Are you ready to compete with Amazon?
Just when things seem to be settling down, Amazon enters the housing market. If you’re not prepared to meet Amazon head on, then they will, as they have with the retail marketplace, set a brand-new way of doing business and price schedule!
We all have, and do use Amazon with great satisfaction. However, now they have set their sights on the American Dream – home ownership. Builders and developers need to take notice!
Amazon takes no prisoners, and the Millennials know this. They are your next housing boom, if you are prepared! Will this happen overnight? No, nothing does. However, if you’re not ahead of the curve, most likely you will not catch up.
Much like Sears’ attempt some 70 years ago or so, Amazon is trying that concept again. Amazon is focused on a willing marketplace, Millennials! Kit homes are not new, but the marketplace is. What is different today verses 70 years ago is skill levels, which could be to your advantage. As mechanical ability is diminishing in the general populous, the pricing of a kit home sounds great. However, assembly by the buyer is a different matter altogether.
What if you could meet Amazon head on, with a better plan? You could, by offering field assembly for GCI structural composite panel homes. The GCI wall panels are 4.5” thick, made with 3/8th plywood throughout the structure, for nearly the same price as Amazon’s kit pricing. You would be selling and building a stronger, complete home similar to what Amazon offers, again for nearly the same price as an Amazon kit home.
For instance, if you owned your own GCI panel line, a 300 sf structure (a bit larger than Amazon’s basic unit) would be about 12% of Amazons kit cost. Except, using GCI building panels, you could include assembly and build the home in less than 8 hours. Naturally, you would include the same add-ons as Amazon does and remain very competitive with labor included.
This by no means excludes the kit idea. The GCI panel home is rather simplistic for even a novice with basic skills to assemble. This means you could send a consultant with the kit (optional naturally) to advise and possibly lend a hand in the assembly process.
A GCI structural panel line can produce enough panels in an 8-hour shift to build 16- 300 sf homes! That means you could be producing enough panels to build 48 homes per day, 240 homes per 5-day week, you get the idea.
Amazon is providing all of us a glimpse into Millennial buying habits, and what to expect when it comes to what they really need and want.
To find out more, contact Terry Lammers at terry@innovativeba.com or 618-688-2018, or visit www.gorillacomposites.com.
Best Regards
Gregory J. Leja