ONLINE real estate multimedia firm aussiehome.com has added another string to its bow with the launch of a division targeting the boating market.
ONLINE real estate multimedia firm aussiehome.com has added another string to its bow with the launch of a division targeting the boating market.
The Nedlands-based firm has taken its existing business model, currently being used for real estate agents, and applied it to boat brokers.
Using the aussieboats.com.au system, boat brokers will be able to add and update boat details and photos online, order products, check hits and enquiries, manage their own clients, and print brochures.
Updates to the aussieboats.com.au site will also update brokers’ own web sites instantly.
aussiehome.com director and co-founder Charlie Gunningham said while these services were already available for real estate agency customers through aussiehome.com, the update functionally would be available to aussieboats.com.au customers in the next six months as the final touches were added to the system.
In addition to boats, aussieboats.com.au will provide an online portal for the sale of parts, supplies and boating accessories.
aussiehome.com partnered with Richard Kelso-Marsh, who has developed a system called Boat Base.
Mr Gunningham approached Mr Kelso-Marsh with the idea of transforming the Boat Base concept into aussieboats.com.au and the system was rebuilt using aussiehome.com technology.
Using established systems, aussiehome.com expects to absorb the additional work of aussieboats.com.au under its current operations without the need to employ additional staff.
Mr Kelso-Marsh will retain a 10 per cent interest in aussieboat.com.au.
Mr Gunningham said the market was ripe for an online boat sales portal as consumers increasingly were window shopping online, but many boat brokers remained unfamiliar with e-commerce.
“The direction that we are going is where you integrate all business functions so it becomes a business system, not just a web site,” Mr Kelso-Marsh said.
Mr Gunningham expects the company’s expansion into the boat market to be slightly easier than its initial foray into the real estate market.
Mr Gunningham said the no contract, flat annual fee model provided an obligation-free concept to boat brokers. It was a concept that had already proven successful in the real estate industry through aussiehome.com.
Launched in 1999, aussiehome.com started life with seven real estate agency clients and 70 properties, and about 20 site visitors per day.
The company now has 117 agency clients, mainly in Western Australia, and displays about 4,500 properties that attract up to 6,500 site visitors daily.
