To hit the target, you need to first aim

The topic speaks of a problem that each of Khabravchans may unexpectedly encounter: “how to deliver your goods from point A to point B with the least effort, time and money?” ...
... and the service that helps solve this problem ...
... and the main thing is about
How to "get into the bull's eye", creating a new service.


The service that will be discussed, I liked the "exact hit." Exactly what a customer like me needs. Actually, such accuracy prompted us to write this topic, in which I tried using a specific example to identify issues that need to be resolved before proceeding with the creation of the service in order to ensure that this service meets the user's aspirations. Such a preliminary analysis is often forgotten, carried away by the problems of usability, design, promotion, monetization and other "tasty" tasks. As a result, the excellent work of designers, programmers and other project participants may not be in demand by customers, and the result will not live up to expectations. And it’s not so offensive if the investor loses money - this is his payment for lack of qualifications and presumption. It's a shame when the work of the team working "on enthusiasm" goes down the drain, in which there was no at least an “intuitive” (without special education) marketer. This topic is addressed to them as information for consideration.

To solve a problem, you must at least know it

It will be about a company whose blog recently appeared on Habrahabr - about Perevezi.rf . This is an online exchange (network service), where there are carriers and customers who want to carry any kind of cargo. It doesn’t matter where and where: from address to address, from one city to another city or even another country.
The service exists relatively recently, but, according to the founders, it has already received its audience and is growing steadily. What has been done to make the service successful?
In my opinion, the authors from the very beginning carried out a deep analysis of the market and the competitive environment, and on this basis a clear positioning was carried out: which clients are intended for the service and what needs of these clients should it satisfy.
Let's try to repeat this path and start with competition.

Competitive Environment or
Everything Compared

To assess the level of competition in the transportation market, we compare the transportation exchange with the traditional freelance exchange we are familiar with. And first of all, we find that competition in the mutual search of customers and contractors in the field of transportation is no less than in the field of IT, PR and Web services, that is, in traditional freelance. But it is qualitatively different.
(Note: the comparative method of analysis of the competitive environment is rarely used, but in this case more clearly, and freelance familiar Habravchanam)
In order to understand what the differences in question is comparable:
Traditional freelancingfocused mainly on the market of Web, PR and IT services, relatively young (just exchanged a dozen) and has not yet lost flexibility. Here counterparties - both customers and contractors, live and work on the network (in real life they only have beer and some small things). They easily change their preferences (familiar for the best or just new). For the most part, traditional freelance is a completely modern exchange market, where performers look for orders publicly placed by customers on numerous exchanges, and compete for these orders (even large studios with their own sites do not disdain this). This, by the way, leads to lower prices, which pleases customers and is not too pleasing to freelancers.
In contrast, the transportation market“Remembers mammoths”, is rigidly structured, has long been divided between numerous carriers, and customers, as a rule, are rather inert and use the usual ones (they look for new things only when they “press” them). In addition, not all customers "on you" with the Internet and prefer to use off-network contacts, for example, dispatch telephones. That is, not only is the competition for the online transportation service of interest to us very fierce, but it is also not always direct (you have to compete with many local telephone dispatchers).
Now let's move on to market analysis.

Transportation market

A significant part of transactions in the transportation market, especially regular and / or large-capacity ones, are made outside the network and in monetary terms these transactions occupy the lion's share of the market. Alas, this part of the market for a network service is practically inaccessible (at least for now).
On the network, however, one can distinguish two common variants of mutual search for counterparties:


Customers “post” their order on the “bulletin board” and wait for offers from carriers by phone or e-mail, while spending a lot of time negotiating.


Transport and logistics companies offer their services on their own sites, and customers, to the best of their ability and ability, look for such sites with suitable services and conditions.

Having undergone such “procedures”, customers, especially when it comes to one-time and relatively small orders, rarely change the choice once made - they simply feel sorry for the time spent searching. Therefore, in the transportation market for a startup (a new network service), in order to succeed, among other things, it is necessary to overcome the inertness of the market and fierce competition from carriers that have long "settled" the market.
In order to overcome or (better) circumvent these obstacles, it is necessary to clearly understand the problems of the market, choose your niche and offer the optimal solution to the problems characteristic of this niche. That is, speaking the language of marketers, first you need to choose the market segment where the service will be in demand.

Niche Selection

It is obvious that the segment of large-tonnage and scheduled transportation (coal, timber, fertilizers, metal, etc.) is practically inaccessible to a simple network startup. As already mentioned, most transactions in this segment are carried out offline, and if online, then through the sites of large carriers. A certain part of such transactions is announced through “bulletin boards”, in particular through public procurement sites and tender sections on the sites of large customer companies. In addition, it should be borne in mind that non-market factors play a large role in this segment: lobbying, corruption and primitive “protection” by the authorities, law enforcement agencies and outright organized crime groups. Counting on the success of a network service in such conditions is simply naive.
Medium-sized enterprises-customers out of the situation, having in the staff of specialists engaged in logistics. Such specialists organize transportation professionally (that is, they receive a salary for the time spent on searching for a carrier and by no means consider this time lost), in addition, they have proven options, connections, contacts and do not particularly need new services.
The problem of attracting orders at medium-sized enterprises-carriers is also mainly solved by full-time managers.
There are no particular problems with private scheduled (albeit relatively inexpensive) transport. Each citizen usually knows the phone number of his taxi, a delivery man for water, food, and alcohol, finally. At furniture stores and building materials you can always find a taxi or order delivery. Small businesses that need to regularly import raw materials or ship finished products usually have a “long-playing” contract with their “carrier”.

What remains? There remains a relatively small and therefore least developed segment - the segment of irregular transportation.Here the customer is in the greatest difficulty. This is usually a person or a small company. When there is a need for transportation, a newspaper with the right ads or a friend who knows the treasured telephone is usually not at hand, as luck would have it. Placing your ad on a "publicly accessible" network board next to orders worth several hundred thousand rubles does not make much sense - they simply will not pay attention to it. And to search for a suitable carrier in the network, as already mentioned, is quite laborious. On the other hand, many small carriers suffer from incomplete loading, but they cannot find out about potential customers for one-time services.

Thus, having examined the transportation market, we found thatin the segment of non-scheduled transport, the problem of mutual search for counterparties is quite acute, and it can, in principle, be solved by a network service.
Now, science follows:

Choose target customers

Actually, target customers are already selected. On the one hand, these are customers of irregular transportation - people and small enterprises. On the other hand, these are carriers that need full uniform loading - transport companies and private carriers.
The next step:

Explore target customer issues

For customers, the problem lies in the complexity and laboriousness of finding the best transportation option, especially in “exotic” cases, when, for example, you need to move from city to city or transport mother-in-law piano. The second problem, which is characteristic primarily for small cities, is the monopolistically high prices. For example, shipping from Novouralsk to Yekaterinburg (70 km) costs the same, and even more than from Yekaterinburg to Moscow (2000 km). For example, the Rail Continent transport company asks for 923.3 rubles for the delivery of cargo of 150 kg 0.7 m3 from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, and more than two and a half thousand for picking up the cargo from Novouralsk, with no additional services like driver assistance when loading speech does not even go.
For carriersthe key to success and at the same time, the main problem is to ensure full and as uniform load as possible (minimizing downtime and idle runs). The number of carriers, especially after the onset of the crisis, significantly exceeds the market demand. The most common way to attract customers - advertising in these conditions only leads to unproductive increase in costs, as competitors for each advertising campaign respond with their own. (PR-boxers rejoice - carriers yearn).
Now you need:

Understand what the target customers expect from the service

Customers would like to receive competitive offers from carriers with minimal effort, and in a convenient form that allows comprehensive comparison of offers not only in price, but also in the availability of additional services, quality, reliability, etc.
Carriers need orders with a moderate level of commission, which are paid only for orders actually received. In addition, they are interested in the opportunity to increase their competitiveness not due to dumping, but due to the nomenclature and quality of their services (for example, through the mechanism of positive feedback). They are also interested in the growth of the client base, and in obtaining high-quality contacts (leads), which they can then transform into their regular customers.

Here, in fact, is the whole analysis of the market and the competitive environment (an integral part of any business plan). Naturally, he was whipped up and very superficially - without numbers and calculations, only to show the main things. The authors of the service, judging by the result, did it in good faith.

And now we’ll leave the other sections of the business plan outside the brackets and see how the Perevezi.rf website meets the above expectations of service customers — customers and carriers.

Perevezi.rf - realized expectations

Having visited the site, the customer is not looking for an artist and does not spend time on calls to find out the average cost of services in the market. He simply publishes his order, looks through the offers of carriers that have responded to the order, and selects the most attractive offer in terms of price / quality ratio, reviews, rating and other features. With the help of Perevezi.rf, it became possible for service customers to quickly and easily find an artist who is ready to transport almost any cargo to any region at the best price, and if necessary to get all related services - pick it up from stock, pick it up, transfer it, take it apart, put it together pack-unpack.
This unique opportunity is provided by a large number of competing carrier carriers that have become “residents” of the site.
The benefits of carriers are also obvious: first of all, they receive the desired orders and at the same time do not spend money on advertising, the effectiveness of which is problematic, but pay only for the real orders received. To increase their competitiveness, performers “pump” their accounts, collect positive reviews, expand the range of services, and reduce prices.
The attractiveness of the exchange for carriers is evident from the fact that their number is growing exponentially and now exceeds 30 thousand throughout the country and in neighboring countries. Not surprisingly, with such a number of performers, half of the applications receive a minimum of five proposals, another 20% receive a minimum of three proposals.

How it works

I will not spend your time on the description of working with the site. Anyone who needs to find a carrier will do this without any problems. At least I didn’t need any hints - everything is clear at first sight.

The components of success, they are also “hormones of growth” and development

In addition to accurate positioning, in the success of the project, of course, the thoughtful and attractive design of the site and its functionality played a role.
But I would like to highlight two more fundamental points that determine the success of the service:
1) Strict observance of the balance of interests.
Relations between customers and contractors are built on the market principle: contractors offer - customers choose, and the administration creates favorable conditions for this process, without imposing any restrictions, unless protects clients from rudeness, as do, for example, Habrahabr moderators.
The administration and owners of the site are not allowed to go "all the way" in order to maximize profits in the shortest possible time. They do not interfere in the mutual settlements between clients and performers - there are no enslaving “risk-free transactions”, as on some very well-known freelance sites. Commissions charged from performers are from 5 to 9%, depending on the size of the transaction. For comparison, the rates of other traffic control centers start at 10% and usually make up 15-20%. Registration of artists on the stock exchange, access to customer applications and submitting offers are free.
That is, customers, carriers, and the administration / owners of the site are satisfied, and a tripartite balance of interests is maintained.
2) Monitoring the needs of exchange participants and continuous improvement of the site according to their proposals.
To make sure, just look at the page where participants publish their wishes, and the administration announces innovations.

Conclusion

I hope that what is stated in the topic will help developers, especially young ones, not to forget that in order to successfully achieve the goal, this goal must be carefully selected and clearly presented. And I apologize professionals for the free (sometimes even frivolous) use of the terms and postulates of Marketing.