Unibex Inc. believes that online buying and selling of industrial products will become the norm once small and midsize firms adopt the practice.
The Washington-based start-up creates online systems that link buyers and sellers and allow companies access to a variety of different markets.
Through its Universal Business Exchange, Unibex offers four types of market mechanisms: virtual trade show, product showcase/master catalog, offer exchange and auction. All services are integrated, to allow users flexibility, functionality, ease of use and greater speed to market.
The company was founded to enable smaller enterprises to participate in the global Internet economy through collaborative online sites, or portals, which is where president/CEO Mady Jalinous believes the greatest potential lies for industrial market-making on the Web. (Portals are Web sites that consist of collections of links to popular Web services.)
“Venture capitalists always say go for the lowest hanging fruit, which would be Fortune 1000 companies,” he says. “But we took the harder road of going after small and medium-sized companies.”
At press time, Unibex’s site (www.unibex.com) – up for only a couple of weeks – had concluded arrangements with the National Association of Manufacturers, the Automotive Parts Rebuilders Association, the National Confectioners Association and three other trade groups, setting up portals for companies in those organizations.
Unibex has signed up about 3,500 manufacturers from these trade groups. Jalinous reports that 300 or so have begun actively using the site. Overall, these firms offer about 10,000 products.
Unibex makes money by charging members a $250 monthly fee, plus $10 if a buyer and seller are brought together. It also gets a percentage of transactions ranging from 0.5% to 4.5% based on the size of the deal and other criteria. While he declines to offer yearly projections, Jalinous does say Unibex is likely to draw in revenue in the hundreds of thousands.
To promote itself, Unibex is sending out mailings to small and medium-sized firms whose names were obtained from its arrangement with business information compiler InfoUSA. It’s advertising in the appropriate trade magazines as well.
“You won’t see us in Business Week,” quips Jalinous.
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