SellAnyCar: how desert auto auctions work
Hello! A few months ago, we talked about the features of the Japanese car market. Today, the oil-rich United Arab Emirates is next in turn. This is where CarPrice's closest relative, the SellAnyCar auction, works.
In addition to Russia and Japan, online auctions included in the Car Buying Alliance group operate in Brazil, India, Nigeria, Mexico, Chile, Pakistan and Indonesia. Among them, the Russian CarPrice is the largest in terms of revenue and the volume of cars sold. Despite the sometimes opposite economic situation in different countries, the business model of online car auctions is successfully conquering the world, and the reason here is mainly in global Internet access and a high level of smartphone penetration. People around the world today want to buy and sell online, and it doesn’t matter what it is - a packet of chips or a car.
As you may know, the UAE is a federal state made up of seven emirates. The size of the country is approximately 400 by 500 kilometers, most of the territory is a typical desert, as on Kara Kum sweets.
There are many cars in the UAE, and almost all of them are premium. The safety of the machines is very good - the desert is around, so there is no corrosion on the machines and cannot be in principle. Cars here are sold in excellent condition, with a big discount from the original price and an unimaginable amount of a wide variety of tuning.
Here are such cars in the Emirates are quite common.
Public transport, in our understanding, is when millions of people move daily from point A to point B by bus or metro. There is no such thing in the UAE. In the largest city of Dubai, there are subways and trams, there are even buses, but all this is more exotic. At a price of a liter of gasoline at the level of 20-30 rubles (depending on the level of world prices), a car is the most economical and convenient means of transportation. Here, by the way, is a typical UBER taxi - 2016 Lexus ES. Try to guess the mileage of this machine?
When did she manage to run so much?
SellAnyCar's business is booming. The company occupies 10% of the used car market (this is a lot for the auto business) and is the largest marketplace in its segment. The reason for success, on the one hand, is the excellent condition of used cars, which are easy to find new owners. The second reason is the high volume of transactions with good margins. The fact is that the indigenous people of the Emirates practically do not work, migrants from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries do all the work for them. Of the nearly 9 million people in the UAE, about 70% are visitors. Going home, these workers get rid of everything “acquired by overwork”, including cars. Online auction allows you to quickly and without worries get rid of the already unnecessary property on wheels. Which, of course, many use. Yes, and how not to use it,
Founder and CEO of SellAnyCar is a German entrepreneur of Turkish descent, a young billionaire Saygin Yalcin.
Saigin is a local media star, his YouTube channel has about 600 thousand subscribers, and the video collects several million views. He himself says that high recognition makes it possible to conduct business much more efficiently. The stories of Saigin include exclusive cars, expensive horses, business jets - a complete set of oriental business gurus. As a businessman, Saigin built the media strategy very well, making a lot of videos with top international and local bloggers. All this quickly paid off, and today it has high recognition not only at home, but also outside the Emirates.
At SellAnyCar, much is built around Saigin's personality. In particular, the company does not have a marketing director - Saigin himself quite successfully copes with this role. Of course, this is not always justified, but the company's high business performance suggests that its boss is doing everything right. But back to the online auction.
The main office of SellAnyCar looks like this.
This is a huge hangar, next to which there is a parking of purchased vehicles. Sand storms in the Emirates happen quite often, so many cars are covered with a centimeter layer of sand.
By the way, a vehicle inspection in SellAnyCar takes only half an hour. The fact is that the vast majority of cars in the UAE have an understandable purchase and ownership history, which is set out in service books. In Russia, the inspection of any car is deeper and more technologically advanced. Try to guess why.
UAE residents spend most of their time in shopping centers: not only shops are concentrated there, but also a host of the most unexpected entertainments. But the main thing is that it’s cool there, and it attracts local residents and tourists like a magnet. That is why 11 of 16 SellAnyCar branches are located in large shopping centers. Such islands are in all large malls:
It is quite convenient. You can go with the manager to the parking lot to immediately inspect the car and enter the data in the auction sheet. While shopping, your old car will be sold. However, right here, in the mall, you can buy a new one.
The main weapon to attract customers is, of course, the site. He is bilingual (English and Arabic).
The site is fundamentally no different from the sites of other alliance companies, but office service requires a more detailed description.
So, first, the client who wants to file a car receives a ticket, but not simple, but advanced. To do this, on the terminal you need to note your name and surname, the language of communication, as well as the make of the machine. Thus, managers segment customers - in a country where there are more premium cars per capita than anywhere else, this is important.
Next, in the waiting area, you need to fill in several fields on another terminal. This will allow you to more accurately and quickly evaluate the car. Then the inspector of the company begins to inspect and enter the car into the database - everything is like here. After the auction sheet is fully formed, the car is put up for auction, as a result of which the final price is formed.
The entire cycle of car sales in a minute and a half video below:
SellAnyCar has an unusual employee with a position called Skype Closer. He himself is in the central office, but works remotely at once on several points of purchase of cars. Skype Closer is a true Arab merchant from One Thousand and One Nights, fluent in both Arabic and English. His task is to argue the proposed price and convince the client to sell the car, making it so that the client is satisfied. The effectiveness of Skype Closer is quite high - out of 10 car owners, four after talking to him sell a car. The scheme of work via Skype allows more efficient use of a qualified negotiator who is difficult to find on the labor market of any country, including the UAE.
On the one hand, if you look at the map, SellAnyCar has nowhere to grow. The existing 19 points of sale is enough to fully cover the Emirates, and there is no need to expand further, there is only one desert around. But the management of the company does not bother him - in the Gulf there are states close in terms of living to the Emirates. Perhaps, as an experiment, SellAnyCar branches will appear there in the near future.
In conclusion, we offer you a short video - a Russian-language interview with Oscar Hartmann, co-founder of CarPrice, with SellAnyCar CEO Saygin Yalchin:
In addition to Russia and Japan, online auctions included in the Car Buying Alliance group operate in Brazil, India, Nigeria, Mexico, Chile, Pakistan and Indonesia. Among them, the Russian CarPrice is the largest in terms of revenue and the volume of cars sold. Despite the sometimes opposite economic situation in different countries, the business model of online car auctions is successfully conquering the world, and the reason here is mainly in global Internet access and a high level of smartphone penetration. People around the world today want to buy and sell online, and it doesn’t matter what it is - a packet of chips or a car.
Features of the local car market
As you may know, the UAE is a federal state made up of seven emirates. The size of the country is approximately 400 by 500 kilometers, most of the territory is a typical desert, as on Kara Kum sweets.
There are many cars in the UAE, and almost all of them are premium. The safety of the machines is very good - the desert is around, so there is no corrosion on the machines and cannot be in principle. Cars here are sold in excellent condition, with a big discount from the original price and an unimaginable amount of a wide variety of tuning.
Here are such cars in the Emirates are quite common.
Public transport, in our understanding, is when millions of people move daily from point A to point B by bus or metro. There is no such thing in the UAE. In the largest city of Dubai, there are subways and trams, there are even buses, but all this is more exotic. At a price of a liter of gasoline at the level of 20-30 rubles (depending on the level of world prices), a car is the most economical and convenient means of transportation. Here, by the way, is a typical UBER taxi - 2016 Lexus ES. Try to guess the mileage of this machine?
When did she manage to run so much?
Now a little more about the local version of CarPrice
SellAnyCar's business is booming. The company occupies 10% of the used car market (this is a lot for the auto business) and is the largest marketplace in its segment. The reason for success, on the one hand, is the excellent condition of used cars, which are easy to find new owners. The second reason is the high volume of transactions with good margins. The fact is that the indigenous people of the Emirates practically do not work, migrants from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries do all the work for them. Of the nearly 9 million people in the UAE, about 70% are visitors. Going home, these workers get rid of everything “acquired by overwork”, including cars. Online auction allows you to quickly and without worries get rid of the already unnecessary property on wheels. Which, of course, many use. Yes, and how not to use it,
Founder and CEO of SellAnyCar is a German entrepreneur of Turkish descent, a young billionaire Saygin Yalcin.
Saigin is a local media star, his YouTube channel has about 600 thousand subscribers, and the video collects several million views. He himself says that high recognition makes it possible to conduct business much more efficiently. The stories of Saigin include exclusive cars, expensive horses, business jets - a complete set of oriental business gurus. As a businessman, Saigin built the media strategy very well, making a lot of videos with top international and local bloggers. All this quickly paid off, and today it has high recognition not only at home, but also outside the Emirates.
At SellAnyCar, much is built around Saigin's personality. In particular, the company does not have a marketing director - Saigin himself quite successfully copes with this role. Of course, this is not always justified, but the company's high business performance suggests that its boss is doing everything right. But back to the online auction.
The main office of SellAnyCar looks like this.
This is a huge hangar, next to which there is a parking of purchased vehicles. Sand storms in the Emirates happen quite often, so many cars are covered with a centimeter layer of sand.
By the way, a vehicle inspection in SellAnyCar takes only half an hour. The fact is that the vast majority of cars in the UAE have an understandable purchase and ownership history, which is set out in service books. In Russia, the inspection of any car is deeper and more technologically advanced. Try to guess why.
UAE residents spend most of their time in shopping centers: not only shops are concentrated there, but also a host of the most unexpected entertainments. But the main thing is that it’s cool there, and it attracts local residents and tourists like a magnet. That is why 11 of 16 SellAnyCar branches are located in large shopping centers. Such islands are in all large malls:
It is quite convenient. You can go with the manager to the parking lot to immediately inspect the car and enter the data in the auction sheet. While shopping, your old car will be sold. However, right here, in the mall, you can buy a new one.
The main weapon to attract customers is, of course, the site. He is bilingual (English and Arabic).
The site is fundamentally no different from the sites of other alliance companies, but office service requires a more detailed description.
So, first, the client who wants to file a car receives a ticket, but not simple, but advanced. To do this, on the terminal you need to note your name and surname, the language of communication, as well as the make of the machine. Thus, managers segment customers - in a country where there are more premium cars per capita than anywhere else, this is important.
Next, in the waiting area, you need to fill in several fields on another terminal. This will allow you to more accurately and quickly evaluate the car. Then the inspector of the company begins to inspect and enter the car into the database - everything is like here. After the auction sheet is fully formed, the car is put up for auction, as a result of which the final price is formed.
The entire cycle of car sales in a minute and a half video below:
SellAnyCar has an unusual employee with a position called Skype Closer. He himself is in the central office, but works remotely at once on several points of purchase of cars. Skype Closer is a true Arab merchant from One Thousand and One Nights, fluent in both Arabic and English. His task is to argue the proposed price and convince the client to sell the car, making it so that the client is satisfied. The effectiveness of Skype Closer is quite high - out of 10 car owners, four after talking to him sell a car. The scheme of work via Skype allows more efficient use of a qualified negotiator who is difficult to find on the labor market of any country, including the UAE.
On the one hand, if you look at the map, SellAnyCar has nowhere to grow. The existing 19 points of sale is enough to fully cover the Emirates, and there is no need to expand further, there is only one desert around. But the management of the company does not bother him - in the Gulf there are states close in terms of living to the Emirates. Perhaps, as an experiment, SellAnyCar branches will appear there in the near future.
In conclusion, we offer you a short video - a Russian-language interview with Oscar Hartmann, co-founder of CarPrice, with SellAnyCar CEO Saygin Yalchin: