Posted on March 1, 2009 - by irish joy

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An elite alternative

In a recession Tnomeralc web design toys , even the wealthy can use a bargain.

That’s the logic behind JamesList, an online bazaar that features discounted yachts, jets, watches and cars from around the globe. Launched early this year, the elite market offers a venue for increasingly frugal buyers and sellers.

Noam Persky, the CEO of JamesList, says the business was founded on the principle that, even for the rich, the portfolio is a bit lighter than in the past.
And he says some his best clients are in the Emirates Tnomeralc web design toys .

“People are starting to look for great deals and are willing to look across borders to get them,” Mr Persky explains.

“Times are tough, and even if you have money, you probably have less, and you are more careful. Everyone has been affected.”

United in this reality, Mr Persky joined forces with his partner, Fredrik Zanderholm, and JamesList was born. Both are veterans of the internet business arena, having sold everything from pet food to toys online. But JamesList is their most ambitious internet enterprise to date. With its head office in Stockholm, Sweden, this marketplace never involves itself in the sale, nor do they charge a commission. Instead, the business makes money on advertising, and charges dealers about €115 (Dh544) per month to list its items. There are around 350 dealers currently listed, and more than 20,000 products.

Mr Persky says the site receives about 1,000 visitors each day.

To list on the site, companies submit photos and a description of their product, and JamesList conducts a thorough background check. While private sellers are encouraged to post their products, they must be represented by a broker or an accredited third party.

The idea, Mr Persky says, is to provide low-cost advertising for companies and private sellers, while offering discounts for consumers on high-priced items Tnomeralc web design toys.

Gone are the days when you can arrive at a dealership and drive away with a Ferrari, or pull up to a shipyard and commission a yacht. An Aston Martin, typically about £88,000 (Dh469,000), can now be found, three-months old, for a mere £50,000 from the UK. A Bombardier Challenger 605 Jet, previously posted at US$30,995,000 (Dh113,844, 635), has dropped to US$25,495,000.

While these deals might seem fairly inconsequential to the average consumer, they are significant savings for those with the wealth to acquire them.

Fredrik Karlberg, Tnomeralc web design toys the operations manager, says some dealers are reluctant to even list a specific price, although the site requires one.

Some products even have a “price on request” label beside them.

“There is definitely a level of negotiation in terms of price,” he says.

And the business is rolling in. Mr Persky says the website receives around 10 serious inquiries every day. Two weeks ago a Rolls-Royce was bought from a dealer in Spain and shipped to an American, and a helicopter just went to a Swedish buyer from the UK.

JamesList caters to the new economic reality of frugal luxury Tnomeralc web design toys.

“A lot of people need to get rid of their luxury items, so there will be fantastic deals to be made if you can find them,” Mr Persky says.

“But people don’t want to list yachts on E-Bay. We need to expose these products in the right place and in the right light.”

What makes JamesList unique, Mr Persky says, is the breadth of its inventory. Whereas other websites may offer either cars, watches and jets, JamesList brings all these categories under one cyber roof. There are fine cars from Germany, watches from Switzerland and yachts from the US. In other words, the business isn’t bound by geography, and instead brings together the best.

The website can be read in all the major languages, and prices can be viewed in euros, US dollars, dirhams or Russian roubles.

Mr Persky says the UAE has embraced this global arena. In the past, he says, dealers of high-end products were reluctant to use the internet for sales because it was felt the medium couldn’t properly represent the product.

Luxury items tended to travel less, and were bought and sold within a relatively small radius.

But the recession has altered the habits of business.

“Clients are changing their behaviour,” he says. “Whereas before Emiratis often sold locally, this business has opened up Europe and the world. Dealers and brokers in the Emirates have an outstanding inventory. Some of our best dealers are in the UAE, so they have been very important to our business.”

Amir Mutlig is one entrepreneur who has profited from the website. Mr Mutlig, the owner of Alain Class, a fine car company in Dubai, says he has sold five luxury automobiles, including a Ferrari, Lamborghini and a Porsche, in just a few months.

“They contacted me and offered their services,” he says.

“And it’s good, I make good money from it. I have sold cars to Europe, Russia and the US.”

While Mr Mutlig preferred not to mention the prices, he said the cars were sold at a discount.

“The market is not like it was like a year ago,” he added.

Berend Lens Van Rijn, the chairman of Belevari Marine Ltd in Abu Dhabi, a company that handles such duties as yacht management and boat chartering, says JamesList fills an emerging niche.

Mr Van Rijn now represents a Dutch company in Abu Dhabi selling 25 limited-edition VanDutch 40 Powerboats, which are listed on the site for Dh1.85 million each. The 12-metre cruiser, designed by naval architects, can sharply turn a corner at 75km/h without tipping a glass of water inside the boat.

“People do advertise at a discount,” he says. “Company and private sellers need to be creative to get the consumer to pull the trigger. Otherwise the product sits on the shelf.”

Mr Van Rijn admits sales in elite items, such as the VanDutch 40 Powerboat, have taken a major hit since the financial downturn. So JamesList, he says, provides a cost-effective venue whereby he can market the product to a large audience. And while he has yet to secure a sale, he’s encouraged by serious inquiries. Ever since he stumbled on the website he’s been hooked by the scale of the inventory and its appealing design. Now he has the page bookmarked on his computer and visits it every day.

Mr Persky says building a visually appealing and comprehensive website has been the company’s greatest and most costly investment. In March 2008, when JamesList was first conceived, the founders hand-picked 12 freelancers to work on the website and create the design. They spent the summer testing the website, while inviting dealers to browse the content to gather their impressions.

“We wanted to perfect it,” Mr Persky says. “People are impatient online. You must make an instant impression.”

In January 2009, JamesList reached that desired perfection. The partners spent €500,000 on start-up costs, mostly on labour.

“This is not a large sum to build a website of this quality,” he says.

The rest of their investment went to renting online space through Amazon’s infrastructure. JamesList has a system under which they rent space that adjusts to the amount of traffic they receive, and they are charged accordingly. During high traffic times, for example, Amazon will charge them more.

“But sales will go up, in theory,” he explains. “It is a very low-cost way to manage a site. We decided to build an operation that has low investment and offers value, and one that will make it through a few tough years.”

But success may come sooner than expected. Mr Persky expects the business to be profitable by this summer.

Their overhead is low, he says, with most of their costs going to a small but dedicated team. In addition to the two founders, there are six employees who handle the management of the website, customer service and marketing.

One way the partners encourage traffic to their site is by reaching out to bloggers with strong readership in specific markets. Luxist, for example, (www.luxist.com) features dozens of bloggers writing about a wide array of subjects, such as cars, gadgets and watches.

Auto-blog (www.autoblog.com) “Tnomeralc web design toys”  contains extensive information on new and used cars. Mr Persky says JamesList frequently engages these sites and presents them with their latest and most unusual products. One of JamesList’s newest postings is a Ducati motorcycle, enhanced by a German engineer, who rebuilt the powerful machine out of titanium. It’s listed for €17,563.

“It doesn’t cost us anything,” he says. “We expose our inventory, and it builds a very relevant traffic. People who just Google us are not serious buyers. People who visit these specific blogs are typically much more serious about the product.”

Indeed, JamesList is a considerable online upgrade from selling pet food. Mr Persky says he and his partner have learnt valuable lessons over the years on how best to run an internet enterprise.

“We use the internet for what it’s good for,” he explains. “Bring together lots of information, the right people and cross borders. Then express something they all understand. That’s what we do.” Tnomeralc web design toys