Internet Trade Profile—The Trading Floor

by Craig Snyder (extrader@wavenet.com)

This is the first in an occasional series focusing on the Web sites and the people behind those Web sites who are using the Internet to facilitate international trade. The sites I'll visit are those that have raised the level of quality and information to be expected from an international trade Web site.

I recently saw a report stating that there are more than 3,000 (and growing) Web sites with an international trade focus or component. I believe it. But which are the best? Which have the information that you need? In previous articles, I've touched upon the best general-purpose international trade sites, as well as where to find trade leads on the Internet.

One of the best is The Trading Floor. It is run by international trade information company World Market Watch, Inc. (WMW), based in Woodstock, Vermont. WMW started business in 1993 as an international market research company. The company realized the potential for using the global reach of the Internet to facilitate trade and started The Trading Floor in October 1995. I spoke with WMW's Robert Savage, who is the Webmaster for the site.

The Trading Floor is a very large Web site containing thousands of pages of market research reports, trade information, trade leads, direct access to Stat USA, and more. Most importantly, it has become an impartial forum for conducting business and making contacts. According to Savage, "Lots of networking happens on The Trading Floor." Subscribers have access to real-time chat rooms and also have a private "company room" reserved for them, in which to conduct private discussions. "Customers have found markets for their products they never would have found without The Trading Floor," says Savage. To his knowledge, most international trade payments are done off-line with traditional methods, such as letters of credit. Money, in its many forms, is not changing hands online, but then most international trade is between suppliers and distributors, and other ongoing relationships—not easily handled by credit card. The Trading Floor provides a practical and convenient venue for negotiations and discussions, which helps speed up the sometimes painfully slow trade process.

The Trading Floor has hundreds of subscribers from over 40 countries, each paying a flat fee of US$29.00 per month. Savage says, "World Market Watch does not intercede in its subscribers' business or ask for a percentage of transactions." This disinterest makes his subscribers more comfortable with the service. "I want to focus on quality and satisfying the customer," Savage states. "Besides, I love what I'm doing."

How does The Trading Floor attract new subscribers? Savage does no traditional marketing, nor does he do any type of banner ads on the search engines. His main promotional activity is cross-linking with other trade- and business-related Web sites. This is a time-consuming process, which he says "takes over a year to pay off" in increased traffic.

World Market Watch, Inc., is taking an interesting approach to extending the reach of its services. Savage has created several sister sites, including TradeLeads.com, which provides an added interface to the leads generated on The Trading Floor; TradeQuote.com, offering a new method for purchasing agents to get direct price quotes from international manufacturers, producers and trade service providers; TradeInfo.net, an online store of international trade information, books and trade software; and in the future, Supplier Search, intended to be a high-end search for suppliers.

Each of these new sites extends, focuses and improves upon the services that The Trading Floor currently offers. They also provide additional entry points to The Trading Floor. Savage now has his own network of Web sites to draw additional customers in the international trade community. I'll be monitoring the progress of this particular marketing approach and will report back in a future column.

I highly recommend a visit to this site. If you are serious about conducting business overseas it is well worth the US$29.00 per month to at least investigate this avenue. International trade should be viewed as a long-term approach to business. It involves hours and hours of research and lots of patience to close a deal and get paid. The Internet, and Web sites like the Trading Floor, can provide avenues to research and information, making this process much less arduous and facilitating contacts and negotiations.

Craig Snyder is the president of Dolphin Marketing International (DMI). DMI is a Web development company that builds and markets Web sites for Internet and intranet applications. DMI conducts a biweekly review of the best international trade Web sites, and is actively involved with the international trade community.