Textile Industry And The Online Marketplace Bandwagon

Online trade and commerce has indeed come of its age as in today’s tech-savvy world, the business transactions have moved from the actual marketplace to the virtual world of internet. This major transformation has not just been restricted to the business-to-consumer or B2C sector but also to the business-to-business or B2B sector.

Like other industries, textile industry too has forayed into the online B2B marketplace concept big time. The websites or portals act as virtual market places for buyers and sellers, thus leveraging them with golden opportunities to make valuable business transactions. The best part about these online B2B marketplaces is that the target audience is not just limited to one market, one state or one country but to the entire world at large. A business man’s potential leads multiply manifold in the internet marketing concept.

Talking of textile B2B portals, there are a number of established as well as upcoming B2B portals in this particular industry. The B2B buyers and sellers can freely make business transactions in bulk quantities with an expanse of relevant leads spread across the world. Here is a list of some of the most popular B2B portals on internet today:

Indiamart.com
Indiamart.com is one of the most sought after B2B marketplace in today’s date. The apparel and textile division of this portal is quite well known among the textile business fraternity for textile industry in india and hence, is looked upon as a trusted name in the online business community.

Fibashion.com
Fibashion is an upcoming textile marketplace. It is a portal which is dedicated solely to the textile industry at large. Fibashion believes in providing technology enhancement to the industry by offering online and offline services.

Globaltextiles.com
Globaltextiles is yet another textile specializing B2B marketplace. Bulk buying and selling inquiries regarding all kinds of apparels and textiles can be sought here.

Texindex.com
If china sounds the perfect place for sourcing fabrics, apparels or other related merchandise then texindex.com is portal just meant for you. This B2B textile marketplace can be referred for sourcing as well as placing bulk queries.

Fibre2fashion.com
Fibre2fashion boasts of some of the best online apparel and merchandise options. As a leading textile B2B marketplace, it offers an excellent platform for bulk buyers and sellers to exchange business queries.

Wholesale Versus Retail Trade: An Insight

Business- the activity, is divided in a number of branches and wholesale and retail trade make an integral part of this division. Both are indeed hard core business activities to generate businesses and trade leads, but with a stark distinction. Lets understand this difference between wholesale and retail trade in a simplified form:

The Concept

Wholesale – The concept of wholesale trade is B2B driven. In other words wholesale trade is all about economic activities revolving around business to business. The ultimate consumer is nowhere in the picture here.

Retail – Retail trade on the other hand is a B2C driven activity. Consumer plays a vital role in retail trade as the business transactions are done directly with the final consumers.

Capital Investment

Wholesale – Setting up of a wholesale business calls for considerable amount of capital. Since it is a larger scaled business, the investment invariably increases to a hefty amount.

Retail – Retail trade can be started with a minimal amount of investment as compared to the wholesale trade. It is relatively a smaller form of business.

Target Audience

Wholesale – Wholesale trade targets businessmen, traders and retailers for its business. Here the products or services are rendered to the people involved in the concerned business who in turn sell it further to the final consumers or middle men.

Retail – Retailers target the final consumer unlike wholesale traders. The products and services are first sourced from the wholesalers and then are directly sold to the ultimate consumers.

Quantity Supplied

Wholesale – Wholesale trade deals in bulk quantities as the products are supplied to the merchants and traders who further make it available to the ultimate consumers.

Retail – Since retail trade deals with the final consumers, the quantity of products supplied in this case is as much as the consumer wants. The products supplied generally totals to real small quantities.

Profit Margins

Wholesale – Profit margins per product in wholesale trade are relatively lesser but as the trading is done in bulk quantities, the actual profit to the wholesaler shoots up.

Retail – The products retailed generally carry a higher profit margin but since the actual quantity or number of products sold are less, overall profit rendered to the retailer is low.

Variety Of Kitchen Accessories

Kitchen accessories refer to the assortment of articles used in a kitchen for cooking and serving purposes. Cutlery, dinnerware, food strainers, knives etc. together are known as kitchen accessories. Apart from rendering comfort and ease to the user, smart kitchen accessories also add onto the style quotient of the kitchen.
Presence of smart kitchen accessories in the kitchen makes the mundane activity of cooking a fun job. Besides, these also accentuate the overall look and feel of a kitchen as well. Discussed below are few articles which form an integral part of kitchen accessories:

Cutlery Accessory
Cutlery as most of the people know refer to the knives and scissors used in kitchen. These have to be stored and used with utmost precision. The sharp knives, chopping boards etc. lose their sharpness and render blunt if not used or stored properly, hence these should be kept at a place which is clear of all other articles in the kitchen and should also be looked after for sharpening in case the blades have rendered blunt due to continuous usage.

Dinnerware
Dinnerware refers to the utensils used for serving or eating the meal. It is important to have a kind of dinnerware which suits one’s personal style as only then one can enjoy serving and eating the food which has been cooked with special efforts and care.

Serving Dishes
Serving dishes include articles like bowl, platter, plate etc. which are basically used for serving the food. Serving dishes can be in varied shapes and sizes to suit the individualistic tastes and preferences. The manufacturing material too, varies from ceramic to steel to glass and so on. Though it is best to go for microwave friendly serving dishes as they make the job of warming and serving the food much more easier.

Cake Pans
Cake pans are the utensils used for baking purposes. It is essential for a kitchen which often witnesses the making of cakes and cookies. There’s a huge variety of cake pans available in the market to suit the requirements of different individuals. Contour cake pan, square cake pan, rectangular cake pan are few of the most popular cake pans.

How Do People Prefer to Buy Kids Dresses

Kids too are counted among the fashion audiences and buying kids dresses is no more an easy job. The dress designers around the world focus equally on the dresses for the adults and the children. This helps the parents to choose their kids’ clothes among numerous choices available at the stores.

If you are about to start a kids’ clothing store, you must offer different varieties to meet the individual tastes and preferences. For this, you must know how people prefer to purchase the dresses for their kids. Here are some tips for you to follow in this direction.

Dress Sizes
Kids grow fast and the size of their clothing changes frequently. Your store might be visited by the parents looking for the kids dresses in different sizes. You can offer the dresses for infants, kids and children in all possible sizes. This enables the parents to consider your store as one-stop destination for all kids clothes in all sizes.

Color Choices
Another consideration of parents while purchasing kids dresses is the choice of color. If your store offers kids clothes in different colors like pink, blue, red and others, it will attract more number of customers. Keep in mind to offer the dresses in season based color choices. For example, light shades are preferred in the summers and dark ones in the winters.

Party Wear and Casual Clothes
Just like the dresses for adults, the kids dresses too are classified as casual and party wear. So, your store must meet the requirements for all types of clothes for kids. By offering clothes for parties and festivals, you can add more number of visitors to your store.

Price Range
The prices of kids dresses are considered by the parents to purchase within the set budget limits. Your kids clothing store must be able to entertain the purchasing needs of parents with different spending limits.

Finally, the parents also look for the popular brands while shopping the dresses for their kids. So, you need to obtain the supply of kids clothes form the most popular brands of the industry. Follow all the tips mentioned above to make your store a preferred shopping destination for kids clothes.

Do You Offer Variety of Garden Sculptures at Your Store

Homeowners add garden sculptures as the finishing touch to create a calming effect in the garden. People add an elegant and a whimsical appeal to their gardens with the help of these sculptures. And there are many ways in which people choose the right sculptures to beautify their gardens.

Offering a limited variety of sculptures for gardens might not bring enough customers to your store. You can offer an unlimited variety of sculptures that help different individuals to find a good match for his or her garden. Here are some tips to help you add variety to your garden sculpture store.

Sculptures for Various Themes
Garden sculptures are purchased for the classic as well as contemporary garden settings. Make sure that you have sculptures that suit different garden themes. If fact, your store should suggest the customers with the most appropriate sculptures for the type of garden they have.

Different Categories
Don’t stick to one or two categories of garden sculptures, but offer them in different categories. For example, statues and figurines for garden decoration in different styles should be offered at your store. Fountains belong to another good category of sculptures for garden. Fixtures designed as sculptures too are good options.

Different Materials
You should offer the garden sculptures made of different materials at your store. For example, cement and sandstone made sculptures are good options for different types of gardens. Wooden and metal sculptures too make good choices but make sure you sell those with protective sea against weather. Marble, resin and fiber glass sculptures for garden should also attract the customers.

Other ways of offering variety in the sculptures for garden are to offer them in different colors and patterns. Also, you can sell the sculptures in different shapes so that they fit in different space dimensions the people have in their gardens. Lastly, you must offer variety in terms of prices to let people make choice according to their budget.

A good idea is to obtain the supply of garden sculptures from the manufacturers and suppliers located in different countries. This will automatically add a huge variety to your product database. The online product directories should help you find the sculptures made in different regions.

Indian Sarees: The Variety and Variations

Indian Sarees are a noted attire all throughout the world. A nine yard running fabric sans stitching is what is known as ‘a saree’. It is one such attire which drapes a woman’s figure in the most elegant manner.

The diversity of Indian culture is quite evident in the style of saris too. Its not just about the various types of saree fabric but also about the draping style which envelopes the diversified rich cultural heritage of the country. Following is the different variety of Indian sarees as per the various regions in the country:






Bandhini
Bandhini or Bandhej sarees belong to the Rajasthan, Jaipur region of India. Available in an array of strikingly bright colors like navy blue, red, bottle green etc. these sarees carry a typical design element created by the popular tie and dye technique.

Kanjeevaram
Kanjeevaram is probably the most popular and desired form of sarees among ladies. Tamil Nadu being its native place, Kanjeevarams boast of gold dipped silver threads, aesthetically woven into rich silk fabrics. The attractive combination of bold colors and rich silk fabrics make it a favorite among all. In fact, in the southern India, Kanjeevaram sarees make an integral part of the bridal trousseau as bridal sarees.

Chanderi
Chanderi sarees hail from the heart of India i.e. Madhya Pradesh. In fact, Chanderi happens to be a place in MP which is the center of traditional Chanderi weavers. Chanderi- the handcrafted work, is generally done on silk or very fine cotton fabric. The designs most often depict the patterns found in local temples making them lovely designer saris.

Jamawars
Jamawar saris belong to the Northern part of India, precisely, Uttar Pradesh. The most prominent feature of this particular form of sari is that it carries intricate zari threadwork designs patterns.

Tangail, Kantha and Baluchari
Tangail, Kantha and Baluchari all these three forms belong to Bengal. Tangail sarees carry lotus and lamp design patterns while Kantha sarees are known for the long thread works. The striking feature of Baluchari sarees is that they are 5 yards in length with 42 inches of width unlike the regular nine yard sarees.

Emerging Trends In Indian and Foreign Dresses

The Indian dresses are purely cultural and are available in a huge variety. In fact, every state contributes its own dressing style towards the colorful culture for which India is known to the world. The country has also welcomed the foreign dressing style at its workplaces, social gatherings, entertainment world and fashion industry.

At the same time, the India has grown as an exporter of apparels to different countries. This has helped the Indian dresses to earn reputation at the global platform. The textile heritage of the country has secured a good position in the foreign markets.

Talking about the difference in the Indian and the foreign dresses, there are huge sections of the society that still prefer their cultural attires. Especially the Indian women still prefer salwaar kameez and sarees as their formal as well as casual wear. The use of jeans and short dresses is limited to the college going females of the country.

The western workplace suits have definitely entered the corporate culture; there are some professions in India that require the women employees to wear the Indian dresses. For example, the female employees in the aviation and hospitality industries of the country are usually seen in sarees.

A big credit for the popularity of western dresses in India goes to the world of glamour. The leading ladies in the Indian films and those walking the ramp inspire high society women to adopt the western dressing styles. However, the traditional Indian dresses have not vanished from these fields as well. In fact, the renowned celebrity fashion designers experiment with traditional dresses to add to the glamorous looks of the Indian women.

When it comes to weddings and festival occasions, even the most sophisticated Indian women switch to the Indian dresses. There is no match to the wedding sarees and other dresses worn by the Indian brides. These wedding dresses from India are all in rage in the foreign markets as well.

The conclusion is that the confluence of the Indian and the foreign dresses has given birth to a new fashion trend in the country. In other words, the foreign dresses have added to the already diverse dressing style in India, without replacing the traditional dresses even a bit.

How Product Catalogs Are Beneficial in Online Media Advertising?

Product catalogs provide the manufacturers and suppliers a simple yet efficient way of presenting their products and business to the ever-growing audience on the internet. These catalogs are the cost-effective advertising mediums to provide information, the most sought-after entity on the web.

The buyers are always attracted towards organized form of information about the products they wish to buy. A product catalog is a perfect way to organize information about a business and its products. So, this feature makes them the tools of online media advertising.

Product catalogs can be utilized in three different manners:

• They are submitted to the business to business directories which are frequently visited by the wholesalers and retailers from all over the world.
• The catalogs are used for email marketing as they are mailed to the potential buyers.
• Finally, they are placed at the company’s online store to help the visitors search the products relevant to them.

In general, there are thee main benefits of using product catalogs as online advertising tools:

• They act as great search tools for the viewers. For example, a buyer at a b2b directory search through the products catalog of a company and select the products he or she wishes to buy.
• They help the buyer to obtain updated price quotations. For this, they don’t have to call the seller’s office.
• These catalogs help to create sales orders easily.

Besides, the online product catalogs offer the following benefits over the traditional printed catalogs:

• The online catalogs are available globally and they are not restricted to local areas.
• No catalog production costs are involved. You don’t have to spend on layout designs. Also, the cost of distribution is zero as you don’t have to distribute them as paper brochures.
• They are easy to rectify and update. Besides, they are environment friendly as no paper is required.

For the buyers, the online product catalogs are helpful in placing round-the-clock orders, obtaining instant information about discounts and checking the stock availability of products.

So, a product catalog is among the most genuine online advertising tools available for enhancing the visibility of online businesses. They make business transactions much easier than before.

An Insight into Baby Care Products Market

Baby care products form a huge global market with products offered in a number of segments. Parents have become more conscious about the needs of the babies between the age group of 0 and 4. As a result, the online directories have discovered a new category in the form of baby care products.

More than 50 countries have the market catering to the products manufactured and traded under the baby care category. How has the trend grown over past few years and what can be expected in the future? Have an insight of the baby care market form the following discussion.

Global Baby Care Products Market
The global baby care market witnessed a compounded annual growth rate of 2.7 percent from 2003 to 2008. More than 80 percent of the total share was held by the category of baby diapers. The forecast about the industry shows that different segments of the industry will keep on enjoying a consistent growth rate.

Local Baby Care Markets
On one end, the United States records small growth percentage of baby care products. And on the other end, the developing countries like India have recorded higher growth percentage in the past few years. According to the analysis, the baby care market in India stood up at INR 15 billion in the year 2008. The industry is expected to reach the worth of INR 28 billion by the end of 2012 by experiencing a compounded annual growth rate of 17 percent.

The main segments of the baby care products market include baby food, skin care, hair care, diapers and toiletries. Some of the main factors responsible for an increase in the demand of these products include:

• The consistent birth rate
• Increased population of working women.
• Increase in disposable income and
• Innovative baby care products launched in the market.

Another reason for the growth of baby care market is the expansion of the market to the rural areas of the country.

So, there is huge expectation of the baby care market to show progress especially in the developing nations. The introduction of organic baby products can further boost the progress rate.

How Globalization and E-marketplaces Help Each Other

Globalization is the concept that allows free flow of tradable entities among different world economies. The post World War II era favored the growth of globalization and world trade. The Uruguay Round from 1986 to1994 led to the creation of World Trade Organization to make international trade smoother.

The world of internet too was introduced in 1990s and it acted as the breeding ground for e-businesses. Therefore, globalization progressed in the era when internet and e-commerce were mere thoughts. As the concept of e-commerce grew, it led to the formation of e-marketplaces. Today, there are global e-marketplaces in the form of b2c and b2b spaces and they are contributing towards the success of globalization.

Globalization and e-marketplaces have a common aim of extending the reach of businesses beyond the geographical boundaries. The concept existed in the ancient times, when trade routes like the famous Silk Route led to successful trading between countries. However, there were many issues that are resolved by the online marketplaces in today’s world.

Localization of Information – With the help of e-marketplaces, globalization offers localized information to the consumers located in different parts of the world. The business buyers are informed about the products offered by business sellers in the language the former understands. Information doesn’t pass through the hands of middlemen and there is direct dealing between the buyers and the sellers.

Improved Time to Market – Earlier, the concept of globalization suffered from the issue of large time consumption. Today, the business sellers take no time to let their products and services reach the target markets. This has been made possible due to the collaboration of globalization with e-marketplaces.

Brand Building – Globalization further adds to the competition that a business faces in its local market. Now, the businesses have to compete with their international rivals. So, those who are bale to make good use of e-marketplaces and online marketing tools are able to build goodwill for their brands.

If globalization introduced the idea of trading among countries, the e-marketplaces helped the idea of international trade to flourish. And today, the two concepts co-exist and successfully support each other.

Some Important B2B Marketplace Resources:

Import Export Trade Leads | Business Directory | Online Product Catalogs

Contributions Of Service Sectors in India For B2B Business Promotion

The service sector of India has found an international recognition in the past two decades. There has been an exponential growth at the domestic as well as the international front. Apart from different types of business products transacted through the Indian b2b directories, various types of services too have contributes towards the social economic growth of the country.

Service sector accounts for more than 60 percent of the total world GDP. The share of the service sector of India in the total GDP of India has increased by 21 percent between 1950 and 2000. The following discussion highlights the important aspects of services India offers through b2b marketplace.

The decade of 1990s can be called the golden period for the service sector of India. Due to the economic liberalization attitude adopted by the country in 1991, the services offered by the country started finding new foreign markets. Nearly 40 percent of the increase of service sector share in the country’s GDP was obtained in the decade.

The IT service sector of India has significantly contributed in improving the picture. It is estimated that the Indian IT service market is set to grow up to US $ 10.73 billion by 2011. This would happen at the compounded annual growth rate of 23.2 percent from 2006 to 2011. Hardware maintenance and support, software support, IT consulting, software development and integration and IT management are the segments that have major contributions in the growth rate.

The BPO and ITES industry is another important segment of the service sector of India. Voice and non-voice support, data entry, data conversion, HR services, revenue accounting, medical transcription, content development and remote education are the important segments of these industries.

Besides, the healthcare services, banking and insurance services and retailing services are important segments of the service sector of India. The B2B directories have helped the worldwide buyers of these services to find an easy access to them. Media advertising services, architectural services, transportation and tourism services and many other segments of the Indian service sector have found a platform in the form of b2b space to extend their reach globally.

An Overview of Indian Import and Export Statistics

India is a country with massive workforce and constantly improving manufacturing methods and tools. This gives the country an edge over many developing countries to become a well-known exporting country. The exports from India to different countries have certainly grown in the past few years (excluding the period of recession).

At the same time, the people living in India are earning more and changing the way they live their life. This has lead to an increase in the items imported by the country. So, what about the trade deficit and what are the major Indian items of import and export? Have an overview of Indian trade statistics form the discussion below.

Exports from India
The period of recession enforced the exports from India to slow down by 18% in the year 2009. However, an increase of 35 percent has been recorded for the Indian exports in the first five months of the year 2010. The UAE came up as the topmost consumer of the Indian goods by importing 12.3 percent of total exports from India in 2009. The USA followed closely by importing 11.7 percent and China ranked at third position with the import percentage of 5.4 from India.

Cotton apparels, diamonds, pharmaceutical preparations, jewelry, industrial chemicals, rugs and industrial machinery are counted among major exported items from India. Dairy products, eggs, computers, petroleum products, precious metals and nuclear fuels are the fast growing items of exports from India.

Imports to India
The products of worth $253.9 billion were imported to India in 2009, showing a drop from the figure recorded in 2008. India imported 10.8 percent of its total imports from China, 6.9 percent from Saudi Arabia, 6.7 percent from the United States and 6.7 percent from the UAE.

Civilian aircrafts and their parts from the USA are the main items of import to India. Chemical fertilizers, telecommunication equipment, industrial engines, plastic materials and steelmaking materials too contribute significantly towards the imported items. Oilseeds, passenger car bodies, commercial vessels, fruits and frozen juices and audio and visual tapes are the fats growing import items.

The trade deficit of $121.4 billion was recorded by India in 2008. There was an improvement in 2009, as the country’s trade deficit stood up at $88.9 billion, showing an improvement of 26.8 percent. All these statistics give hints of improving export import scenario in India.

The above statistics of imports and exports in India are worth giving for businesses operating in B2B sector and several SME's who are the direct beneficiary of such statistics. Keeping all this in consideration, government also taking some positive steps to promote businesses to start import and export aggressively with enhanced foreign trade policies to give an helping hand for country's overall economical growth.

Some online B2B Portals are really doing well to promote businesses in India and focusing on SME sector on priority because of a huge potential growth prospects. Naming one of the largest B2B marketplace in India, www.indiaMART.com who are giving their best efforts and seversices for business promotion in B2B space.

Useful Steps to Design an Effective Online Products Catalog

An online products catalog is a sales-generating copy that helps the businesses to provide information about their products to the intended buyers. The significance of these catalogs in a b2b space is highly admired as they make business transactions simple, quick and profitable for both buyers and sellers.

Considering the rising competition in online product directories, you need to come up with effective product catalogs for your business. The following discussion is meant for the first-time business sellers as well as experienced business owners to make their product catalogs for online directories effective and sales-oriented.

Decide the Layout
First of all, make sure that you design a rough layout for the online products catalog. You should try different templates and designs to give a professional look and feel to the product catalog. Another important point is to organize your product catalog. Your product catalog should have specified areas for placing company information, product details, call to action line and other things.

Create Categories
If your business sells different types of products, it is extremely important to decide categories for them and place each product in its relevant category. You can place the category with the most important products you sell on the top of the online products catalog.

Product Description
The product descriptions should be crisp and informative. Include things like name of the product, its description, varieties in the terms of size, shape, color and composition and prices. The description should contain the distinct qualities or unique selling features of the products. Shipping and handling charges too should be mentioned in the catalog.

Product Pictures
Click some good quality pictures of your products or hire a professional photographer if you are not good at that. If possible, the online products catalog should include different pictures of the products, clicked from different angles and positions to give a detailed idea of the products.

Other things to include are the payment options through which the buyer can pay for the products. The online products catalog should not be messy and there should be clear distinction among different sections. Finally, you must test the catalog design in different browsers to ensure that it works correctly in all popular browsers.

How Foreign Trade Affects the Indian Markets?

Foreign trade affects the domestic trade and markets of a country and India is not an exception in this scenario. India is a part of the globalization and any effect, positive or negative, on the global trade is bound to affect the Indian markets. The global economic downturn and the recent Dubai crisis are two examples to understand this fact.

India, like other countries participating in globalization, has been exporting and importing products and services to and from other countries. The following discussion highlights the effects that foreign trade has on the Indian markets.

It was until 1991 that India followed a socialist-democratic approach which kept it uncommitted to the foreign countries. The Swadeshi ideology enforced public ownerships and an approach of ‘India First’. In other words, self-sufficiency was the motive advocated by the governments that ruled the country till 1990s.

The India’s expedition towards economic liberalization began in 1991 and it opened the door for foreign trade and foreign investments. Within 10 years or so, India showed the potential of being a contender as the world’s fastest growing economy. In fact, the country secured its position as the second fastest growing economy in 2008.

The Indian markets have started entertaining increased number of foreign consumers, along with the domestic consumers. At least five important changes have been introduced in the Indian markets by this changed scenario:

• Rise in technological entrepreneurships.
• Growth of small and medium sized enterprises.
• Recognition of quality management as an important measure of manufacturing goods.
• Growth of rural areas as the participants in the Indian markets.
• Privatization of financial and lending institutions in the country.

The entry of the foreigners into the Indian markets was initially criticized but the scene is not the same anymore. The Indian Foreign Trade Policy of 2009-2014 has added 26 new markets to its aim of achieving the export target of US$ 200 billion and export growth target of 15 percent for the first two years. Other aims of the policy are to double India’s export of goods and services by 2014 and to double India’s share in global merchandise trade by 2020. The upcoming decade will play a significant role in fortifying the country’s trading capabilities.

Historical Developments in Online Business Methods

Online product directories originated only a few years ago and they can be categorized among the youngest online marketing mediums. This further means that their potential has not been fully explored till date. So, you can expect them to have a very bright future in the field of online marketing.

But, do you ever wonder what led to the origination of the product directories available on the web? There are some important developments in the history that gave birth to these directories. The following discussion provides information about the history of internet product directories.

Discovery of Internet
Needless to say, the discovery of cyber space is the first step towards the creation of online product directories. Internet in its proper form came into being in around 1994 and people thought of doing new experiments in the cyber world. The presence of internet product directories today is the result of few of such experiments.

Development of eCommerce
The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was an already existing standard at the time of internet development. The discovery of Mosaic browser and DSL further prepared the platform for eCommerce. In 1998, AOL recorded the sale of 1.2 billion from online sale during the Christmas holiday season. In 2000, the merger worth $350 million between AOL and Time Warner strengthened the significance of online commerce.

B2B Business Model
Till 2001, all the efforts were made towards the online business to customer (b2c) model. By the end of 2001, a new type of model called business to business (b2b) not only became popular but recorded the transactions worth $700 billion. The year can be called the beginning of the era of online product directories. The business buyers and sellers, including manufacturers, suppliers, exporters, distributors, wholesalers and retailers, got a global marketplace in the form of b2b space.

Emergence of SMEs
The small and medium sized enterprises sector grew due to the concept of eCommerce and it further contributed towards the popularity of online product directories. These enterprises got the inexpensive medium of promoting their businesses at a global level.

Business to business is indeed the most powerful model these days and online product directories are the mediums to implement this model successfully on the web.

Significance Of Product Catalogs in B2B Space

B2B space is redefining the ways and tactics of e-commerce especially for the small and medium sized enterprises. One great advantage of the business directories in the b2b space is that it allows the business sellers to publish their product catalogs. This is one feature that lacks in traditional as well as online yellow pages.

There are many ways in which a product catalog enhances the chances for the business to find its targeted buyers in the b2b space. The following discussion provides information on the important roles a product catalogs plays in a business directory.

Making the First Impression
If first impression is also the last one, then the product catalog for your business plays the role of building that first impression. It is this first impression that builds your business relationships for the rest of the life.

Organizing the Information
A product catalog is the most suitable way to organize the information about your business and the products it sells. It allows the business owner to add information about its previous sales and experience in the niche. Testimonials and buyers’ reviews can also be added to the product catalogs.

Assisting the Purchasing Agent
A purchasing agent makes use of product catalogs published by various business sellers to choose the right products for his company. So, a good product catalog assists the purchasers to learn what features of the products are desirable for its company. At the same time, a well-written product catalog enhances the chances of more number of sales.

Besides, product catalogs assist the purchasers in the following ways:

• To save time in learning about the products.
• To avoid inconvenience and save the efforts.
• To avoid the need of a salesperson describing the product features.
• To take advantages of low cost opportunities.

Existing in Competition
What should a business do to exist in the competition in an online business directory? By publishing the unique features of the business products in a product catalog, a business owner can gain attention from the prospective buyers.

Product catalogs have the power to pull more orders for your business in the b2b space. So, they can be called the significant role-players for the growth of business.