QuietGuyInThecorner
Perkone
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Posted - 2009.08.11 19:06:00 -
[1]
Costco Model In EVE
IÆve been mulling this idea in my head for a wile and I would like to share it with you for feedback.
For those who donÆt know, Costco is a wholesale warehouse that requires membership to purchase from them. They charge $50 a year for the ability to shop there and they sell products cheaper the ômarketö and try to cut them lower by selling in bulk.
So my train of thinking on this based on an example of a zealot with fake numbersà
Lets say that producing a zealot costs 80mill and market value is at 120mill netting 40mill a unit. Alternatively, charge someone 100mill a month and then sell it to him or her for 100mill a unit. You still make a per unit profit just not as much with a guaranteed profit of 100mill a month without resource consumption. In addition, any smart consumer will buy enough units to at least break even on the deal. Therefore, you are almost guaranteeing the sales of X units per membership where X allows the customer to break even. In this example that would be at least five zealots per membership.
My thinking originally aligned me with membership on an individual basis but if has also considered running it on a corporation level. Where a corp would pay a membership fee and any member of the corp or the corp itself could benefit, analogues to a Site license.
Issues if found / thought of
-Resellers: Obviously, any smart trader would use this as an opportunity to buy under market and make back the other half of the profit. This is something under this system that canÆt be helped but this can also be seen as a way to guarantee a constant buyer for your goods or you can charge a higher membership fee for those customers proved to be resellers.
-Is the margin worth it? This issue is based on the market prices being to close to the cost of building that splitting the profit to provide under market prices is not enough of an incentive to attract customers. This can be weighted against the significant difference on those products that could support a large price cut and stay above cost. For example sell ammo and drones at market value, cut T1 ships X% and T2 ships Y%, so as the profit margin widens you more a higher % savings to the customer to off set the products you cannot afford to discount.
-Volume on discounted items. With selling things at discount you can expect a large volume and most likely for the more expensive items. Chances are those are the ones that you will not be able to mass-produce as easily. This can be helped by a order queue or by adding additional players to the process.
Finial points (For Now)
Thus would never build at a loss in the sense of a net loss but it will however lose potential profit had you used the market.
I am looking for more or less a think tank discussion. At this point, I am not planning on this turning into any kind of Bond or IPO situation. I just want feed back on the process, concepts, marketability, feasibility, and anything else relating you can think of.
~Thanks Quietguy
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