Is it easy to start an Internet business in the automotive aftermarket?

No matter what industry, it is true that everything is difficult at the beginning!

The automobile industry represents the modernization degree of a nation, and the automobile aftermarket profoundly reflects the consumption potential of a country. The increasing scale of "car owners" in China has brought considerable entrepreneurial opportunities for the automotive aftermarket.

However, the automotive aftermarket is an industry with high professionalism and industry barriers, and it is not an internet entrepreneurial field that can fly only by wings. In this article, Guo looks at the Internet entrepreneurial opportunities in the automotive aftermarket from a simple industry perspective.

Automobile aftermarket: all-inclusive

Automobile aftermarket is all the services around the process of automobile use after automobile sales. The broad classification includes automobile maintenance &; Maintenance, auto beauty, auto finance (auto insurance, auto loan, etc. ), car modification, used car trading &; Rent a car, etc. Even car cultural activities such as auto shows and drivers' associations are considered after-sales. The narrow sense of automobile aftermarket only includes automobile maintenance, repair and beauty, that is, the services that ordinary consumers can provide through "roadside shops", which is also the main battlefield of "automobile aftermarket+Internet" at present.

Simply put, it is all the services that consumers need after the car is sold until it is scrapped. In the official language of news broadcast, it is rich in content and diverse in forms.

▲ The automotive aftermarket classification is incomplete.

Consumer groups: the proportion of people who don't understand cars has increased.

Simply put, the consumer groups in the automotive aftermarket are "car owners", including those who have cars and those who can drive without cars. By the end of June 2006, there were 654.38+84 million passenger cars in China, with 296 million drivers. On average, about 8 people have a car, and on average 1 person can drive. The United States has a population of 300 million and a car ownership of 220 million. In other words, according to the population, the car ownership in the United States is almost 70%.

Cars represent the modernization of a nation and the consumption capacity of a country. According to the data, on the whole, the automobile consumption in China is still in the primary stage. For China people, cars are still "big consumer goods", but in developed countries, cars are just a "tool".

Although from 20 12, the consumption of buying cars in China has increased, and the average age of cars is only about 3.6 years, but the structure of consumer groups has changed a lot. On the one hand, car owners are getting younger and younger. /kloc-in 0/5 years, the proportion of car purchases under the age of 30 was 36%, compared with only 26% two years ago. On the other hand, the proportion of female car owners has accounted for 30%, and women have a qualitative pursuit of the grade and style of cars; Therefore, cars are not necessarily just men's "toys".

There is no doubt that cars are becoming more and more popular in China, but just because you can drive doesn't mean you can drive. The demand of a large number of car buyers is still the demand to improve the quality of life. There must be more and more people who don't know how to drive, so it is impossible to ask them to "know martial arts and be a man." This consumption structure has undoubtedly brought huge business opportunities to the market.

Market overview: professional threshold+chaotic industry

China sells about 20-30 million new cars a year, and a car can be used for several years no matter how it is driven. Like e-commerce, traffic is king, so many cars are not short of market demand, and the market prospect of the automotive aftermarket is definitely trillions.

However, is the automobile aftermarket really that easy to do? The answer is definitely no.

First of all, the automotive aftermarket needs a professional background. When it comes to making cars, more than 30,000 parts of a car have been studied by famous European and American car companies for hundreds of years. From industrial design to process control, mistakes in any link may lead to the tragedy of "car crash". Therefore, safety is the first element of the automobile, which can't be bypassed, which also determines the development style of the automobile aftermarket.

Let's talk about the automotive aftermarket. In the sub-field of automobile maintenance, let's take the most common minor maintenance (oil change+machine filter). If you give an ordinary car owner a bottle of engine oil and machine filter, he will definitely not change it, not only because he lacks professional knowledge, but also because ordinary families do not have professional tools.

Not to mention replacing parts, most car owners in China don't know enough about cars. Many car owners are not even familiar with the function of the center console, and they don't know where the button is when they open the hood. Therefore, the automotive aftermarket is an industry with high professionalism and industry barriers. You can't do it without two brushes, let alone plug in the wings of the Internet.

In addition to the industry itself, according to the classification of automobile industry associations, the automobile aftermarket can be divided into 13- 15 sub-fields, including automobile maintenance, automobile maintenance, automobile modification, automobile beauty, automobile culture and automobile finance. , covering sales, finance, manufacturing, production, logistics and processing. Personally, I feel as rich as the whole Internet industry.

Therefore, the demand for so many segments means that the automotive aftermarket must be complicated and the interests are intertwined. There are two main reasons: on the one hand, these fields need time to settle down and belong to traditional industries; On the other hand, professional barriers between fields are relatively high. Those who know how to repair cars do not necessarily know how to sell, and those who know how to sell do not necessarily know how to sublimate into automobile culture. Take the most common routine maintenance of automobiles, which at least involves engine oil brands, suppliers, parts manufacturers, sellers, offline entity service networks and so on.

Reflected on the consumer side, the water in the automobile aftermarket is deep, fake goods and parallel imports are flying all over the sky, and there are a lot of industry experts. Consumers dare not change accessories to buy fakes. Apart from the lack of knowledge about automobiles and insufficient publicity in the aftermarket, the main reason is that almost no one in this industry dares to say that he is the boss, because this industry is too professional and huge. Indeed, there are no big names in the automotive aftermarket at present, unlike Halfords and AutoZone in Europe and America.

To give the simplest example, the professionalism of roadside auto repair chain stores depends on the level of store technicians on the one hand and the supply channels of accessories and supplies on the other, involving at least two fields. For another example, the principle of car film is the same as that of mobile phone film, but the jargon of "three films and seven films" has both the quality and the level of film.

One more thing, that is, which industries and business models in China will really turn sour, and there is no way. It's characteristic of China ~ ~

Therefore, it is really impossible for any entrepreneur or investor to be an Internet in the aftermarket. The basic qualities needed: enough settling time in the post-market industry+rich accumulation of automobile professional knowledge. Of course, you have to know something about the Internet ~ ~ Hehe ~ ~

What can the Internet solve: convenience+trust.

In recent years, the integration of O2O and online and offline has indeed solved many problems of consumer terminals. We have also seen the automobile aftermarket entrepreneurship in recent years, especially the 15 automobile door-to-door service war. But specialty is specialty, morality is morality, and cars are physical objects, which are also related to the safety of consumers' lives and property.

Therefore, it is not impossible for the automotive aftermarket to participate in the Internet, but it is only a question of who comes first. It is automobile aftermarket+Internet, not Internet plus automobile aftermarket.

It is nothing more than "convenience+trust" to solve the problems brought by the automobile aftermarket with the thinking of the Internet.

Convenience: Really bring convenience to consumers.

The first problem is information asymmetry. Ordinary consumers know little about the after-sales market of automobiles. Moving aftermarket products and services to the internet can really solve some problems, at least standardize prices and products. As a result, many similar platform vendors have emerged, such as Ali Auto, Ali Car Terminal, JD.COM Car Products, and Togo Car Maintenance. "Transparent price+diversified choices" makes more and more car lovers feel very convenient.

In addition to buying some products on these platforms, more and more services have moved to the Internet. For example, Tmall, JD.COM and Togo can choose regular "light services" such as car beauty and car maintenance online. These services are relatively easy to standardize and package. The so-called packaging means that a dirty job can be made fresh, beautiful and delicious, and then consumers only need to choose a service store and go to the store to serve.

Of course, this does not rule out some false propositions. The "door-to-door car wash" that was very popular two years ago was that consumers could have a tricycle to help them wash their cars while sitting at home, no matter whether it was clean or not (to be honest, it was better to write it yourself), which was unreasonable from the perspective of demand alone. Car washing should be regarded as the simplest car service, and it is certainly not particularly urgent. Even if there is a queue to wash the car, it is not impossible to find a place to wash the car for half a day, right? There is no basic consumer demand, let alone convenience.

Secondly, the secondary solution is the problem of consumer experience. This is easy to understand. No matter how much a car costs, it is a consumer product that represents a family's ability. No matter face or lining, no one wants his car to be taken care of.

At the same time, car consumers in China are still brainwashed by 4s stores. No matter what the problem is, entering a 4S store is like opening a safe. Actually, this is not right. 4S has the obligation to help consumers, but many brands of 4S stores regard the obligation as a benefit because they know that consumers don't understand. This is also the reason why the proportion of chain quick repair shops is increasing year by year, because 4S shops have gradually failed to meet the consumer experience, and with the maintenance price of several thousand yuan, no one cares.

Therefore, in the consumer experience, whether the Internet is convenient enough for consumers is a very important standard. Now there are many similar internet companies, for example, helping consumers choose the right auto parts, helping consumers find stores that can provide services and are at the right distance, and helping consumers get time for car maintenance and repair. , are solving this kind of problem.

The last aspect is ideology, which is the so-called spiritual life, including racing culture, modification culture, motorists' association and so on. These are mainly to satisfy consumers' mental problems, because car owners don't exist independently, and they need to communicate and share, and through the Internet platform, such information exchange is quite good, such as car home and auto channel of major portals. It's a pity that car owners in China have known these ideological car cultures before they know some "hard knowledge" about cars, including maintenance, repair and beauty.

Trust: It's not a price war at all.

The most important thing for a car is safety, safety and safety. Without safety, the service packaging in the automotive aftermarket is useless no matter how gorgeous it is, and the price is useless no matter how low it is.

What impressed me the most was the price war of car door-to-door service in 20 15. At that time, many internet car service enterprises were born, including Bopai car maintenance, Carradine, car network, e maintenance and so on. Their core service is to provide daily car maintenance, that is, oil change, machine filter, air conditioning filter element and air filter. Value-added services are some automobile beauty services, including engine compartment cleaning, air conditioning cleaning, vehicle inspection and so on.

At that time, because each family was eager to prove the market value to investors, on the one hand, they explored the city at any cost. Hehe, cities that don't cover the top ten car ownership in China are embarrassed to say that they are entrepreneurs on the Internet; On the other hand, there is a big price war, such as door-to-door maintenance hours from 10 yuan, 1 yuan, free cleaning service, etc. I can't wait to give them directly to consumers.

Let's not talk about the maintenance time (at least 150 yuan for expensive 4S shops). From the point of view of door-to-door expenses, door-to-door maintenance and driving to the door need at least 80 yuan's expenses. This is to get more users in a short time, but such a low price will definitely bring the company a decline in service quality. For example, the number of service personnel has changed from two to one, and at the same time, it has lost the trust of consumers and turned around.

I am glad that this price war was short-lived and ended in several bankruptcies. I am glad that consumers can avoid this "situation". After all, no matter how poor the owner is, he is not willing to make fun of his life.

With trust, there is the second step-quality. The automotive aftermarket is an offline-oriented industry, and consumers must go offline to complete closed-loop services. No matter how much it has to do with the Internet, it cannot be changed.

Then, it can be said that in the automotive aftermarket, no matter which field, offline work can be done well and for a long time. This is really different from internet entrepreneurship in other industries. Unlike making clothes in Celebrity on the Internet, as long as the style is decent, you can spend more energy on fan marketing to get sales. The automotive aftermarket needs real skills to precipitate the final customers. Therefore, in order to be an internet in the automotive aftermarket, besides having a capital budget, the way of thinking must also be changed. Quality first, not quality first. Numerous cases have proved this point.

Speaking of trust, I have to mention 4S stores, whether it is vehicle sales, daily maintenance of cars, car beauty or car clubs. In fact, 4S stores can participate, and they all know how to participate. After all, they have the closest relationship with the car factory, and the car was made by others. Of course they know how to fix it and play.

However, for so many years, whether it is "minor illness and overhaul over-maintenance" in news reports or "car zero ratio" that deceives people, it reflects consumers' distrust of 4S. Think about it, the foreign car zero ratio is about 5 to 1, while in China, the zero ratio of some big car brands (hehe ~ not to mention which ones) can reach 65438+.

Of course, it also reflects that this traditional format needs some changes, and there are definitely entrepreneurial opportunities, but it definitely takes patience and time. China car owners can't always be too expensive to spend, and they dare not buy cheap ones ~ ~

Just like interpersonal communication, trust in the automotive aftermarket needs to be cultivated bit by bit. The so-called trust means not deceiving others, not deceiving others, and not deceiving others. It is true that most car owners in China are not familiar with the aftermarket, but it is also a very good market opportunity. How to make consumers more sticky through the Internet is a problem that post-market Internet entrepreneurs need to consider. But the answer can completely rule out the price. After all, people who can afford a car really don't care so much about paying more, but more about safety.

Thoughts on internet entrepreneurship in automobile aftermarket

Undoubtedly, the internet entrepreneurial space in the automotive aftermarket is definitely huge. After all, there are indeed some problems to be solved in such a large market scale and so many industrial fields in the automotive aftermarket. We should optimize, change and improve the efficiency space through the Internet. Here, I would like to offer some ideas for starting a business for reference only:

Be very focused on a certain field

The automotive aftermarket involves many fields and needs a variety of professional knowledge. There is no absolute boss in this industry at present. In addition, the number of car owners in China is increasing rapidly, and it is in a particularly primary stage. Then, you can consider starting a business in a precise field, such as car clubs, such as daily maintenance of cars, such as popular science interpretation of cars. In fact, these fields are more or less available in the market at present, but they have not developed to the height of entrepreneurship.

Even if you just focus on a certain car brand or a popular model, it is ok. After all, China has a huge number of cars, and China is a "universal car", so it is really difficult for people to adjust.

Focused area

Don't think about how many markets, cities, stores and traffic you have to seize in how long. As mentioned earlier, the automotive aftermarket pays attention to "convenience+trust", which can be achieved overnight, not overnight. It is not easy to gain a foothold in a city, because consumers in the aftermarket must go offline and vote with their feet. In the past two years, there were often many car internet entrepreneurs, and they always said that they would open thousands of stores in a few years. Oh, come on, Sinopec gas station is only about 30 thousand, and people have been doing it for several years

Doing simple things for a long time is victory.

Doing it for a long time is much more difficult than doing it well, because it represents a "craftsman spirit." What China's automobile aftermarket lacks is this spirit. It is very unrealistic to change a field or market without correctly meeting a small demand of consumers. For example, it's hard to imagine that a car maintenance shop can't even do the most common oil change well, let alone paint and repair parts. Therefore, the automotive aftermarket really does not need subversion, but optimization, starting with doing the simplest things.

Go into battle lightly.

We can first consider some aspects that are more suitable for Internet operation, such as car culture, car science popularization, car purchase consultation and so on. On the one hand, internet entrepreneurship in the automotive aftermarket needs time to settle down, on the other hand, internet thinking is most likely to solve the problem of information asymmetry and opacity (except for a PPT car of a large internet car, hehehe).

Finally, what kind of team is suitable for internet entrepreneurship in the automotive aftermarket?

Two points: first of all, know how to love cars: it is hard to imagine how far an entrepreneurial team can go in the aftermarket; Secondly, many years of experience in the automotive industry+diversified knowledge precipitation (including the Internet, profound suggestions).