This decade has mapped the peaks and troughs within the ever-expanding Rideshare market. Forward thinking entrepreneurs, such as the creators of Uber, have developed new vistas within the urban everyday and luxury travel industry globally. Whereas Poparide, a national Canadian carpooling app, has helped to navigate the tricky terrains of British Colombia, and country wide, as a less expensive, more comfortable alternative to coach and rail travel. However, I’ll show you how to start a rideshare company with easy ways.
Why Has Ridesharing Become So Popular?
Ridesharing has become more and more popular throughout the past five years as the general consensus and needs of people continue to change. A main factor would have to be through its convenience, having an app to which one can easily navigate, get a fast response from many potential drivers and real time updates in a number of minutes is very advantageous.
Another success factor of ridesharing would have to be its cost; a rideshare app is usually far cheaper than the traditional taxi services and not far from most of the first worlds enormous public transportation cost increases. Rideshare culture has changed the way people think about travelling and has increased the ability of all to get where they need to go, when they need to go and how they want to go.
Developing A Successful Marketing Strategy
A key success factor in the saturated rideshare market of 2020 will be to discover and develop your niche. As this market grows so does ones opportunity to diversify and redefine the market, increasing its potential.
Uber have diversified into the lucrative food delivery market with Uber Eats. Whilst this helps to increase their fleet’s usage and allows for an increase in jobs within the company, this also creates brand allegiances between brands and with their potential customer base.
They offer discounted food codes and free delivery dependant on a customers usage of their services. By working with large chains exclusively, such as McDonalds, they are able to develop a loyalty with their customers. By making the process of having your favourite foods easier, both brands ultimately gain not only in profit, but also through customer satisfaction.
Conversely, some companies choose to focus upon the environmental benefits of ridesharing. Considering the current focus on climate change a company such as GreenCar acts as an ethical platform to help customers reduce their carbon footprint. They offer free marketing and brand exposure through their social media channels and encourage safe, eco-friendly alternatives to travel.
Deciding Upon Which Type Of Rideshare Company You Will Create
To decide upon the type of rideshare app you create really starts with what kind of audience you hope to attract. Will your app target commuters and working professionals, do you hope to tap into the market of bigger families and larger gatherings, or a more socialising and party-dweller audience.
Segmenting and targeting a specific group in the first instance will increase traction within such as saturated market. In London alone there are over 5 well-known apps to choose from, alongside a myriad of taxi firms and local taxi branches to adhere to the capitals needs.
The American company Lyft came into the game as a low-cost alternative to conventional and expensive travel across the west coast, a strategy that enabled them to take off continent wide. In England Uber offer NHS workers free rides, and meals with Uber eats, over Christmas to tap into the wider commuter and working market whilst improving their corporate social responsibility achievements.
So will you become an online platform for drivers to use, post their planned trips or daily routes and generate revenue through site usage, driver percentage cuts or subscription to your offerings. Does a App based Rideshare company, like Lyft, Uber or Bolt seem a more appropriate business model, you hire drivers and offer both the customer and staff and app based interface to book and schedule trips. It could be that the old fashioned Taxi model is needed in certain rural areas across the globe, offering customers a standardised model of booking and scheduling travel over the phone and having a few full time staff working for you.
Developing a Rideshare App
Looking into the future of ridesharing in 2020 developing a usable and easy to navigate app or platform to run your ridesharing company from would be a beneficial focus for success. This step could take months, if not years, of prototyping and perfecting. Naturally, this could be a risky and expensive outgoing and so it is important that you have defined expectations of what you hope to create.
It is important to remember the possibilities of creating a perfectly functioning app for clients and staff alike, with both interfaces leaving no questions on how to use the app to its full potential. By making the app user friendly, offering customer support, engagement and FAQ’s this can encourage a positive response to what could be a negative encounter with a customer.
As the app grows there are more opportunities to charge for marketing and advertising to increase profits for your company. This can also help to target your desired audience with said advertisements, which could encourage loyalty and exclusivity between you and your customers with the help of sister brands that may work in conjunction with you. For instance Subway are working with Uber and offering Uber Eats customers exclusive offers, meals and prizes if they order through the app.
Then there is the highly lucrative database that will be naturally created upon the signing up of more and more customers. This can be extremely profitable in the long run, as big data can be sold for a very high price.
Final Considerations
In conclusion the Rideshare market of 2020 has an unimaginable amount of possibilities for new entry companies. The real factor of success is developing your marketing strategy, outlet and customer base around a necessary and undeveloped niche. That will be the cornerstone for success in 2020, rather than following in the footsteps of the Rideshare giants of Uber, look to solve simple issues within your communities or countries, answer the needs of the customer base you aim to attract and focus on the possibilities for expansion within your market and into other similar markets. Where Uber has chosen to expand into food delivery, your company could focus on courier services, luxury travel or school/commuter routes. Think outside the box and strive to answer the needs and wants of your customer base.
