Make a C2B product that I've encountered in the pit

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Our business model comes from the first case of moving. Graduating from school, you need to move from one place in New York to another. He looked for 5, 6 movers, and each company offered a very different offer. Why move the same thing, each company's offer is different? Why as a buyer, a person who spends money, but need to around, otherwise it can not be cheap?

So the birth of our most primitive business model: "The buyer put forward demand, let the merchant to bid."

Standardization of Services is the first issue

Our idea is that this model will reduce the cost of getting customers (because the buyer wants to ask for it). At the same time, let the merchant bid can guarantee the buyer to obtain a good deal automatically.

The first thing we thought was that the buyer could ask for anything. Actually began to build the site when found that the requirements of service classes involved in quality problems, difficult to standardize. For a non-standard product, it is difficult for the merchant to estimate its cost and therefore cannot bid on it. So we removed all the service requirements, allowing only buyers to demand the product.

Soon after this change, we found another problem. Products are also divided into old and new, for old products, although the demand is quite large, but the merchant still cannot identify its new and old degree, so can not bid. If forced to push old products, it is inevitable that buyers and sellers will need to confirm and communicate with each other in the end, only to make another Craigslist.

By this time, we basically set down only to do brand new products, at least in the short term, completely abandon the service class and the old products, focus on new products.

Find a balance between the user and the merchant

The 1th edition of our model is: Reverse Auction mode: the buyer put forward the demand, the merchant bid Rob single. This version of the design is very simple and rough, is a buyer to ask for the interface, similar to Google. Buyers for a certain category of products to ask for a demand, and then the merchant bid so.

This version has not been completely done to kill. The reason for the revision: A person's demand is too small, the merchant simply lazy to speak. The need for a single person is too small for a group of people to be able to refuse. So the second edition has become a public-raised shopping model: everyone together to ask for the demand, the merchant bid Rob single.

The core process in this mode has three parts: "buyer group", "Merchant bidding" and "the docking system of the buyers and sellers". The behavior of the user is also divided into three steps:

The main problem is to focus on the first step, which is to set the group conditions. Specifically, we tried 2 scenarios:

Group plan One: According to the time to organize and bid, this time limit users can adjust. This version of the use of the time found that the dealer price is based on the number of buyers. And for buyers, to obtain a good deal is the premise of how many businesses Rob single, so the number of groups and bid number of pieces added to it is necessary.

Group plan two: according to the minimum number/time to organize a group, according to the lowest bid business number/time to bid.

Users are always lazier than you think.

The second version of the system is complex, asynchronous auction, at will allow users to change a variety of group conditions, the merchant also has a inventory system, there is an automatic bidding trigger conditions, real-time inventory. Unfortunately, because the system is too complicated, even their own people need training to use, do not say ordinary users. Have to, again revision.

The third version of the development, drawing on the previous 2 versions of the feedback, try to significantly simplify the buyer group and business bidding process, completely removed the concept of the delegation period and tender period. To buyer demand, the other buyers can be added at any time, businesses can also tender, as long as there is a minimum number of business bids, then the entire regiment immediately end. This change, the time to open a regiment only need to set the minimum standard number is good, is this appearance.

This version has just been used for some time, and found that it is so difficult to find a merchant bid. Often only a merchant bid, so the first step to set the minimum number of bid into a device, it is better to simply remove.

However, the second step shipping there or ask users to choose to make a choice, that is, by mail or by themselves, according to the user's choice, the system will automatically determine whether the whole paragraph or only the seizure of gold. Most users go to this step by using the default option (the famous preference theory) and do not change it. This appeared several times, a phone card 20来 block of money, the user has chosen to pay the way, the result system only buckle to a U.S. knife deposit.

To solve this problem, we simply force the tax and shipping values to be 0. At the same time, remove let the user choose to mail or take, change the system according to the product type automatically calculate deduction amount. This change, the process of the mission is basically the same as the traditional shopping process, ease of use has been greatly improved.

Docking with third party platforms makes people mad.

Prepayment mode is the buyer and the group must use credit card as collateral, once the group is automatically deducted money. This module has just been used for a few days and the bank has stopped our payment pass, saying it is to prevent fruad. This is only thousands of yuan. This credit card gateway application is easy, hard to write a bunch of docking code, said shut off.

Unable to collect, temporarily change to collect PayPal, even offline income and expenditure tickets. But only after a few regiment, the problem came again. Because the buyer does not require advance, some buyers at random and then free to regret. And a group of friends from Beijing and the United States. Business more annoyed, according to 10 people vote, the last actually bought only, 3, 5 people, the business said this can not play.

After countless efforts, wrote n email, played n phone, Braintree Sales finally understand our business model, approved our credit card port. So we reopened the advance of the group, and there was a small improvement. That is to give the product in the choice of shipping, you can choose to mail or by type. For mailing products We withhold the entire paragraph, for the products, we only need to pay a deposit. In short, toss to toss to go, art, development, sales all the processes are all back to get.

So much has been said before, just a process of change in the process of our group. In addition to the group, there is the bidding process, as well as backstage buyers and sellers of the docking system, and the site's positioning, patterns and design, are constantly evolving.

Everyone in the team is the first time to start a business, the typical ideal but inexperienced, so take a detour a little bit more. The beginning of the product, an angel investor told me that a good product is a simple and easy-to-use product. At that time, as a long-term fruit powder, I thought this sentence understood thoroughly, because simple and easy always is also I agree with the idea. But actually a lap to do, experienced a from simple to complex, and then from the complex regression simple cycle only to discover, this sentence really score it. Let's share it for you.