Analysis of competing organizations reveals that it will be possible to be the first high-quality replacement parts site. Of the organizations that sell parts, most typically are limited to a single niche. Overwhelmingly, those organizations sell auto parts. Investigation has revealed that a significant fraction of these sites are typically homespun, unfunded enterprises. Additionally, none of these sites have established themselves as recognized name in their respective categories. ACME PARTS.com’s model of combining free, useful content, a comprehensive searchable database, a vast range of product categories and a friendly, intuitive user interface will make us a stand out in the market we have selected. We have an excellent opportunity to establish ACME PARTS.com as a leader in replacement parts and accessories.

Our investigation includes e-tailers in categories other than appliance parts. While we will open with appliance parts, we intend to rapidly expand our offerings. Therefore we consider potential competitors in areas we anticipate to expand.

Review of domain names in the genre reveals one organization that rolled out a site in June of 1999, PARTS.COM. While they have addressed the niche of replacement parts, their approach is the auction and classified ad metaphor. A recent press release indicates that they intend, in early 2000, to roll out a product sales site built upon a database of auto parts. This site currently lacks any database, if they do deploy a database related sales model, then at that point there business model will be similar to ours. However, they have selected auto parts for their roll out. This product line is a competitive category and made even more difficult because it competes unfavorably with brick and mortar establishments. The language and claims made in their press release calls into question the professionalism and capability of the organization to achieve their goals. For example they support the claim "Parts.com is positioned to be the front runner in the e-commerce parts industry" by virtue of email they have received.

EPARTS.COM is owned by Mentor Graphics for purposes unrelated to what the name might suggest. Additionally, the domain is not in use by that organization and should be an early target for acquisition.

PARTSCOUNTER.COM is in use in a single product niche and not done particularly well.

SERVICE911.COM is a thorough site relating to all aspects of maintaining and operating a PC. They have a knowledge base, video how-to, they handle emailed technical questions and a variety of other features. They do sell some advertising as well as selling technical service calls to local service providers. Their links to sales though do not include a database of items from which to choose, instead they link off-site to one of several other companies. Their knowledge database allows you to specify a search but then does not list the details of possible matches, forcing a visitor to blindly check each one. Furthermore, the knowledge base is actually only forwards a ZDNET page to the visitor. The problem with this forwarding is that the look and feel of the site and interface consistency is completely lost. The only worthwhile feature of this site is their video demonstrations, a feature that we have also planned to utilize.

EHOW.COM is a content oriented site with links to various subscribed vendors. While this at first blush appears to tread on ACME PARTS territory, further analysis finds that the coverage of "How To" articles ranges broadly and covers very limited subjects. Furthermore, the links to independent vendors results in no consistency between sales models and user interface. EHOW.COM generates income by selling subscription links to independent vendors. It is an interesting model with some similarity to ACME PARTS, but does not represent a threat to our goals or uniqueness.

Other domain names often revealed no web site or extremely amateurish sites. None of the domains seemed to pose any threat to our field.

Investigation of appliance part sites revealed no site that was able to offer parts for sale on-line. Typically, the sites catered to appliance repair workers to order parts that they already knew the part number and price. In most cases these sites were poorly executed, lacked features and in all cases were unable to electronically transact a sale.

One organization, REPAIRNET.COM, offers to include parts and repair specialists in a national database of local businesses. Additionally, they sell subscription to appliance repair and troubleshooting content for inclusion in local websites. While the concept is good, the execution is poor. However, consideration may be given to purchasing the content and upgrading it to meet our standards.

Because of the number of sites that exclusively retail auto parts, this category should be. Instead, auto parts should be added when ACME PARTS has developed a leadership position in the marketplace. Ideally, ACME PARTS should take up this category only when it is possible to come in and dominate on-line sales. Finally, because of the potential for a national parts distributor to take up on-line sales, it would be best to make our investment only after we determine that we can dominate.

Computer parts are widely available on-line. However, most organizations focus primarily on whole systems and peripherals. Parts such as network cards; controllers, power supplies etc. are under served or ignored by the largest sites such as GIGABUYS.COM and other E-tailers. While we do face competition, because of the demand of the on-line community for computer parts and because of the principles' familiarity with them, it seems a natural category for the early expansion.

Another area of early expansion is toner and ink for copiers and printers. While major suppliers such as Staples, Office Depot and Office Max each offer these products, there is still plenty of opportunity. There is minimal overhead to developing this product category and thus little risk despite the competition. Furthermore, those competitors do not offer a full range selection, but instead offer the most common varieties of products. Opportunities exist for us to provide features to customers that our competitors do not offer.

We have asked several beta testers to go out on the Internet and find various things such as washing machine motors, crock pot lids, pilot light thermal probes and TV remote controls. They reported that they couldn’t locate these things. ACME PARTS.com will change that.