For companies that import products or supplies from other businesses, finding partners and suppliers to work with that are trustworthy and professional can be a challenge. Choosing suppliers without knowing exactly how high quality their product is and how quick and easy the process is can cost too much money, time and resources for small businesses.
Now, business-to-business review site Tradesparency.com plans to give these businesses a venue to learn about suppliers and voice their opinions about what has and hasn’t worked for them in the past.
Said Tradesparency Manager Thomas Halvorsen:
“We are trying to do something about the problems that come from a system based on trust in your supplier. Our approach is to be the “Yelp for suppliers”, and to help importers find quality suppliers in China and other countries. Too many people are getting burned by bad suppliers, and this is a huge problem especially for small business owners.”
Halvorsen says that Tradesparency is different from similar review sites because the team checks out each individual review to make sure they are written by real people, include real facts, and don’t consist of any scams. And while Tradesparency does eventually plan to offer sponsored search results to monetize the site, Halvorsen says that Tradesparency does not and will not allow any companies with inferior products to buy good reviews or status, which he says has impacted the integrity of some other review sites.
Tradesparency officially launched in July and is owned by Norwegian company Avobarks Marstan AS. The site is free and open to the public. Users can search different categories and products, as well as write their own reviews much like consumer review sites such as Yelp.
Said Halvorsen:
“If you got to a new restaurant or are planning a vacation you are probably checking out Yelp.com and Tripadvisor.com. If you are a planning on importing merchandise for you new clothing line for example, then why not take the time to find a manufacturer with decent reviews and ratings?”
As an experienced purchaser I think this is an interesting business idea. I wanted to find a supplier of beverages, but I couldn’t fund any vendor there yet. It looks like that Tradesparency has a data base of about 500 suppliers at the moment.
And growing, Martin! I actually had an idea like this not too long ago, but hey, thems the breaks. Glad to see them doing well with it!