How to sell a window without vparivaniya or the importance of positioning before developing a site
Can a new player enter and survive in a supersaturated, highly competitive market? Yes, you just need to go beyond the established framework. I’m Ruslan Kokin, UX designer at UXhot. I’ll share a story about the importance of positioning using the example of a plastic window site.
When a small Moscow factory of plastic windows turned to us with a proposal to create a site, wishing to launch a new b2c-sales area, we quickly realized that you could not help with one site.
At first glance, the plastic window market is very oversaturated and there is nothing for new players to do there. Dozens of sites in Direct blocks are trying to attract the attention of users, it is worthwhile to show minimal interest in windows. But if you look closely, it turns out that they all work within the framework of one marketing - marketing of permanent promotions and 50% discounts. And even large manufacturers joined this discount game.
Once you enter most of the window sites, they will immediately offer you a personal discount, make them the winner of the action, announce the last slot of the measurer for today, and the price calculated on the calculator will be so low that just a little more and they will start paying extra. All this for the sake of your call.
Next - the work of a tenacious manager of the sales department, who will reasonably push the change in the price promised on the site four times and sell the “free” measurer. That, in turn, is obliged to leave your apartment with a signed contract, so it will again sell.
As a result, in order to enter the market “like everyone else”, it would be necessary not only to play “make contact at any cost”, but also create a strong sales department. This was not our option.
The main business of our client is b2b, and he is not ready to develop a b2c-sales department. We understood that no matter how good the site may be, in the current realities everything will rest against weak salespeople. We needed a solution that would allow us to enter the market without creating additional difficulties for the client.
A standard approach to the sale of plastic windows in Moscow is to sell windows as a complex service, which also includes metering, delivery, installation. For many, this is the required option. But in the process of research, another segment was discovered - those who need only windows.
It is possible to buy windows without measurement, installation and other things in building hypermarkets, but the assortment is represented by standard sizes and products of not the best quality.
A number of window sites seem to offer the opportunity to purchase without installation, but in reality they are either the same standard sizes or mimicry for an online store in order to get contacts and draw them into a standard selling scheme. What to do if you need only a window from a good profile, also in a non-standard size?
So the idea came up:
The idea seemed promising, moreover, it fit perfectly on the existing business processes of the client, without requiring significant efforts to sell on his part.
To validate the idea, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of Central Asia and made sure that there is a need.
We did not ask what customers would like - we were interested in their actual experience in solving such problems. This is a very important nuance that you should pay attention to when conducting an interview.
The range of customer profile systems consisted of nine positions, which, together with three options of double-glazed windows and two accessories, created a large number of possible combinations and complicated the selection and ordering on the site.
After analyzing how people choose and buy windows, we decided to proceed from the tasks. So four categories were introduced: “windows for summer cottages”, “windows for apartments”, “windows with increased heat and sound insulation” and “premium windows”. The task of the latter is to emphasize class prices in other categories.
Together with the business, we have formed several window options in each category in such a way as to give a choice on the one hand and not complicate it on the other.
The next difficulty was the calculator. The key idea of the project is to sell windows in the right size and immediately give an honest, final price. And for this you need a calculator. There were no existing solutions to cover our tasks, so I had to create it from scratch.
All window calculators presented on the Internet come from the design: first you need to choose a one-, two- or three-winged version of the design, and then enter the required dimensions. It would seem convenient, but the classic conversation when ordering windows sounds like this: "Count the window 1450 to 1200." The manager independently determines that a double-leaf window can be made in this size.
When designing the interface, we took this feature into account and created a calculator that “asks” only the size and selects itself which window can be made in it.
Advertising after the first iteration of the site showed great interest on the part of buyers: out of ten calls, nine turned into orders. Moreover, "selling" was not required - all communication took place in the style of "where to transfer money."
But people were in no hurry to fill out applications through the site - the bulk of the calls were by phone. This did not suit us.
Having excluded all the services imposed from the window price, we were able to offer really low prices without discounts and promotions, while maintaining a high margin. But such low prices became the cause of the problem - people did not believe them.
Despite the convenient calculator, which made it possible to get the exact cost of any window in any size immediately on the site, people continued to call for calculation. Having examined the problem, it turned out that most visitors successfully cope with the calculator, but do not trust the calculations, they call to double-check. It was necessary to increase confidence in the price and incline to place an order through the basket.
It was necessary to break the stereotypes formed by the niche. Iteratively, step by step, introducing point changes, we changed the ratio of applications on the site and through the phone, simultaneously increasing the conversion.
The users liked the product because it allowed them to buy what they needed at a good price. Our client liked the product because it allowed them to sell windows to the end customers with minimal effort. Impressed by the product and competitors - in the first months after the launch, we received a dozen requests with a proposal to make the same decision. And do not develop something new, but simply copy it.
And this reflects the current situation in the window market - every year at the beginning of the season new players appear who, not trying to figure out the product and understand their customers, continue to blindly copy competitors.
And by the end of the year, most of them are closed, because the path of discounts and borrowing only seems simple and cheap - in fact, to be competitive, you will have to seriously spend at least on good sellers, expensive advertising and distribution of freebies.
To prevent this from happening, you do not need to go on about the market and the decisions of competitors. Having plunged into existing business processes, identifying specific business tasks and the target audience, you can find free space even in a supersaturated, highly competitive market.
When a small Moscow factory of plastic windows turned to us with a proposal to create a site, wishing to launch a new b2c-sales area, we quickly realized that you could not help with one site.
What is wrong with the plastic window market in Moscow
At first glance, the plastic window market is very oversaturated and there is nothing for new players to do there. Dozens of sites in Direct blocks are trying to attract the attention of users, it is worthwhile to show minimal interest in windows. But if you look closely, it turns out that they all work within the framework of one marketing - marketing of permanent promotions and 50% discounts. And even large manufacturers joined this discount game.
Once you enter most of the window sites, they will immediately offer you a personal discount, make them the winner of the action, announce the last slot of the measurer for today, and the price calculated on the calculator will be so low that just a little more and they will start paying extra. All this for the sake of your call.
Next - the work of a tenacious manager of the sales department, who will reasonably push the change in the price promised on the site four times and sell the “free” measurer. That, in turn, is obliged to leave your apartment with a signed contract, so it will again sell.
As a result, in order to enter the market “like everyone else”, it would be necessary not only to play “make contact at any cost”, but also create a strong sales department. This was not our option.
The main business of our client is b2b, and he is not ready to develop a b2c-sales department. We understood that no matter how good the site may be, in the current realities everything will rest against weak salespeople. We needed a solution that would allow us to enter the market without creating additional difficulties for the client.
Going beyond
A standard approach to the sale of plastic windows in Moscow is to sell windows as a complex service, which also includes metering, delivery, installation. For many, this is the required option. But in the process of research, another segment was discovered - those who need only windows.
It is possible to buy windows without measurement, installation and other things in building hypermarkets, but the assortment is represented by standard sizes and products of not the best quality.
A number of window sites seem to offer the opportunity to purchase without installation, but in reality they are either the same standard sizes or mimicry for an online store in order to get contacts and draw them into a standard selling scheme. What to do if you need only a window from a good profile, also in a non-standard size?
So the idea came up:
An online store of windows without installation, where you can buy a window in the right size, decide for yourself what additional services are needed, and get an honest price right away on the site.
The idea seemed promising, moreover, it fit perfectly on the existing business processes of the client, without requiring significant efforts to sell on his part.
To validate the idea, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of Central Asia and made sure that there is a need.
We did not ask what customers would like - we were interested in their actual experience in solving such problems. This is a very important nuance that you should pay attention to when conducting an interview.
Difficulties
The range of customer profile systems consisted of nine positions, which, together with three options of double-glazed windows and two accessories, created a large number of possible combinations and complicated the selection and ordering on the site.
After analyzing how people choose and buy windows, we decided to proceed from the tasks. So four categories were introduced: “windows for summer cottages”, “windows for apartments”, “windows with increased heat and sound insulation” and “premium windows”. The task of the latter is to emphasize class prices in other categories.
Together with the business, we have formed several window options in each category in such a way as to give a choice on the one hand and not complicate it on the other.
The next difficulty was the calculator. The key idea of the project is to sell windows in the right size and immediately give an honest, final price. And for this you need a calculator. There were no existing solutions to cover our tasks, so I had to create it from scratch.
All window calculators presented on the Internet come from the design: first you need to choose a one-, two- or three-winged version of the design, and then enter the required dimensions. It would seem convenient, but the classic conversation when ordering windows sounds like this: "Count the window 1450 to 1200." The manager independently determines that a double-leaf window can be made in this size.
When designing the interface, we took this feature into account and created a calculator that “asks” only the size and selects itself which window can be made in it.
Advertising after the first iteration of the site showed great interest on the part of buyers: out of ten calls, nine turned into orders. Moreover, "selling" was not required - all communication took place in the style of "where to transfer money."
But people were in no hurry to fill out applications through the site - the bulk of the calls were by phone. This did not suit us.
Why are the prices so low?
Having excluded all the services imposed from the window price, we were able to offer really low prices without discounts and promotions, while maintaining a high margin. But such low prices became the cause of the problem - people did not believe them.
Despite the convenient calculator, which made it possible to get the exact cost of any window in any size immediately on the site, people continued to call for calculation. Having examined the problem, it turned out that most visitors successfully cope with the calculator, but do not trust the calculations, they call to double-check. It was necessary to increase confidence in the price and incline to place an order through the basket.
It was necessary to break the stereotypes formed by the niche. Iteratively, step by step, introducing point changes, we changed the ratio of applications on the site and through the phone, simultaneously increasing the conversion.
In one of the iterations, we had to artificially slow down the work of the calculator - it counted so fast that it led users to the idea of fraud. Now the calculator counts with a floating delay of 1-3 seconds.
Market reaction
The users liked the product because it allowed them to buy what they needed at a good price. Our client liked the product because it allowed them to sell windows to the end customers with minimal effort. Impressed by the product and competitors - in the first months after the launch, we received a dozen requests with a proposal to make the same decision. And do not develop something new, but simply copy it.
And this reflects the current situation in the window market - every year at the beginning of the season new players appear who, not trying to figure out the product and understand their customers, continue to blindly copy competitors.
And by the end of the year, most of them are closed, because the path of discounts and borrowing only seems simple and cheap - in fact, to be competitive, you will have to seriously spend at least on good sellers, expensive advertising and distribution of freebies.
To prevent this from happening, you do not need to go on about the market and the decisions of competitors. Having plunged into existing business processes, identifying specific business tasks and the target audience, you can find free space even in a supersaturated, highly competitive market.