TradeOut.com Launches Revolutionary Internet Marketplace for the Exchange of Idle Assets and Excess Inventory

Furniture World Magazine

In response to every corporation's need to efficiently and profitably manage excess inventory, TradeOut.com has created the world's first independent, business-to-business Internet marketplace to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers of extra inventory, idle assets and last year's products. The site promises significant strategic advantages and cost savings over traditional methods of managing excess inventory and acquiring products in every industry. TradeOut.com's business model is similar to e-Bay, the highly successful consumer Internet auction site. On TradeOut.com, executives can buy and sell items in over 50 product categories in an auction-based, sealed-bid, or fixed-price format. A diverse range of merchandise from virtually every industry sector is represented on TradeOut.com including electronic components, computers, machinery and textiles. After only three weeks of operation, $25 million in assets and excess inventory have been listed on TradeOut.com. More than 30 Fortune 1000 companies across a variety of industries are currently selling on TradeOut.com, including Ralston Purina, Florida Power and Light, Georgia-Pacific, MSC Industrial Supply, Weyerhauser and Duquense Light Company. The current product selection ranges from a one megawatt generator selling for $250,000, to 95 cases of Ambrosia Invitations available for $289. The site attracts a global buying and selling community, creating extraordinary transaction opportunities. This robust exchange environment creates increased competition for goods, thereby maximizing the value of individual transactions for sellers while offering buyers access to a tremendous range of products. The system also reduces the inefficiencies involved with moving excess products and acquiring merchandise, thereby cutting individual transaction costs. "All companies typically spend a lot of time and money managing excess inventory and idle assets but are unable to maximize the sales revenue on these goods because they work with a limited group of liquidators, jobbers and auctioneers," said Brin McCagg, CEO and Founder of TradeOut.com. "TradeOut.com makes the process of managing excess and idle assets a far more lucrative and efficient operation for companies by providing a direct link to the largest possible buying audience and using the Internet to standardize and streamline the buying and selling process." While the market for liquidated inventory is upwards of $300 billion per year, dealing with excess inventory is a far less efficient process than marketing new goods. Negotiating the sale of excess inventory and idle assets is typically an unstructured process, based on telephone sales, communicating detailed specifications for individual products and negotiating multiple "one-off" sales. The Direct Marketing Association estimates that the average cost of a personal sales call for a US business is about $300. It takes an average of four sales calls to close the sale, resulting in a total approximate cost of $1,200 per sale. "We view TradeOut.com as an opportunity to maximize the value of excess inventory and efficiently reach a large universe of liquidators, auctioneers and jobbers," said Bill Stiritz, Chairman of Ralston Purina Company and a TradeOut.com charter customer. "Because of the potential savings in transaction costs and increased profit on each sale, we can significantly improve our return on assets." For more information about TradeOut.com, view the site at www.tradeout.com, or contact the company's VP of Global Sales, Peter Morin, at (914) 479-0611.