Grow your business using B2B Emarketplace - Part I.

Written by Nowshade Kabir


Continued from page 1

Improve customer service Ability to have constant interaction throughrepparttar emarketplace allows you to serve your customers better. You can trackrepparttar 108805 whole ordering process from payment to delivery and bring greater efficiency in customer service.

Efficient information sharing method When needed, you can instantly update your catalog and inform your customers about changes. Whether you are launching a new product or having a web seminar, through emarketplace you can sharerepparttar 108806 information more efficiently.

Reduce supply chain cost According to eMarketer, automated supply chain process through emarketplaces can reduce your overhead costs 20% to 40%.

You may ask, if participation in an emarketplace is so beneficial, why companies are not flocking to emarketplaces.

The slower adoption can be blamed on various inadvertent factors:

- Many companies had fall short to generate significant sales from their own websites and look at emarketplaces with a dose of skepticism. But as studies show ecommerce endeavors fail, mainly, due to lack of proper planning and marketing, as many site managers takerepparttar 108807 attitude that build-it-and- they- will-come.

- Many conservative suppliers claim that their business depends on close relationship with local buyers. In reality, you can also get access to local untapped market through emarketplaces. Another aspect - you can bring efficiency to your business by co-adopting an emarketplace along with your buyers.

- Many elderly executives are not very tech-savvy and afraid of adopting new technologies considering them too complex. In reality, e-business is virtual implementation of real life business processes and not very difficult to embrace.

- Fear of price shopping by buyers is another factor, why suppliers are reluctant to use emarketplaces. The ability of emarketplace to emphasize all characteristics ofrepparttar 108808 product in product content and demonstrate buyer-specific pricing should eliminate this fear.

- Many, mistakenly, consider that participation cost in emarketplace is very high and will hurt their bottom line. The expenses related to emarketplace membership are, usually, a mere fraction of what you can save fromrepparttar 108809 use of its different features.

What to look in an Emarketplace?

As an online venue, where participants expect to conduct substantial part of their business processes, emarketplace has a large range of useful features:

- Product catalog based on an industry-standard classification system - Product search capability withinrepparttar 108810 marketplace and e-catalog - Buyers and sellers search capabilities - Supply chain process, i.e. request for quote, quotation, purchase order, billing system, etc. - Directory of members - Shipment tracking - Simple system of adding and editing products - Simple offer posting system - Ability to promote products with special offers, sales, and discount

Apart from these, some emarketplaces boast other interesting features like auction and reverse auction, new product listing notification, business forum, XML interface, Internal messaging system. Naturally, implementation of these features may vary significantly emarketplace to emarketplace.

Where to look for Emarketplace?

The best place to find an extensive list of emarketplaces isrepparttar 108811 B2B directory site: http://www.bocat.com.

The open directory project DMOZ has a good list of emarketplaces. However, not all listings in both of these places are, in reality, emarketplaces. Some of them are simple trade boards. This list is located at http://dmoz.org/Business/E-Commerce/Marketplaces/

Yahoo! directory is not organized well enough to locate emarketplaces. They are scattered underrepparttar 108812 subcategories: Vertical marketplace builders, Trade directories and even Trade.

Forbes magazine has a quality list of many B2B companies including some emarketplaces. You will findrepparttar 108813 list at: http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2b/main.jhtml

To be continued in next issue: Selectingrepparttar 108814 right Emarketplace.

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade@rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com, http://www.rusbiz.com


Developing your export import business using Internet - Part I

Written by Nowshade Kabir


Continued from page 1

Getting information fromrepparttar Internet and other sources Thanks torepparttar 108804 Internet you can get almost allrepparttar 108805 needed information from various online sources. This includes: trade data statistics, country profile, demography and other market related data, list of prospective customers, etc.

To take an informative decision while selecting a market you will need answers torepparttar 108806 following questions:

- How big isrepparttar 108807 demand for your product or similar products inrepparttar 108808 targeted market? - What isrepparttar 108809 ratio between domestic production and import? - Who arerepparttar 108810 main competitors in this market? - What isrepparttar 108811 growth potential ofrepparttar 108812 market? - How strong are they in comparison to you? - What isrepparttar 108813 import duty structure for your product? - Is there any incentive available to you from your country for exporting this product?

Answers to these questions will give you enough facts to comparerepparttar 108814 markets you have chosen for assessment. While taking final decision on export market, don’t forget to studyrepparttar 108815 business and social cultures ofrepparttar 108816 specific country. This could be an important issue in selectingrepparttar 108817 right market for you.

Selling your products

Once you targetedrepparttar 108818 market you would like to pursue, you next step is to start selling your products to that market.

There are several marketing options available for you to choose from:

Hire an export trading house from your country The advantage, if you find right export trading house, is repparttar 108819 experience and knowledgerepparttar 108820 company may have. The draw back is they might not be interested in your products, and if they do, you have to pay a major share from your sales to them as their commission.

Find a distributor inrepparttar 108821 targeted market to sell your products

This is, no doubt, a very good option. However, finding a good distributor for a product which does not have a proven track record of sale inrepparttar 108822 market won’t be that easy.

Sell products to customers from targeted market directly

Initially, you might have to stick to this option only. B2B exchanges and emarketplaces fromrepparttar 108823 targeted market can be a good place to start your venture.

Here arerepparttar 108824 steps you need to take if you would like to sell your products through E-marketplaces.

1. Seek outrepparttar 108825 largest emarketplace forrepparttar 108826 country of your choice.You should consider both vertical and horizontal marketplaces. 2. Register with them. 3. Create a Web Site, if you don’t have yet, inrepparttar 108827 local language. 4. Add your products torepparttar 108828 e-catalog ofrepparttar 108829 emarketplaces. 5. Post your products for sale torepparttar 108830 marketplace. 6. Post frequent sell trade leads. 7. Search for companies interested to by products similar to yours and contact them.

International trade business, same like any other business requires months, sometimes even several years, to bring anticipated profit. Aggressive use ofrepparttar 108831 Internet will help you achieve your goal with lesser investment and faster result.

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshaderusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com, http://www.rusbiz.com


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