BANGALORE, INDIA: Gone are the days when big companies used to search for big-time buyers. Now, an era has come where SMBs/SMEs are among the major buyers of products and services. Every second SMB is thriving to evolve into a big player, thus improvising itself, and trying to induct and use latest technologies into their business.

Even the biggest of market leaders have found recluse in the fact that SMBs are great prospective buyers. They are targeting them as though they may not be a greatest of buyers in quantum; but combined, with their strength, they can be sure shot treasured customers.

In today's world, it is very difficult to locate a good service provider or supplier/manufacturer. It is similar to searching for water in the desert. There is always a great need for the buyer to search for a right vendor/supplier and vice versa seller to find a right kind of buyer who is good and pays on time.

Indiaetrade.com is one portal that has emerged as a one-stop point for addressing all the needs of SMBs/SMEs. The portal is a brainchild of its CEO, Rajiv Kumar Chugh, who has 20 years of experience in the fields of marketing, advertising and Internet technology. This platform allows small and medium businesses get and provide information in terms of their presence, and selling platform to offer their buying and selling needs.

The portal, in its pursuit to give exposure to these SMEs and SMBs, has tried to wrap the old wine in new packing, as though it was offering one old method of offering information like address and telephone numbers of various business houses, making it nothing more than a yellow pages or a telephone directory.

Chugh said, "We did try to make some added modifications to our directory and offered a platform to these SMB who are our target customers. We have tried to enhance the yellow pages/directory, what a layman may term indiaetrade.com as a trade portal, and a platform where SMBs/SMEs can not only list themselves, but also express their views and offer services.

According to Chugh, a forum will be launched very soon where SMBs will find a place to raise theirs voice and talk freely about their problems and various industry issues.

The CEO added, "We have found a great need for such portals/forums as, in their pursuit to grow, the SMBs have no place to seek information and opinions from masters and experienced people." At present, these SMB/SME's have no way and place to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction about various policies, issues, procedures and even share their knowledge and experience.

Unlike in USA, where this is a normal way of life, in India, trade forums have yet to take their place and these kind of trade forums/portals are the need of the day. It is only possible, with the help of these online trade platforms, where one can find hundreds of megabytes of space to offer profile, products, service, knowledge and experience, etc.

It is otherwise a cut-throat competition. Even the business scenario has changed in last 10-15 years. Now, one needs to have great knowledge and be well versed with various business tools in order to make big.

The process of developing this portal started due to the growing needs of customers of its sister concern, a website named economicalhost.com, which has 10,000+ corporate and SMBs as customers. Everyday, there used to be many enquiries from SMBs, asking for help in order to get a better market exposure or for ways to better promote their businesses. Innocent customers were cheated by some master marketers in the garb of offering promotions and then yielding no results.

In fact, there were couple of existing trade portals that were offering similar services, but were expensive. Indiaetrade.com was started to offer such services free of cost to budding SMBs, plus a featured listing for a very small cost.

Under development are tens of online trade websites pertaining to different places in India, focusing on industrial towns and cities, for example, JaipurYellowPages.in , IamDelhi.in, kolkotayellowpages.com, and many more. Indiaetrade has combined the data to offer a tremendous boost to any business that are looking at regional, national or global markets.

Talking particularly about the Delhi region, the portal has developed a commercial business directory that offers not only business listings and search for a business from Delhi as a whole, but also coming up with close to 150 websites with names of all colonies of Delhi wherein the person in need can look for any information in that particular colony.

How does Indiaetrade helps?

Getting listed in a B2B portal is one way for SMEs to reach out directly to potential buyers or sellers as the trends are changing. Everyone wants speedy results and instant information. Getting listed on Indiaetrade.com not only helps to get business, but also helps to get an easy listing in search engines and better response. Chung said, "For the fact that we have thousands and thousands of pages full of data and hundreds of frequent visitors, our pages are getting listed in various search engine and a good rank is must."

Talking specifically about exporters and importers in India, one can check various Yellow Pages of India or trade directories to ascertain how hundreds of business houses go for them. Therefore, a trade portal like Indiaetrade.com, which has tons of information and a platform for everyone, it is a win-win platform for its listed clients who are sure to get tons of exposure. Further, getting a place on these trade forums and blogs is quite prestigious as one can get instant recognition.

Another benefit is the cost as listing in Indiaetrade.com is either free or has a very small cost for potential featured customers. The portal has specific marketing techniques for geographic targeting. The small and medium business can also opt for geographical targeting of customers a wider reach. The geographical allows targeting customers in by city, county, metro area, state, or nation.