Bachir Kassir has spent over 20 years in the ecommerce technology industry, having founded the WebJaguar ecommerce platform before selling it to manufacturing and supply chain technology vendor QAD Inc. in late 2021. Now, Kassir’s out with MyTradeZone.com, which he founded and describes as a B2B-dedicated social network stocked with business tools for developing revenue-generating business relationships with trading partners.
Bachir Kassir, founder, MyTradeZone.com
“We know that 40% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on trade shows and that over 95% of marketers use social media content in their campaigns,” he says in his promotional material, adding: “So why is there no social network specifically dedicated to B2B trade?”
That’s where MyTradeZone fills the gap in B2B commerce, he adds.
“On MyTradeZone, each business can both market its products/services and source what it needs, all within the same platform,” he says.
Kassir notes that he founded and launched the site quietly several years ago, building a base of about 50,000 users through word-of-mouth.
A toolset with CRM and email marketing
But he recently publicized MyTradeZone’s official launch in a press release and is considering taking on investment partners to spur growth. He adds that he expects the site to begin generating revenue in the first quarter of next year.
MyTradeZone.com provides built-in features ranging from site search, product listings, and online video chats to email marketing and CRM software applications to help buyers and sellers find and build business relationships with particular types of trading partners.
It offers limited access to these features at no charge under its basic membership plan. Premium plans will provide the same features and higher site search rankings for monthly fees from $20 to $50 based on the volume of activity.
In addition, the top premium plan will let participants earn fees from online ads placed on the social network site. MyTradeZone will take a cut of those ad fees.
MyTradeZone.com does not operate as a conventional ecommerce marketplace hosting product and services sales transactions among participating buyers and sellers, who complete those transactions outside the networking site. But it will let users monetize business communities, such as by setting up industry organizations and charging membership fees through the Stripe online payments system. In that case, MyTradeZone will charge a fee based on a percentage of the membership fees.
Kassir says MyTradeZone has been gaining about 100 members daily — a figure he wants to grow to about 1,000.
To get there, he says he’ll continue to invest in “lots of business tools” available to members and offer premium membership deals to trade shows, business networking groups and trade associations. He adds that while he has mostly self-funded MyTradeZone, he may consider outside investors.
Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.
Sign up
Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact Mark Brohan, vice president of B2B and Market Research Development, at mark@digitalcommerce360.com and follow him on Twitter @markbrohan.
Favorite