Starting a web only business - Advice required!

[Turbo-s]

Hey people,

I've been thinking long and hard about filling a gap in the UK/European market.

My idea is to create a website for people who are searching for their next car. Instead of having to search the likes of Autotrader, ebay, gumtree etc individually they can use my website to search all of them in one place.

From my research that I've carried out, something like WIX or Squarespace isn't really going to be compatible. I've also spoken to a limited number of web designers who've not really been able to advise.

As it stands, I have the idea however executing it seems a whole different ball game.

Any and all advice is appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Shopclicks]

I've been thinking long and hard about filling a gap in the UK/European market.

What research have you conducted to find out if there's a market in the gap? Is there a gap? Why do you think this site doesn't exist?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Research is key in this, as mentioned, to understand demand.

As there are consolidation websites for services (finance, travel etc), it could work, but the costs to develop would be in the tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

You would need to make sure that the sites you want to take info from have API's to allow the link OR you have to scrape the data...

BTW how would you monetise this?

 

[fisicx]

Aggregate websites have been around for years. If you have access to the APIs for each website it’s not too complicated to build. £10,000 would get you something decent. But then add £100,000 for marketing. It’s marketing that’s going to be the killer. It a competitive market that the likes of autotrader spend millions on every year.

 

[dx3webs]

as above.. in fact it might worth starting with a marketing company and work with them to scope out the site that would be required then approach a developer and ask them how they would design the solution.

Remember there are already a lot of sketchy sites out there who (illegally?) scrape the data off legitimate sites and use that to do what you describe. You will have to compete with these.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Here's an alternative idea.

A couple of years back we bought a new secondhand car. It was down to my wife's tireless searching and an element of luck that we found the car we wanted. Make, model, colour, price, and distance to the dealer (a modest 15 min drive) were all spot on, so we closed the deal the same day.

I would have happily paid for a service that would have alerted us when our criteria were met.

Anyone else think that a good idea?

 

[IanSuth]

Here's an alternative idea.

A couple of years back we bought a new secondhand car. It was down to my wife's tireless searching and an element of luck that we found the car we wanted. Make, model, colour, price, and distance to the dealer (a modest 15 min drive) were all spot on, so we closed the deal the same day.

I would have happily paid for a service that would have alerted us when our criteria were met.

Anyone else think that a good idea?

I am the opposite - when i look i settle on a couple of options, set a budget then go for the first that meets my criteria under budget.

Out of interest what would you have paid for that service (either as a flat fee or a % of purchase) as I wouldn't pay over £10

 

[KM-Tiger]

Out of interest what would you have paid for that service (either as a flat fee or a % of purchase) as I wouldn't pay over £10

Say £10/month. Until the right car turned up.

The costs of populating and maintaining the necessary database would be substantial, so not sure if this would be commercially viable.

 

[Turbo-s]

Thanks for all the advice so far! It's been super eye opening.

With regards to research, I've spoken with people in person and across owners group who've all agreed that having one site would streamline the process.

In terms of monetising, I would allow sellers to directly advertise their vehicles on my website for a fee.

I really like the idea of approaching a marketing company first, I'll go ahead and get in touch with some for some more advice.

 

[Turbo-s]

Say £10/month. Until the right car turned up.

The costs of populating and maintaining the necessary database would be substantial, so not sure if this would be commercially viable.

This is also something I've considered doing, I currently source cars for friends/family. I really enjoy doing this too and it's something that is right up my street.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure on how to go about executing this in terms of monetising this and also having to deal with finance buyers as oppose to cash buyers.

Maybe more research is required on the car brokering/car finding service

 

[fisicx]

In terms of monetising, I would allow sellers to directly advertise their vehicles on my website for a fee.

They will only pay if the know you have the traffic. Which means years and years of marketing until you have the numbers. Then you can start charging. At which point everyone will leave and go back to autotrader.

Speaking to people about your idea will always get lots of positive response. But almost all those you asked will never sign up for your service.

Not saying your won't be a success but it's going to be a huge investment. Autotrader for example charge thousands per month for access to their database. I think they also take a comission on every sale.

 

[japancool]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure on how to go about executing this in terms of monetising this and also having to deal with finance buyers as oppose to cash buyers.

Perhaps you could negotiate a commission with whoever you pass the lead on to. That's how many of the price comparison sites earn their money, but you'd probably have to prove the traffic before you could do that.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

My idea is to create a website for people who are searching for their next car.

A bit late to the party there are plenty of companies already doing it.... https://www.autotempest.com/ or https://www.carsnip.com/

across owners group

Are they already using and paying on https://www.autotempest.com/ or https://www.carsnip.com/. If not why would they use you instead.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Massive market, massive players, massive marketing budget needed to get any cut through. You need to research this, as others have said.

Basically, unless you rank well organically, no one will see your site, so you'll get no paid listings from sellers. You could run paid adverts for traffic, but again, that will require a big budget as Cinch, Heycar, WEBAC etc all run national PPC.

To monetise this properly you'd also need to negotiate commissions with all the major players for sales generated by your platform. That will require good commercial and legal knowledge, plus you'll need to get in front of the likes of AutoTrader, Motors, Pistonheads etc to pitch.

That's all needed before you even think about getting into the build costs and infrastructure etc, as scraping these sites is likely to be unreliable, so again you'd need a commercial arrangement or to buy a data feed from other large sites.

There are also people trying to do this now, both existing and new companies/websites.

It's not a small scale project or a gap in the market low cost start up business. This would need a big budget or venture capital funding to have any chance of succeeding.

 

[antropy]

From my research that I've carried out, something like WIX or Squarespace isn't really going to be compatible. I've also spoken to a limited number of web designers who've not really been able to advise.

As it stands, I have the idea however executing it seems a whole different ball game.

Any and all advice is appreciated!

Look, I don't want to be a Negative Nelly or a Debbie Downer but from your question I think it might be fair to assume that you don't have the budget or experience to pull this off successfully, am I right?

It's a complex technical project, and you probably haven't considered things like how you're going to beat those other marketplaces in search results, or even how you're going to make money?

My guess is you'd be better off starting with something smaller and easier to get some experience of making money online which is very difficult at the best of times, and then perhaps in a few years re-visit this idea.

Paul.