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By Chris Young
Daily Bruin Contributor
The art of bartering, best known for its popularity at swap
meets, is tentatively stepping into the World Wide Web.
Bartering, the trading of goods and services without the use of
money, may be an unfamiliar process to students accustomed to using
money to buy and sell things. Exchangemall.com, a newly released
trading site, hopes to bring the world of bartering closer to the
UCLA community.
“Our focus is introducing this concept of bartering to the
consumer,” said Mark Savoy, CEO of exchangemall.com, in a recent
interview.
Exchangemall.com is a Web
site that provides the opportunity to buy and sell goods, as well
as services. Instead of completing transactions in money, customers
use barter dollars which are intangible units of value that can be
used onsite.
The process is simple, after selling a product and collecting
the barter dollars, a person can then exchange the barter dollars
for other products. Businesses and individuals can even use the
site to set up, for free, their own “mall,” or listing
of products and services.
There is also no cost to users to freely browse the site for an
item to buy in barter dollars. In addition to barter dollars, site
goers can also use trade dollars from other barter
organizations.
“Barter dollars are recognized in the financial world as a
cash dollar, therefore the items that are sold are sold as if they
used cash dollars,” Savoy said.
After a transaction is completed, however, the buyer is charged
a cash transaction fee by credit card on the total amount bartered.
This fee goes to the Web site and is not described when signing up
for an account.
In addition to the goods section, exchangemall.com also offers
other bartering categories for users to narrow down their choices.
Financial, travel, entertainment, online games and charities are a
few such options.
Each area has resources and services related to it, for example,
the financial section provides news, advice and financial-related
services.
In the charity section, users may donate barter dollars to
charities so they can purchase needed goods off the site. Such
charities range from small grassroots organizations to large
multinational organizations.
“The charities have been very successful in using barter
dollars to offset their needs, whether it be clothing, blankets or
food,” Savoy said. “We’re getting an incredible
response from the community at large, as well as the business
community.”
Users need not worry about fraud, as exchangemall.com is a
member of the International Reciprocal Trade Association, a
worldwide organization of businesses.
According to the Web site, IRTA works to ensure the legitimacy
of their associated sites, stating: “Our mission embraces
five main goals: to lead, teach, promote, self-regulate and
increase the profitability of barter industry
participants.”
Small businesses are also embracing barter methods, Savoy said.
By using exchangemall.com, these businesses can capture more market
shares, move their inventory or create more inventory, and decrease
cash expenditures.
“We are introducing a new concept to the marketplace,
that’s not threatening to that marketplace,” Richard
Dalbeck, chief finance officer, said of exchangemall.com’s
impact.
Overall, exchangemall.com
wants to introduce the average American to this unique method of
buying and selling without cash.
According to Savoy, 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies engage
in barter and trade on a daily basis. Exchangemall.com wants to
bring small businesses and individuals into those numbers.
The site’s success seems attainable with its experienced
management team. Savoy worked as senior vice president of ABS
Worldwide, one of the largest barter organizations in the world,
and as president of the World Trade Consortium, an international
trade company specializing in alternative financing.
In addition to Savoy, Dalbeck worked with entertainment
companies such as Sony and Lorimar Pictures, and Richard Porter,
president of exchangemall.com, worked for 20 years in senior-level
positions with advertising and motion picture companies.
Even with all its features and experienced staff, however,
exchangemall.com appears
to have several drawbacks.
Along with the issue of the transaction fee levied on the buyer,
users may not be convinced that there will be enough products in
the “malls” onsite to merit trading in their own
products for barter dollars. Given that the Web site is relatively
new, however, it is still attracting sellers.
Only time can tell if small businesses and individuals will use
the site to barter items but Savoy is confident that they will.
“Introducing applications of trade to a student coming out
of college into the small business world, the ability to carry this
forward, will benefit them,” Savoy said.