost (PPC?) and so on.
Rather than having the comparison site generate fixed figures based on the information given (such as car insurance) I would prefer it to be a 'live platform' in the manner the customer enters their requirements, contact details and so on. The short but precise quote will then be put on a live system for suppliers to send there quotes across.
On the back end of the site the suppliers would have there own account so when the quote comes in there will only be a few brief boxes to fill in, they can then submit there offer. Quick, easy and tidy process.
The reason with it being a 'live' site rather than an instant generated quote is that the industry I am targeting, from past experience shows that pricing is flexible. So a supplier will be given the chance to add there own up to date quote and see what other suppliers are offering the same car at.
The market is rapidly growing and I would think I should have no problem getting suppliers on board offering a free account, majority of the market quote they offer the best price so the ones listed I would think are the most serious ones who can do this rather than just putting a front on? This should for the user give them a selection of quality and serious suppliers to deal with.
There is currently no other website like this. There is only one site close to it (not going to name drop but I am sure you know what site it is) lists all variations and you essentially have to flick your way through the options, calling one by one to see if they can beat the last quote!
As most of you have seen on here there is currently a thread about 700 pages long in total purely based around car lease prices and deals. What I hope to do is take this hassle out of it. You can simply sit back and wait for the offers to come rolling in and then choose which is best for you.
Thanks
Totally agree, I thought this myself a few weeks ago when looking at a potential lease car. Easy to get the stage one started, comparing all the sites that already have some sort of API, but stage 2 would take much work. The margins are tiny, so I would think you would need to plan to build a site up to become the rightmove of car leasing before you looked for any revenue.Signed up here looking for some advice, also have this topic on a couple of other sites so I can get different avenues of feedback . I currently run my own LTD company, retail based but always thinking of potential ideas to take advantage of.
Recently I have noticed what could be a huge gap in the market when it comes to a comparison site, based around lease cars. I haven't really gone in to detail much on the other sites but feel its probably necessary on here, I am looking for some advice when it comes to these sites. Things such as how they are ran, how payment is generated and at roughly what cost (PPC?) and so on.
Rather than having the comparison site generate fixed figures based on the information given (such as car insurance) I would prefer it to be a 'live platform' in the manner the customer enters their requirements, contact details and so on. The short but precise quote will then be put on a live system for suppliers to send there quotes across.
On the back end of the site the suppliers would have there own account so when the quote comes in there will only be a few brief boxes to fill in, they can then submit there offer. Quick, easy and tidy process.
The reason with it being a 'live' site rather than an instant generated quote is that the industry I am targeting, from past experience shows that pricing is flexible. So a supplier will be given the chance to add there own up to date quote and see what other suppliers are offering the same car at.
The market is rapidly growing and I would think I should have no problem getting suppliers on board offering a free account, majority of the market quote they offer the best price so the ones listed I would think are the most serious ones who can do this rather than just putting a front on? This should for the user give them a selection of quality and serious suppliers to deal with.
There is currently no other website like this. There is only one site close to it (not going to name drop but I am sure you know what site it is) lists all variations and you essentially have to flick your way through the options, calling one by one to see if they can beat the last quote!
As most of you have seen on here there is currently a thread about 700 pages long in total purely based around car lease prices and deals. What I hope to do is take this hassle out of it. You can simply sit back and wait for the offers to come rolling in and then choose which is best for you.
Thanks
Regarding your live vs instant prices, why not do both, indicative and then followed up with bespoke pricing. If you couldn't do something instantly, you just wouldn't get the footfall in my view.
What I have found with this trade is that prices are quite flexible. When leasing my car I had to ring around loads, honestly it took me about a week of back and forth calls to get the best deal. I ended up saving at least £100 per month on my current lease but it was a hassle.
I can list fixed prices but then some do come back much higher and I dont want to 'scare' any potential customers away, they might see a couple of high prices and think no chance. If I put it on a live system you can receive emails automatically or on your account with updated prices. Most suppliers I would like to think could get a quote across with in an hour or two.
I can list fixed prices but then some do come back much higher and I dont want to 'scare' any potential customers away, they might see a couple of high prices and think no chance. If I put it on a live system you can receive emails automatically or on your account with updated prices. Most suppliers I would like to think could get a quote across with in an hour or two.
Vividair said:
What I have found with this trade is that prices are quite flexible. When leasing my car I had to ring around loads, honestly it took me about a week of back and forth calls to get the best deal. I ended up saving at least £100 per month on my current lease but it was a hassle.
I can list fixed prices but then some do come back much higher and I dont want to 'scare' any potential customers away, they might see a couple of high prices and think no chance. If I put it on a live system you can receive emails automatically or on your account with updated prices. Most suppliers I would like to think could get a quote across with in an hour or two.
But you got to get people using your site in the first place. Many leasing sites will give you an instant indicative price, it might need more work but at least it gives something. If you were even able to combine more than one of these results, then people would use your engine (and therefore your site) as a default for leasing comparisons because its easier. Its a simple first stage,I can list fixed prices but then some do come back much higher and I dont want to 'scare' any potential customers away, they might see a couple of high prices and think no chance. If I put it on a live system you can receive emails automatically or on your account with updated prices. Most suppliers I would like to think could get a quote across with in an hour or two.
That is understandable and something I will look in to and see how it works as at the moment I am not so clued up with the process.
What do you think about having a list of 30-40 vehicles listed on the home page that are on special offer and have them updated every 2-4 weeks. Most popular cars such as exec saloons, hot hatches and so on. That way it could give the customer a base to start from and then link them to the page to enter more details such as extras to be generated a price direct from suppliers?
What do you think about having a list of 30-40 vehicles listed on the home page that are on special offer and have them updated every 2-4 weeks. Most popular cars such as exec saloons, hot hatches and so on. That way it could give the customer a base to start from and then link them to the page to enter more details such as extras to be generated a price direct from suppliers?
Isnt this basically a comparison site? Lists leases from various brokers..
https://www.contracthireandleasing.com/
https://www.contracthireandleasing.com/
In a sense it is however in my opinion and it appears many others on here and other sites it just doesn't work well.
The price seem to be listed and thats it. When in fact you go on to some of the suppliers sites and the same car will be in the sale for a limited time and so on.
I think the approach I am trying to take is much easier to use and will give you the most up to date price between numerous suppliers.
The price seem to be listed and thats it. When in fact you go on to some of the suppliers sites and the same car will be in the sale for a limited time and so on.
I think the approach I am trying to take is much easier to use and will give you the most up to date price between numerous suppliers.
Vividair said:
In a sense it is however in my opinion and it appears many others on here and other sites it just doesn't work well.
The price seem to be listed and thats it. When in fact you go on to some of the suppliers sites and the same car will be in the sale for a limited time and so on.
I think the approach I am trying to take is much easier to use and will give you the most up to date price between numerous suppliers.
Are leasing companies, already on very thin margins, going to be happy having an employee sitting working out quotes for business they probably wont get anyway?The price seem to be listed and thats it. When in fact you go on to some of the suppliers sites and the same car will be in the sale for a limited time and so on.
I think the approach I am trying to take is much easier to use and will give you the most up to date price between numerous suppliers.
Surely much cheaper, and much less labour intensive, to put up their current "offers" onto a static site and catch the passing trade as it were with no effort?
I did something similar here with a "live" we buy any car type idea for my local area - the idea being to quote more precisely for a given car and based on my experience of reselling any given car, rather than a number out of a box.
There was a wilfully low hit rate, for the amount of effort required to generate a given quote.
Also, how are you going to generate the traffic to your site? You're going to need a lot of traffic to make leasing companies take your seriously, and thats going to cost a significant amount of money monthly.
Also, cost for setup and maintenance of the quite complex site?
And where do you generate your revenue? Flat fee from the leasing company? How will you know if a lease was or was not signed? Will they bother paying you?
I think you're going to end up chasing a small percentage of a leasing companies small percentage profit, but with big operating costs the other end.
Vividair said:
There is currently no other website like this.
Why? Because its too much hassle and labour intensive for the leasing company?Vividair said:
As most of you have seen on here there is currently a thread about 700 pages long in total purely based around car lease prices and deals. What I hope to do is take this hassle out of it. You can simply sit back and wait for the offers to come rolling in and then choose which is best for you.
However you're pushing the hassle and the effort back on to the leasing company, for business they might only have a 1 in 20 of getting anyway?Thanks for the feedback so far, much appreciated.
Il try work my way through this is order..
I presume lease companies do work on a relatively small margin on a monthly basis, but initial payment, admin fees etc is probably where they get a fair chunk of money. I have heard a few people getting the admin fee wiped off to take out a contract so I think us charging them a set fee per sale could be incorporated in to that fee.
There will no doubt be many people putting info on there with no intention of taking out a lease deal but on the other hand this is part of the business and I bet they receive numerous emails and calls the same day. I run an online retail company and would say 50%+ of customer will not buy but you have to give them the time of day. Hopefully once its bigger most queries will be directed through the site and reduce the amount of emails/calls they get to balance it out. What I would hope to do is offer a very simple form for the supplier to fill in at the back end of the site. so they will get the info from the customer in list form and can quickly place a price in a box plus any additional noted then post it live. They wont have to write out a quote or dig for more info. They will know them selves the price for most popular cars so could take them less than a minute to do.
Traffic is a big one, I will be putting £500-800 per month in to marketing to hopefully give it a kick start, I will also make my self present on numerous forums to answer and promote a bit. For example there is a 700 odd page lease topic on here now, if I can get a topic posted at the top of the category (for a fee) then that should help immensely for what I would imagine little costs. I can also target through social media, adverts in magazines or online car sites etc.
Set up costs will be reasonable, I have an IT tech who does a lot of work on my other site and initially created it. He will make the site and keep up with it between jobs. We have a good working relationship and more than reasonable costs.
Revenue, I think I will be best charging a fee for each car leased. Hit in the dark here but would something like £40 per sale be reasonbale, I was told insurance companies charge a similar amount to providers. Obviously they are huge but you have to start somewhere. To get dealers on board I could offer a free account and first 3 months free. This will help me build a customer and supplier base to work on. What have they got to lose? If it works then jackpot I am sure they will stick around, if not more changes to get it precise and trial them again.
One thing which I am stuck on is how to avoid people getting a quote through the site but then going direct. I will have to look in to this some how.
The lease market is HUGE and growing, I think this idea will be built up on whether it be me or someone else. In my opinion lease deals have only really came to light the last 4-5 years (this includes the 40% increase in sales in 5 years!). I searched high and low for deals on my Mercedes and every time I click on the topic on here there is more and more companies I have not heard of. Even if we can get 20% on board initially its still a huge amount and can be lucrative.
Why hasn't anyone else done it? I have no idea, but there has to be a first for everything and in a growing market which targets millions of people it seems like it can be built up on.
Hope the above answers some questions.
Il try work my way through this is order..
I presume lease companies do work on a relatively small margin on a monthly basis, but initial payment, admin fees etc is probably where they get a fair chunk of money. I have heard a few people getting the admin fee wiped off to take out a contract so I think us charging them a set fee per sale could be incorporated in to that fee.
There will no doubt be many people putting info on there with no intention of taking out a lease deal but on the other hand this is part of the business and I bet they receive numerous emails and calls the same day. I run an online retail company and would say 50%+ of customer will not buy but you have to give them the time of day. Hopefully once its bigger most queries will be directed through the site and reduce the amount of emails/calls they get to balance it out. What I would hope to do is offer a very simple form for the supplier to fill in at the back end of the site. so they will get the info from the customer in list form and can quickly place a price in a box plus any additional noted then post it live. They wont have to write out a quote or dig for more info. They will know them selves the price for most popular cars so could take them less than a minute to do.
Traffic is a big one, I will be putting £500-800 per month in to marketing to hopefully give it a kick start, I will also make my self present on numerous forums to answer and promote a bit. For example there is a 700 odd page lease topic on here now, if I can get a topic posted at the top of the category (for a fee) then that should help immensely for what I would imagine little costs. I can also target through social media, adverts in magazines or online car sites etc.
Set up costs will be reasonable, I have an IT tech who does a lot of work on my other site and initially created it. He will make the site and keep up with it between jobs. We have a good working relationship and more than reasonable costs.
Revenue, I think I will be best charging a fee for each car leased. Hit in the dark here but would something like £40 per sale be reasonbale, I was told insurance companies charge a similar amount to providers. Obviously they are huge but you have to start somewhere. To get dealers on board I could offer a free account and first 3 months free. This will help me build a customer and supplier base to work on. What have they got to lose? If it works then jackpot I am sure they will stick around, if not more changes to get it precise and trial them again.
One thing which I am stuck on is how to avoid people getting a quote through the site but then going direct. I will have to look in to this some how.
The lease market is HUGE and growing, I think this idea will be built up on whether it be me or someone else. In my opinion lease deals have only really came to light the last 4-5 years (this includes the 40% increase in sales in 5 years!). I searched high and low for deals on my Mercedes and every time I click on the topic on here there is more and more companies I have not heard of. Even if we can get 20% on board initially its still a huge amount and can be lucrative.
Why hasn't anyone else done it? I have no idea, but there has to be a first for everything and in a growing market which targets millions of people it seems like it can be built up on.
Hope the above answers some questions.
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