Car washing is the messiest line of work, and also the highest-frequency entry point in the automotive service sector. This auto life project plans to leverage its 199-yuan membership program and directly-operated outlets to develop businesses covering vehicle maintenance, insurance and auto supplies precipitated from car washing scenarios.

With the continuous growth of car ownership, demand for aftermarket services including car washing, maintenance and repair, insurance and auto supplies keeps rising. However, the current car wash industry is still dominated by a large number of small and medium-sized stores, which vary widely in service standards, operational efficiency and user management capabilities. How to improve store efficiency through chain operation and digital means has become one of the directions being explored in the automotive aftermarket.

The smart and green urban-rural automotive life infrastructure network project is trying to start with the high-frequency car washing service, and build an automotive life service network covering car washing, maintenance and repair, auto insurance, auto supplies and other businesses through directly operated outlets, membership system, digital operation and supply chain integration.

According to the business plan provided by the project party, the project is still in the preliminary preparation and financing stage, and the subsequent funds are planned to be used for store acquisition and construction, warehouse and supply chain system construction, digital platform R&D and team expansion.

Starting from Car Washing to Explore Directly Operated Outlets and Membership Model

The project takes car washing as a high-frequency entry point to acquire users.

In accordance with the plan, the project intends to adopt the directly operated outlet model, and unify service procedures, operation systems and supply chain management by acquiring or building offline stores. On the user side, it plans to launch an annual membership product priced at around 199 yuan, and build long-term user relationships through car washing services with a low access threshold.

The project party believes that traditional car wash stores mainly rely on natural customer flow, with a small service radius, and it is difficult to unify service quality, price system and operation management among different stores. The chain system can carry out standardized management of store operations through centralized procurement, unified training and digital systems.

In terms of business model, the project does not plan to make profits simply by relying on car washing services. Instead, it hopes to precipitate users through the car washing scenario, and then extend its business to auto maintenance and repair, insurance, auto supplies and other automotive life consumption scenarios.

According to the BP (business plan), the project plans to build its own digital platform to uniformly manage data of members, stores, equipment and supply chain, and realize collaborative operation between the online platform and offline directly operated outlets.

In terms of store expansion, the project plans to take urban directly operated outlets as the main model at the current stage, and further explore the county-level market and other cooperation modes after the business model is verified.

Introduce Water Circulation and Digital System to Reduce Store Operation Costs

In terms of store hardware, the project plans to equip with intelligent car washing equipment and water circulation system.

According to the project plan, the car washing equipment will integrate visual recognition and automatic control capabilities, adjust the cleaning process according to the condition of the vehicle, and support equipment status monitoring and remote maintenance at the same time.

In terms of water resource utilization, the BP proposes to build a micro-nano water circulation system to reduce water consumption in the car washing process through filtration and recycling treatment, with the target of comprehensive water resource reuse rate reaching over 85%. The project also plans to equip corresponding sewage treatment facilities to reduce the pressure of wastewater discharge generated during the store operation process.

However, the above-mentioned equipment and systems still need to be further verified in combination with the actual implementation situation, and relevant indicators such as water saving rate, equipment efficiency and operation cost also need to be confirmed through actual data after the project is officially put into operation.

The project also plans to build a unified digital middle platform for member management, store operation, commodity supply chain and service data management, hoping to reduce the complexity of personnel management and information collaboration in the operation process of multiple stores.

In terms of organizational management, the team plans to adopt incentive methods such as store profit sharing to link part of the operating income with front-line employees, so as to improve employee stability and service quality.

Starting from the Single-Store Model to Verify the Feasibility of National Expansion

From the current stage of the project, the business model still needs to be verified through actual store operation.

According to the BP calculation, the preliminary investment for a single store is estimated to be about 350,000 to 450,000 yuan, and the project party plans to generate revenue through membership fees, car washing services and subsequent value-added businesses. However, the data such as revenue, net profit margin and investment recovery period in this model are currently mainly derived from the project party's estimation, and still need to be further verified by the actual store operation data.

The founder of the project is Chen Tiexin, who was previously mainly engaged in front-line technical work related to construction. The team hopes to combine physical store operation, digital system and supply chain management, and take standardized directly operated outlets as the service entry point for car owners.

In the long run, the project plans to gradually expand the number of directly operated outlets, replicate the model to more cities and county-level markets after the model is proven feasible, and improve the capabilities of warehousing, supply chain and digital platform at the same time.

At present, the project is seeking external financing. In accordance with the team's plan, the funds will be mainly used for the construction and acquisition of the first batch of stores, the construction of the operation system, the R&D of the digital platform and the capacity building of the supply chain.

For this project which is still in the early stage, the key of the next stage still lies in verifying whether the 199-yuan membership model can form stable user retention, and whether the car washing service can effectively drive the conversion of subsequent businesses such as maintenance and repair, insurance and retail. The actual customer acquisition cost, performance fulfillment cost, repurchase rate and single-store profitability of the first batch of stores will also become important indicators to judge whether this model can be further scaled up and replicated.