Business opportunities in the aftermarket
At Second, our ambition is to provide entrepreneurs with the keys to success in an ambitious and innovative business.
Over the past several years, we have had the opportunity to create hundreds of service marketplaces and support companies from extremely diverse backgrounds.
Our experience has enabled us to observe that too many areas of activity suffer from a lack of entrepreneurial initiatives, which represent opportunities to create start-ups.
In this article, we will delve into the opportunity offered by the aftermarket sale of industrial equipment.
The aftermarket is defined as the secondary market, where it is possible to obtain parts, accessories, spare products and services needed after the purchase of a good. It is the services that constitute a source of added value which is still insufficiently exploited by digitalization.
The automotive field is where the aftermarket is the richest and most developed. It has already equipped itself with a number of dedicated platforms.
As with the case of goods, automotive service offers are indexed through a number of platforms.
We would like to extrapolate what is being done there, and show you the numerous business opportunities in the aftermarket thanks to the marketplaces for services related to industrial equipment and machinery.
There are numerous opportunities to create value with machinery, as it is constantly present in our lives both directly or indirectly. Some examples are: elevators, printing machines, ski lifts, warehouse security gates, and melting furnaces.
This type of equipment represents very costly investments for its buyers, because it is usually complex, specific and bulky. Due to their costs, they often have a long life as repairs are more cost effective than replacing the product.
For example, the owner of a building prepares themself for the purchase of an elevator by including the cost of maintenance.
The expenses related to the maintenance of this type of property are often as high or even higher than the original cost itself.
Elevators for example, have an average lifespan of thirty to thirty-five years. During this period, the expenditure involved in complying with safety standards, the cost of normal maintenance, and the cost of repairs following malfunctions all must be taken into account.
There are too few organisations that allow the aftermarket for this type of good to be structured.
Therefore, it becomes fundamental for all those who own such equipment to know where to turn when maintenance or professional repair becomes necessary.
The service marketplace, online appointment, scheduling or booking sites are an adequate solution that meets the need to structure the aftermarket in this vast field. They additionally offer all the advantages that consumers and service providers can expect.
Here are a few examples:
- To begin with, the online service platform creates a unique place where supply and demand can turn. One of the drawbacks of the current market is that you do not always have professional contacts and you do not know where to look. This can be an issue due to lack of knowledge or time in the field.
For example, the network of melting furnace repairs is not the most obvious one to know
The service marketplace offers the advantage of creating a reference meeting point.
The offer then becomes visible and accessible since the platform makes contact between professionals and private individuals more fluid. To do this, the platform has various communication systems including messaging. Your marketplace becomes more than just an online service platform, it also becomes a platform for making appointments online.
- If a person already has a contact providing a service, how can you be sure that the rates charged correspond to the market price? How can we make sure that our service provider offers a quality of service at equivalent to that of the competition?
The online service platform makes the aftermarket healthier. This model makes it possible to put equivalent service providers in direct competition with each other. This space makes the entire range of services on offer public, as well as a certain amount of information like details of the service, pricing, geolocation of the service provider, customer opinions, etc.
This exposure makes it possible to regulate supply and ensure market prices.
On the provider side, there are also a number of advantages to integrating into the marketplace of your sector of activity:
→ Greater visibility among prospects
→ Access to information from the competition: possibility of adapting one’s offer
→ Digitalizes the provider’s offer (if not already done)
Finally, on the operator’s side, i.e. the platform manager, a service marketplace’s main asset is its flexibility and adaptability.
A young entrepreneur wanting to create an online appointment scheduling site or an online booking site does not have to come from the sector of activity in which he or she is starting out.
The main job is the management of: service providers and service seekers.
Moreover, the marketplace format allows its operator to adapt to changes in the sector, necessary strategic changes, or any other change that may occur. Service platforms have the huge advantage of modifying their functions in just a few clicks, and adapting to whatever happens.