Archive for August, 2009
Buying the Tools of Your Trade
Chances are there’s something significant already happening on the Internet in your niche in the purchasing area. Most industries now have their early starters grabbing the first, second, and third slots.
The fact that computers are the biggest category doesn’t surprise anyone. Since it’s the most mature thus far, it’s worth looking at how merchandise in this category is being traded on the Net. One of the first commerce centers in the high- tech/telecommunications arena was MarketPlace 2000. You can learn a great deal about how your industry’s commerce center might look in the future by visiting this site . You will find auctions for fully configured computers or components, such as motherboards, monitors, hard drives, and so forth. Very often, you can buy these components one at a time, or save a bundle of money by buying in volume. You can bid on a mainframe computer in an auction room if you like, or meet other people in the sales chain with whom you can forge a buy/sell relationship on or offline and read news updates about the industry. Simple classified listings are now a staple of just about all industry commerce centers.
News, in this case, has become just one commodity to be had at this trading post. Is the MarketPlace 2000 a publication? Yes, but it is also a type of commodity pit. It’s two mints in one! Is it redefining how we think of a trade publication? Well, weren’t there always classified ads in the back of trade publications where people sought buyers and sellers for their brand of arcania? Of course. The Net has simply made this traditional practice more interactive.
“Big deal,” you say. You expect computers and travel (because they’re merely packages of information that the Net can easily promote and sell), but what about an industry that doesn’t cater to such a wide group of people? Perhaps I can interest you in a refrigerated shipping container that can be transported from ship to flatbed truck and then to railroad. If you’re interested, take a look at TransAmerica Leasing. This site can match up your needs with a seller. At the time of this writing, the transaction happens ofihine, but so what? The commodity of serving as a conduit between buyer and seller is the Internet’s first point of value. This site does more than match up goods with a customer, though. We’ll return to TransAmerica later in this chapter to see how it serves an overlapping community of interest: its existing customers.
Intermodal refrigerated containers don’t really turn you on? How about a cappuccino machine that will make 200 cups of coffee for your closest friends? Or perhaps you’d like to buy a diner booth for your living room? Check out the food service site that serves as a crossroads for such restaurateur supplies. It’s quite conceivable that indigenous products for a given industry might have an outside market. I don’t think that people will be putting 4-ton steel fittings on their front lawn, but I could see where they may want their own milkshake machine, or an industrial-rated stove or refrigerator.