How We're Building an Easier Car Selling Service
Hello, my name is Jurgis Plikaitis and I am the co-founder of EpiCar. Our used car marketplace connects automotive dealers with private car sellers.
For dealers, we provide used vehicles of the highest quality as an extra inventory source. For private owners, we create a user-friendly space where selling a car would be as easy as taking a photo and uploading it on the website.
We started EpiCar in October 2023, and at the moment we are primarily focused on building our dealer base. Thus, we currently don’t make any profit yet, but I am sure we are on our way to profitability.
EpiCar was born to provide an easy and transparent car selling experience.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I’ve been in the automotive industry for quite a while. It was my deep-rooted interest in cars that inspired my career path in this field. This passion for automobiles has been the driving force behind my journey in the industry.
It all started with founding A Better Bid, an online car auction marketplace, and then became a co-founder of EpicVIN and AutoInspect. At EpicVIN, we are providing car buyers and car dealers with high quality vehicle history reports, accessible in a convenient subscription way. For a monthly fee, clients can get an unlimited number of reports. Single reports are also available for those who don’t want a subscription.
And at AutoInspect, as the name suggests, we specialize in providing thorough auto inspections.
My team and I have always focused on the customer and tried to provide them with what they needed the most.
During these years in business, I have personally interacted with a lot of dealers. From those interactions, I found out that most dealers struggle with sourcing high-quality inventory.
On the other hand, private car sellers should have the convenience of being able to quickly sell their cars without the hassle of visiting multiple dealerships. It hit me that we could solve both of their problems with one marketplace where sellers could list their vehicles and dealers could bid on them in a familiar auction way.
This realization was the “aha” moment for me. In a few months, EpiCar was born to provide an easy and transparent way of car selling experience.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Our startup is just at the beginning of its long journey.
We’ve taken a good amount of time to validate our idea. We conducted a thorough analysis of the automotive industry, identifying specific pain points for both dealers and private car sellers.
Additionally, we engaged in discussions with dealerships to understand their inventory sourcing challenges and with private sellers about their selling experiences.
We’ve interviewed about 100 dealers to find out what they would like to see on the platform, we’ve explored the market and the current trends and demands.
In our research, we identified the dominance of large companies like Carvana and Carmax in the automotive industry. This dominance often leaves smaller dealerships struggling to find quality inventory. Recognizing this challenge, our team at EpiCar was inspired to create a solution.
After the fundamental analysis, we spent a significant amount of time designing the website and testing our idea.
A few months later, EpiCar was set in motion. We have been working on building our client base and spreading the word about our marketplace from that moment on.
Describe the process of launching the business.
As soon as the website was ready, we opened dealer registration. We joined the Independent Dealer Associations of Florida, New York, California, and Texas (the largest dealer associations in the States) to have more interactions with dealers and better understand their needs.
We’ve started our marketing activities, including email marketing, interviews, radio shows, and articles in digital publications. We chose those channels drawing on our previous experience of communicating with dealers.
We discovered that there are some dealer communities that we can join and advertise in there as well as place articles on automotive/dealer websites. Moreover, most dealers are subscribed to automotive newsletters where they get all the industry updates so we used this too. It all resulted in an influx of registrations on the website.
Currently, our priority is to onboard dealers and offer them complimentary registration. Once we've established a solid base of registered dealerships, we'll start granting access to vehicles. Our approach to attracting private sellers involves multiple strategies, ensuring they have a ready market of dealers on the platform for a swift vehicle sale. Building a robust dealer client base is our first step.
EpiCar was launched in October 2023, and we haven't reached the desired number of registrations yet. However, we do understand that it’s only been 3 months and there's still much ahead. If you’re a dealer, we’d be happy to see you on board!
In every business you need to stay customer-oriented. Is it the core of launching a business, and the better you understand the client, the better fitting solution you give them, and the more you succeed as an entrepreneur?
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
The things that worked the most in attracting customers were SEO, partnerships, and email marketing.
We devoted a lot of attention to partnering with dealer associations, working with automotive journalists, and sending newsletters. Below you can see some of the press releases, email blasts, social media posts, and articles.
Email marketing:
Social media sponsored posts:
Press releases:
Radio:
Interviews:
Our most successful campaigns so far were a post on Auto Remarketing and an advertisement in one of ASOTU’s daily email blasts.
Article written by Auto Remarketing Staff:
ASOTU’s Daily Pushback:
We are also devoting a lot of attention to SEO. Moreover, one of the things we are about to do is to conduct a webinar for dealers where we will give useful recommendations about inventory sourcing.
One thing that I know for sure is that in every business you need to stay customer-oriented. Is it the core of launching a business, and the better you understand the client, the better fitting solution you give them, and the more you succeed as an entrepreneur.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
As I mentioned, we are new players in the game. High sales and profit are still in store for us but we are certain that staying true to what you believe and making every effort to give your best to the client is a road to success.
Our service is currently at no cost.
All used car dealers are welcome to join EpiCar for free and to receive a commission free discount for their first car purchase. What we also offer for dealers is the possibility to claim a 25-mile radius around the dealership and get priority notifications as soon as there is a new car for sale in the chosen area.
For a seller, there is also no fee for uploading their vehicle and receiving dealer offers.
The short term goal for EpiCar at the moment is to onboard as many dealers as possible and to have dealers make their first car purchases through our marketplace.
If we speak about long term goals… Well, the current market situation is such that most inventory is already claimed by large companies, making it increasingly challenging for smaller dealerships to find high-quality vehicles.
Despite the challenges, we saw an opportunity to make a real difference for smaller dealerships that were struggling against larger companies. We recognized the potential to disrupt the status quo by providing these dealers with easier access to diverse and high-quality inventory. This vision was not just about entering a market; it was about changing it for the better.
Our goal is to establish ourselves as a reputable source of inventory while also providing a hassle-free way for individuals to sell their cars by simply uploading them online.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Our main obstacle has been fully immersing ourselves in the market and putting in extensive efforts to gain a deep understanding of it.
The most important thing I realized while creating EpiCar is how crucial it is to have people who share your vision and can be relied upon. The lesson I learned is the significance of a team in bringing any idea to life.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We use HubSpot for customer service, email marketing, etc. It is a convenient tool as it provides a comprehensive suite of tools covering marketing, sales, and customer service, all in one place.
For advertising, of course, we use Google Ads, Instagram Ads, and Facebook Ads because these platforms offer unparalleled reach and targeting capabilities.
We also use Google Analytics to track and analyze our website traffic, understand user behavior, and gauge the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Among books, I can recommend "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries. I liked it for its emphasis on agility and innovation in business development. That’s the only one I can recall as I haven’t been quite a reader lately.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
As mentioned above, this is all about being client-oriented. This means deeply understanding your customers' needs, preferences, and pain points. From the very beginning, make it your mission to know who your clients are and what they truly value.
This focus on putting the client at the center of everything you do, from developing products to marketing and providing customer service, is essential.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
At the moment, our team at EpiCar is fully staffed and we are not currently looking to fill any positions.
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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