IndiaMART.com ties up with US based ImportVerticals.com to streamline cross-border B2B commerce

New Delhi, June 20, 2000. In a landmark development today, the largest India related B2B web directory and e-commerce solution provider IndiaMART.com tied up with US import portal Importverticals.com to collectively attract and leverage online B2B commerce across the borders. This exclusive tie-up of importverticals.com with an Indian counterpart announced the formation of a co-branded site that will host import queries from the US inviting Indian businesses to bid through a process of online reverse auctioning. Signing the MoU with Mr. John Greary, VP-Strategic Alliances, importverticals.com, Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Director, IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd. said that the strategic alliance provides an opportunity for Indian businesses, especially the small entrepreneurs to substantially enhance their exports under the dynamic global scenario.

Indian export businesses will be able to largely benefit from the alliance since business queries posted by members of importverticals.com will be hosted at the new co-branded website under distinct product categories. Indiamart.com that allows freelisting to India related businesses will invite its listed members for bidding through all possible means including e-mails, mailers, fax etc. The interested organisations will thus be able to participate in bidding and do business with thousands of businesses across the globe in a highly economical and efficient manner.

The MoU allows electronic access to IndiaMART’s extensive database of Indian exporters by importverticals.com. Importverticals.com will in turn, extend broad reaching marketing services to IndiaMART to help them build loyalty with their listed manufacturers and create stickiness to their website. The MoU further announces the creation of a co-branded website, to which the IndiaMART’s suppliers will be directed for the purpose of participating in the Importvertical’s auctions. IndiaMART will also be able to generate transaction fees in case an IndiaMART manufacturer wins the supply bid.

Texas based ImportVerticals.com creates hubs on the Internet for fragmented industries that have a significant portion of their supply chains outside U.S to enable its members to make more informed decisions as well as manage their supply chains more efficiently. ImportVerticals.com is an established leader in building e-commerce marketplaces for industries that are highly dependent on imported products. The company generates orders from across the United States and matches customer requirements with qualified manufacturers to complete transactions, thus creating a compelling vehicle for manufacturer-exporters to reach the US market while the manufacturer pays nothing to be involved. ImportVerticals is broadening its global reach by building strategic relationships with leading e-commerce companies around the world, including companies in India, China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and The Philippines. "The search for an alliance in the large export market, India, is over as in IndiaMART.com we have found the most exhaustive network and database covering the Indian subcontinent with objectives that so perfectly gel with ours", said Mr. John Geary. "Through this strategic alliance with IndiaMART.com, buyers and sellers in both the countries will be able to find each other more easily and conduct transactions more economically" he added.

IndiaMART.com, launched in 1996, today hosts the largest web-database of Indian manufacturers and exporters with a listing of more than 60,000 companies, aims at promoting Indian businesses on the net. The association with its U.S. counterpart, the first of it's kind across the borders, would assist the member companies in procurement, on-line bidding, reverse auctions, custom clearance and even the shipping and insurance of the goods. The four-year-old organisation is the culmination of the efforts for upgrading the process and reduce the expenses, time and hurdles for the export oriented businesses through the Net.

With the amount of business transactions on the net increasing multi-folds and the research organisations predicting that more than 80% of these will be B2B, the significance of such an alliance can not be undermined. Fetching well over 3 million pageviews a month, IndiaMART.com facilitated transactions worth Rs.6000 million in the last financial year, through its portal. This is bound to grow leaps and folds as the tie-up provides the missing link between the businesses of the two countries.

Process steps for contacting a supplier/manufacturer and running an auction:

1. Importverticals.com receives a customer order
2. Importverticals.com searches IndiaMART's database for suppliers of the desired product and retrieves the relevant information
   
3. IndiaMART is notified of the customer order and the chosen suppliers' list to contact and to encourage them to bid for the order on the co-branded website
   
4. Importverticals.com also sends a co-branded email to the appropriate suppliers inviting them to bid on the order. The email includes the domain name for the auction
   
5. Indian exporters participate in the reverse auction on the co-branded site
   
6. The transaction is completed with the winning bidder and a small transaction fee is be collected from the manufacturer on behalf of IndiaMART

(Reference urls: http://www.indiantravelportal.com ; http://importverticals.com)

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