BY aarrieta
In 1999 we founded together with Anibal Sánchez I-Solution which mission was to provide the tools for the gold fever that Internet represented. Those tools were mainly ecommerce solutions, technological development, hosting and connectivity.
Initially, after renting offices, applying for the data provider and connection links permit and hiring the first employees, we tried to define the products. The first approach was as an ISP. But then the market valued more the portals than the infrastructures companies and the ISPs.
With this approach and the mission of providing a tool in our minds, we set up OK-Compra, the first Shopping Mall in Latin America (before than IRSA). At OK-Compra the companies rented a store in our mall and third party the technological development (since we had it already developed and packaged), collecting and payment operations (we were the first multi-brand in Argentina to have a payment method homologated with credit cards, before than decider.com) and handling the goods. We were in charge of the pick up, product consolidation and delivery. All of this in exchange of a sales commission. It doesn’t look like a good business, does it?
We had different stores from Garbarino, Compumundo, Cassio, Paddle Watch, 33flowers and other 17 brands.
The problem was that there weren’t more than 3 sales per day. So we tried to put together weekly promotions and sales such as “only today” to push the demand and that helped.
In the year 2000 we also developed a wap solution so sales could be made through cell phones and to take advantage of including the site in the menus of the main cell phone service providers, who wanted to boost the service but didn’t have the content to do it. The service might be very good, but if almost nobody used to buy over the Internet it was less likely that they would do it over the cell phone. Even today it sounds too avant-garde, that probably nobody would buy anything today.
Timing on a project is very important. You shouldn’t be too forward because there is no market only early adopters and you shouldn’t be too behind, because there is a high competition and little margin.
At this moment this solution was only good to be in the cover of the magazine Information Technologies, in the issue that talked about m-Commerce (mobile Commerce). Through that magazine I met the person who is today my wife.
You never know where repayment for some actions may come from.