ONE ONLINE MARKETER is bringing the business-to-business marketplace – rapidly growing in the United States – south of the border.
For the past few months, Latin Trade, a magazine devoted to business in Mexico and other Latin American countries, has slowly been piecing together a commercial Web community (www.latintrade.com) where buyers and sellers of about 26 different products – such as textiles, automotive and electronics – get together to buy, sell and even auction each others’ products.
“We see the site as an extension of our brand,” says Sue Tremblay, president of Latintrade.com, Miami, which was spun off by the 10-year-old magazine earlier this year.
So far, the site is attracting about 85,000 unique visitors and 200 page views per month and has built a database of more than 1,000 buyers and sellers.
To get more users, the company has launched a series of e-mail marketing and telemarketing campaigns targeting compiled lists based on SIC codes, tapped subscribers of other Latin American business magazines, and placed banner ads, DRTV and print ads in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Tremblay says the firm does 40% of its business in the United States, 35% in Mexico, 20% in Brazil and another 5% in Venezuela and Argentina. She adds that trade with Mexico has been made easier by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
>From all this the company still has the modest goal of breaking even at >the end of 2001 and pulling in about $6 million in revenue. In three >years, Tremblay expects this figure to jump to $18 million. She believes >Latintrade.com will eventually do most of its business in Mexico, Brazil >and Argentina because those countries have the largest economies and the >most sophisticated populations.
While the service is now free, next year she says Latintrade.com may begin charging transaction fees. At present, the company makes its money by selling advertising on the site and by renting out the magazine’s list at $1 per name.
On the site, users can register and post requests to buy various textiles. They also can bid on auctions of such products as chemicals.
Late last month, the company hired three sales managers to help beef up penetration of its target markets.
“They all have extensive Rolo-dexes,” says Tremblay.
Network
