Newly formed Web marketer iSolve.com wants companies to unload on it.
For the past few months, the firm, based in Stamford, CT, has been lining up partners that will start working to get companies worth at least $250 million a year to dump their excess inventory, most recently in deals with industrial marketing directory Thomas Register and with World Trade, a manufacturers’ representative for automotive aftermarket products.
The company, which seeks to sell this unwanted inventory through its Web site (www. isolve.com), chose to go after such large firms “because those are the companies that historically have a lot of excess inventory,” says marketing executive vice president Barbara Cerf.
The agreement with Thomas links the directory company’s 1 million-plus registered customers to iSolve’s site, which creates a marketplace for buyers and sellers of excess inventory to transact business. In return, iSolve’s customers get access to Thomas’ suppliers to purchase online catalog goods and conduct research through publications and specific vertical sites, such as the Thomas Food Industry Register, American Export Register and the Thomas Order Online e-commerce service.
To help with services like shipping, remarketing and repackaging, iSolve made a deal late last month with Canada-based Liquidation World.
On top of all this, iSolve is recruiting buyers and sellers through its eight-person outbound telemarketing team, which targets such executives as purchasing managers, chief financial officers and chief executive officers. So far, it’s lined up about 400 manufacturers. Targeted industries include the automotive aftermarket (worth a total of $400 billion), commercial real estate, food and general merchandise.
This month, iSolve and Thomas are set to kick off a branding campaign on Thomas’ and other Web sites, in industry-specific trade magazines and via direct mail, says Cerf.
When sellers want to unload or buy inventory they click onto the site and register. Following credit checks, manufacturers can list their goods for 30 days at a given price, says Cerf. After that, iSolve itself can buy – and in some cases take possession of – some of those goods, though generally at reduced prices.
>From these efforts, says Cerf, iSolve, which charges manufacturers a 10% >transaction fee for its services, expects to pull in revenue of just under >$100 million this year.
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