Estonian start-up entrepreneurs are launching a new site called Inventory.com. Its goal, to gather in one place millions and millions of technology products made in Europe with manuals, blueprints, measurements, inventory, and order and price information.
The platform is developed by Kristjan Hiiemaa, founder of business software Erply, and Sander Sebastian Agur with Tanel Tähepõld. Working in a development office in Tallinn’s Old Town, these young guys have a clear vision, to become Europe’s Alibaba.
Founder Kristjan Hiiemaa explained the benefits, “Our solution will numerate all industrial components available in stock. For example, if anyone wants to repair their car’s fuel pump, then our site will show them all the components of the pump and automatically allow people to purchase necessary parts. It’s even more helpful when someone needs help finding parts for complex solutions, like robots.”
There’s huge potential that prices will drop for customers, especially in Estonia, where purchase volumes are low and dozens of European dealers have driven up the prices of industrial components.
“For some reason the prices of big sellers like K-Rauta or Würth are unreasonably high. We expect to offer many parts at least 50% cheaper. With larger orders the shipping cost are also likely to be closer to zero,” emphasized Hiiemaa. At the same time small Estonian warehouses are miserably stuck with stock that doesn’t sell. Inventory.com will make it move faster.
Inventory.com already has pre-agreements with many major suppliers and traders who are interested in displaying their products and integration with the site. The environment is likely to launch at the beginning of next year, in January-February. By then nearly 5 million different products should be available.
In Estonia engineering makes 25% of the production, but the supply chain of local companies is completely invisible. “It’s complicated for new players to enter the market because they don’t even know who to turn to with their production,” explained Kristjan Hiiemaa.
Everybody is outsourcing their nuts and bolts from major European suppliers such as Würth, but in fact there are far better dealers in Estonia, even among Erply’s customers. Despite everyone having their own niche, it’s still possible to step heavily on big player’s toes when joining all together. In short, the plan is to make smaller niche suppliers more visible.
“We urge all Estonian manufacturers to contact us. If there’s a Vastse-Kuuste company making the world’s best hydraulic cylinders, then our site may prove to be an ideal channel to reach German market, ” added Hiiemaa.
The greatest challenge in this area is searching and finding necessary items, it’s extremely complex. “We will try to provide a solution that allows all manufacturers to insert their product parameters as precisely as possible,” noted Hiiemaa.
In conclusion, a database or directory of technical articles from varnishes and lacquers, screws and nuts to table legs, lightning, hydraulics and pumps is being created.
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