November 20, 2009 at 02:27Online store of industrial equipment
To begin with, more than a year ago I got a job in a company engaged in the sale of industrial equipment and components. I worked there part-time, something like a visiting employee. Soon, I invited the authorities to develop an online store, as this can increase and simplify sales.
Why am I saying simplify? All due to the fact that there are different types of equipment, some cost 5,000 rubles, while others cost more than 500,000 euros. That's just, it’s difficult to sell expensive equipment via the Internet, if not impossible, all because factories and enterprises buy such equipment, well, everything goes through the main engineers and kickbacks to them to buy from you, it’s the simplest scheme, most often everything is much more complicated.
It all started with the fact that I began to choose a control system, a large number of different systems are offered on the market. Since the store did not require particularly complex functions and capabilities, and customers, often, are no longer young people and the easier it is, the better.
Easy interface ( intuitive - all contacts are in sight), whatever you say, but people refuse to register and order via the Internet, more than 70% of customers still call and order by phone. We even indicated discounts for registered users, those who make an order through the online store, and not by phone. All because of the fact that to reduce the load on consultants, as they had to communicate over the phone and via the Internet. And to find experienced and knowledgeable employees of the equipment is expensive. Especially for a developing project, that's why we tried to reduce the load.
The problem that we encountered is the sale of equipment at retail, many of our customers ordered equipment in their garage, to the cottage, etc. Our company was registered as an LLC and we could not invoice part of the clients; they came to the office and took the goods for cash. The boss solved this problem simply, in his opinion, registered another IP, through which he sold for cash.
Equipment maintenance, this is where the most, in our opinion, major problems have arisen, since a significant part of it requires constant maintenance. To do this, we negotiated with a number of services in the regions and entered into agreements so that they accept maintenance and warranty services for our customers. I must say that this, in my opinion, was the most difficult, since there are practically no foreign industrial equipment service centers in Russia and I had to negotiate with companies such as ORDER, etc.
There are no problems now, many transport companies are ready to deliver the cargo anywhere. But we solved this problem in our own way ... Many dealers have regional offices, and since we are their partners, we ship from the place where the order was made. What is the catch? But in nothing, just dealers, they sell to us at a low price, so to say, wholesale, it does not matter where we placed the order with them and where we ask them to be delivered, but to the client directly, they will not sell, at the same price, to this client cheaper and more profitable to order anyway with us.
The store paid off only after 3 months, all because we initially dealt with purely organizational issues rather than optimization and promotion, but even without this, there were traffic and customers.
There is competition, but mainly in Moscow, as far as the regions are concerned, there is still where to turn around, but they can be bypassed fairly quickly. It all depends on the turnover, the higher it is, the cheaper you, as a dealer, will sell equipment.
PS:
Average wrap per unit of goods from 5 to 30% depending on affiliate discounts.
There is not a word in the article how we solve accounting and other organizational issues on the project, but I felt that this was not necessary, since there are a lot of material on the formation of LLC / IP on the hub. The main thing I reflected the essence of how we are in the region (provinces ) organize the work of a similar project.
Why am I saying simplify? All due to the fact that there are different types of equipment, some cost 5,000 rubles, while others cost more than 500,000 euros. That's just, it’s difficult to sell expensive equipment via the Internet, if not impossible, all because factories and enterprises buy such equipment, well, everything goes through the main engineers and kickbacks to them to buy from you, it’s the simplest scheme, most often everything is much more complicated.
Start
It all started with the fact that I began to choose a control system, a large number of different systems are offered on the market. Since the store did not require particularly complex functions and capabilities, and customers, often, are no longer young people and the easier it is, the better.
Easy interface ( intuitive - all contacts are in sight), whatever you say, but people refuse to register and order via the Internet, more than 70% of customers still call and order by phone. We even indicated discounts for registered users, those who make an order through the online store, and not by phone. All because of the fact that to reduce the load on consultants, as they had to communicate over the phone and via the Internet. And to find experienced and knowledgeable employees of the equipment is expensive. Especially for a developing project, that's why we tried to reduce the load.
Step 2. Cash payment
The problem that we encountered is the sale of equipment at retail, many of our customers ordered equipment in their garage, to the cottage, etc. Our company was registered as an LLC and we could not invoice part of the clients; they came to the office and took the goods for cash. The boss solved this problem simply, in his opinion, registered another IP, through which he sold for cash.
Step 3. Maintenance
Equipment maintenance, this is where the most, in our opinion, major problems have arisen, since a significant part of it requires constant maintenance. To do this, we negotiated with a number of services in the regions and entered into agreements so that they accept maintenance and warranty services for our customers. I must say that this, in my opinion, was the most difficult, since there are practically no foreign industrial equipment service centers in Russia and I had to negotiate with companies such as ORDER, etc.
Step 4. Delivery
There are no problems now, many transport companies are ready to deliver the cargo anywhere. But we solved this problem in our own way ... Many dealers have regional offices, and since we are their partners, we ship from the place where the order was made. What is the catch? But in nothing, just dealers, they sell to us at a low price, so to say, wholesale, it does not matter where we placed the order with them and where we ask them to be delivered, but to the client directly, they will not sell, at the same price, to this client cheaper and more profitable to order anyway with us.
Summary
The store paid off only after 3 months, all because we initially dealt with purely organizational issues rather than optimization and promotion, but even without this, there were traffic and customers.
There is competition, but mainly in Moscow, as far as the regions are concerned, there is still where to turn around, but they can be bypassed fairly quickly. It all depends on the turnover, the higher it is, the cheaper you, as a dealer, will sell equipment.
PS:
Average wrap per unit of goods from 5 to 30% depending on affiliate discounts.
There is not a word in the article how we solve accounting and other organizational issues on the project, but I felt that this was not necessary, since there are a lot of material on the formation of LLC / IP on the hub. The main thing I reflected the essence of how we are in the region (