Time ripe to revive electronic marketplaces

Auckland online procurement company Unimarket believes the time is right to revive the concept of electronic marketplaces that let buyers and sellers streamline procurement processes using the Web.

Unimarket chief executive Scott Blackwood says the company's software allows companies and organisations that buy goods from several suppliers online carry out all their purchasing through one website.

The company has received just under $1 million in two rounds of investment from private investors and through Auckland technology incubator The Icehouse, he says.

Unimarket, which has nine staff in New Zealand, has recently set up offices in Australia and the United States and will seek further capital from its investors to fund growth in those markets.

Former Gen-i chief executive Garth Biggs is a director and former Microsoft New Zealand managing director Ross Peat serves on the company's advisory board. Both are industry veterans who witnessed the hype and subsequent collapse of numerous e-markets during the dotcom boom and bust. Online buyers are presented with a list of approved suppliers and supplier contracts. Customers can also form online buying communities to get discounts on items, Mr Blackwood says.

The company has four customers – Waikato and Victoria Universities, Hamilton City Council and Northland Polytechnic, and there are just under 10,000 individual buyers within those organisations. He says the company has 165 premium suppliers, including House of Travel and Office Max – who pay for services such as the uploading of catalogues and integration of their e-commerce systems.

Suppliers who only receive an e-mail advising them of an order receive the service for free. Unimarket charges customers or buyers an implementation fee and then a monthly fee to use the service. Suppliers pay "a small percentage" of their sales through the site.

Unimarket expects to sign on a new customer every month, Mr Blackwood says.

"We believe we've got the right product at the right time."