Having survived the decline in the dot.com business, Czech Internet mall ABC Českého hospodářství posted record growth in trading volume last year. More and more Czech companies are turning to the Internet to find business partners and foreign markets. Lucie Vojtová, ABC Českého hospodářství's project manager, talks with The Prague Post about the advantages of B2B (business to business) trading on the Internet. She also reveals that the oldest Czech Internet mall is negotiating to join forces with a major foreign Web portal.

According to a recently released report, the volume of trading on your B2B mall rose 10 times over the past year. What was the reason for such a sharp increase?

E-trading has been on the rise worldwide. And we contributed to this trend by improving conditions for participants in our mall. Content on our Web, including demands and orders, has doubled over the past year. As a result, clients are offered bigger business opportunities.

ň The biggest interest in B2B Internet trading is from firms in the engineering, construction and financial sectors, but experts say Internet trading can catch on with almost anyone. What makes e-trading simpler compared with other forms of trading?

E-trading really creates new opportunities for all businesses. One key advantage is the low cost of entry to a big mall. A company can address hundreds of firms through one offer and thus speed up the process of searching for clients, finding new markets and addressing foreign markets.

Ă How much time can be saved trading on the Internet compared with other ways of trading?

More than 80 percent of offers and orders are matched almost immediately. In other words, in 80 percent of cases, a client submits his order or offer and receives responses the next day. The effectiveness lies in the inexpensive promotion of a company, the quick search for a business partner and reduction of the usual costs related to calling tenders.

Ő How do big companies usually trade on your Internet mall? What are the criteria for a firm to enter your mall?

A typical firm in our mall is a small or midsize firm that offers products and services to others. The trading takes the form of B2B business, not B2C [business to consumer]. The only requirement for our clients is that they need to stick to contract conditions. Incorrect data about a company or acting as a middleman in transactions is considered a violation of the mall's rules.

ΠHow much does your mall reach out to foreign clients? How many business transactions feature foreign subjects?

The Internet is a medium without borders. As a result, cooperation with foreign firms is the same as cooperation with Czech firms. It's not us who create demand but rather trading companies. As far as demand for our services is concerned, we register the most calls from Slovakia. Strong interest has also been expressed by companies from Germany, Poland and other EU countries. Today, some 35 percent of the total volume of offers and orders placed on www.abc.cz are created by foreign companies.

œ What do you do in order to increase your appeal to foreign clients?

Foreign markets are very attractive for our clients, especially following EU accession. That's why we're trying to bring to our clients as many export and import opportunities as possible. Right now, we're negotiating about joining forces with a major foreign Web portal that functions on the same basis as our mall.

– Although public orders are also available on your mall, these are coming mostly from regional governments and institutions, and not from the central government. Will you attempt to attract more public orders?

Our clients differ in their views about public tenders. Those who are interested appreciate big volumes and guaranteed payment in public tenders. So far, we've been compiling information about public tenders from the official source — the Central Address (www.centralni-adresa.cz, the official Web site where the government posts information about public tenders). But an increasing interest in public orders, especially from Slovakia, made us start cooperating with other sources as well.

— ABC Českého hospodářství mall registers over 23,000 active clients, and the mall handles over 21,000 e-mails per day. How big is ABC Českého hospodářství itself? What is key for an Internet mall to become trustworthy for its clients?

Our company currently employs over 50 staff. The most important factors for earning recognition are good references [from clients], clients' satisfaction and the ongoing upgrades of the mall. ABC Českého hospodářství has been present on the market since 1996 and we've gone through dramatic development since then. From publishing printed catalogs, we moved to publishing CD ROMs with business contacts for the current B2B mall. Successfully surviving the bursting of the dot.com bubble is, in my opinion, a very good reference.

" Given the current rise of B2B business, do you expect a further increase in competition among Internet malls? Actually, is there any room for new players?

Competition can be divided into two categories. On one side, there are firms that launched their business in the early 1990s, such as we did, who began offering information about various businesses. The other type of firms are new Internet companies that bring some innovation into the business. There are many such companies on the market and not all of them survive more than one year. The market has been virtually saturated; a firm without a loyal client base and a good-quality business network can expect a tough fight.

" Although e-shopping is booming, is there anything that you'd never buy on the Internet?