About Barter

Barter, at it’s most basic and enduring level, is the exchange of goods and services between parties without the use of cash.

The concept of barter revolves around the strong / fundamental benefits & solutions it provides businesses – simple and age old but highly effective. Bartering is the most potent tool for companies to save / optimize cash and efficiently liquidate excess stocks & capacities.

Most businesses operate on the earn-save-spend model for making purchases. They earn the money. They save the money. They spend the money. This model works very well when the business is earning enough money to cover costs plus save a little for growth. But what happens when business isn’t so good-you need to grow now to earn more later? What happens for many businesses is barter.

Almost all businesses have excess capacity (office or press hours unused, tables unfilled, hotel rooms unoccupied) or excess inventory (discontinued, slow moving, or over-produced). When times are slow or you need more resources to grow, the normal pattern is that these unused resources INCREASE while your cash decreases.

Barter gives you the opportunity to turn those resources into value and purchasing power when you need it the most by trading your products or services for the things you need - when you need them.

Traditional barter – huge limitations

Barter trades essentially involve companies trading in kind, without the use of cash, for e.g. a hotel may trade rooms in lieu of linen or an electronics company may trade its products in lieu of media etc.

Barter has traditionally been relied upon and followed / understood as direct trade between two parties for an exchange in kind (i.e. no cash), thereby helping the parties trade what they have and get in return what the other party has. The key limitation has always been the restrictions of one – to one trade namely:

• Struggle to find partners with matching requirements – Party A may want what Party B is offering, but Party B may not want what Party A has.

• Limitations of value – usually low value transactions and even if requirements match, values may not.

In contrast to traditional barter, Corporate barter exchanges facilitate companies to engage in multi party barter trades without any one to one limitations. Through an organized trade exchange facility, companies may sell to any company in the exchange network and against the value sold, buy from any company without any one-to-on restriction.