another opportunistic capitalist type

[loco]

Hi Everyone

I (and a partner) am working on a penny auction site for Asian audiences. We are about 60% through (so not enough to show you all yet . I am here to see if i can absorb a bit of wisdom from the rest of you.

Not much else to say, except that I sometimes feels like it is a bit of a crapshoot to open a site. To me, it is a mystery as to why some auction sites succeed in spades and others do not. I am talking about decently-designed sites here, by the way. Any opinions from the experts here?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom imparted!

[togafoot]

Market research, marketing strategy and execution including logistics, operations and technology management.

A good way to address some of the potential gaps in your current plan is to write out a business plan. It will show you where you need focus on. (Different people, different expertise so different gaps for different people).
Plan, plan and plan.. and then strategy.

A few questions to think about, to help you address what you are trying to do.

1) What is your target market?
2) why is this your target market?
3) Does your target market have a need for your service?
4) What pain are you addressing? do you have the numbers to show it?
5) How will you acquire customers from your target market?
6) What will be your estimated customer acquisition cost and how will you fund it?
7) when do you expect to breakeven?
8) What technology do you need to build your concept?
9) Is is scalable? and at what cost?
10) Do you have supplier contracts in place?
11) who handles the logistics and is is scalable?
12) What differentiates your service vs the competition
13) Why should users go to you instead of the competition?
14) What is your value proposition to the user?
15) What are your projected costs broken down into marketing/operations/HR/R&D?
16) How will you measure consumer demand?

etc.. many more questions to think about. If you can answer these questions and convince other people that your answers are believable, then you have a chance.

(No need to answer here, these are just things for people to think about)

[Shenanigans]

Hi Everyone

I (and a partner) am working on a penny auction site for Asian audiences. We are about 60% through (so not enough to show you all yet . I am here to see if i can absorb a bit of wisdom from the rest of you.

Not much else to say, except that I sometimes feels like it is a bit of a crapshoot to open a site. To me, it is a mystery as to why some auction sites succeed in spades and others do not. I am talking about decently-designed sites here, by the way. Any opinions from the experts here?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom imparted!

Loco, all of the questions Toga posted should have been in your business plan. If you have no addressed these, you may want to halt production and finish the business plan first.