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TraderDirect Is The Best One
Left Standing Says LBM Daily Reader... Of the remaining
companies still in the game I think TraderDirect is the one that
offers the best return to the customer. Their system is a very flexible
e-mail program that gives a seller the opportunity
to "broadcast" his offers to a larger audience much faster and
quicker than picking up the phone. The final transaction may still
require a phone call but the process eliminates a lot of "cold
calling" and saves the seller a lot of time (and money).
E-commerce in its full implementation was too big
a step for many people to take at one time. TraderDirect is a more logical step that uses e-mail, fax and the internet to
communicate offers and bids. Once people get in the habit of using
their keyboard instead of their telephone first thing every morning
than the transition to a full blown e-commerce system becomes
easier.
Also the cost associated with the initial
integration of most e-commerce systems was prohibitive and the
perceived return very small (or non existent) which ultimately hurt
most of the pioneering e-commerce companies. On the other hand an
e-mail based system like TraderDirect is very inexpensive and user
friendly and can be up and running in no time at all.
Bob Maurer - Swanson Group
The Tortoises Of The Wood
Products E-commerce World Will Be The Survivors... I was
surprised to learn that Talpx had shut down its services. I was
under the impression that Talpx was one of the few companies that
would make it. After hearing of the shutdown, I wondered what the
industry thought about this shutdown. Perhaps some are pleased that
Talpx is gone so they do not have to worry about how the technology
will affect their company. Others are probably convinced the
Internet and e-commerce have nothing to offer to their company. As
president and co-founder of WoodPlanet I decided it was worth
writing about my perspective as an e-commerce company and suggest
that the Internet does and will continue to have something to offer
the wood industry.
The companies that have all failed fall into one
of two categories. The first to go were the 'dot bombs'. These were
started by opportunists, not entrepreneurs and were characterized by
companies that had little knowledge of the industry but had dreams
of making many millions of dollars. These companies flamed out as
soon as the venture capital money dried up and gave a bad name to
all Internet-related companies.
The second category of failures are companies that
got ahead of themselves, trying to offer solutions faster than the
services could be absorbed into the industry. The ideas may have
been good, but after spending countless millions of dollars, the
market was still not ready to adopt them fast enough. Talpx was
probably one of this second group. They had a decent service but
could not support the many millions of dollars that had been
invested to make the service work and were probably never able to
reach cash flow break even.
So who is left? The tortoises. These are the
survivors. Companies that are neither trying to get rich quick nor
trying to build faster than the industry will absorb them. These
companies are developing services that are being used by the
industry and everyday make incremental improvements to their
services. These are builders and entrepreneurs and pay little
attention to all the confusion that is surrounding their work and
instead focus on the value to the end-user. Most importantly, these
companies are ruthlessly tight when it comes to spending money and
recognize that their only major competitor is their accounts payable
and the management of cash flow.
WoodPlanet.com is one of these companies. World
Wide Wood Network and TraderDirect appear to be cut from the same
cloth as well. Forest Express is probably not like these companies
but may have enough resources to survive despite itself, especially
if it can inexpensively scoop up the remains of Talpx.
Click here to read more!
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