ProjectorCentral Brings ìBuyer Powerî To The Web
In many industries, the Internet is creating a radical shift in power from sellers to buyers. Today, buyers on the Internet can learn more than ever before about products, prices, and suppliers. Educated buyers maintain control of the buying process, and they get the best deals. With the opening of the new website ProjectorCentral (www.projectorcentral.com), buyer power has come to the projector industry. ProjectorCentral is not a dealership, nor is it a traditional e-commerce site. Rather, it is simply a buying and selling forum for projector products. It has two objectives: educate the buyer, and put individual buyers in touch with many sellers. To accomplish these objectives, ProjectorCentral offers two key features: the Buyersí Research Center, and the Marketplace. Visitors clicking into the Buyerís Research Center will find a Projector Product Database that can be sorted by ANSI lumen ratings, weight, resolution, and price. Also located in the Research Center are reviews on most current products. However, as a unique feature, reviews are not only done by ProjectorCentral staff, but by current users, whose comments are posted in a manner similar to the way readers' reviews are posted on Amazon.com. The Buyersí Research Center also contains profiles of all manufacturers in the industry, including links to specials and promotions being run by manufacturers on particular products. A Yellow Pages directory lists dealers, consultants, trade organizations, and other resources that may be of interest to buyers. However, the Buyersí Research Center is only half of what the site offers. The site designers have put together a unique bid solicitation feature called the Marketplace. Clicking into the Marketplace, the buyer can post a Request for Quotation (RFQ) that calls for price quotes on a particular product, or price quotes on any product meeting certain performance criteria (say, XGA resolution, 600 ANSI lumens, under 12 lbs.). For more formal RFQís, such as those produced by education and government agencies, full documentation can be posted and distributed online. Any dealer can then respond to the RFQs posted in the Marketplace. To collect the dealersí bids, a private mailbox is set up for each buyer, and responses to the RFQ are placed in the mailbox. The buyer will retrieve bids from the mailbox, evaluate the responses, consider the benefits of doing business with one dealer vs. another, and establish further conversations with the dealers that the buyer chooses. The final purchase transaction occurs off-line, directly between the buyer and the seller. On ProjectorCentral, individual dealer bids are not made public. This is to allow dealers the freedom to bid aggressively without concern that their pricing strategies will be revealed to the world. ProjectorCentral membership is free, but registration is required to get a password and become a member of the community. Evan Powell, the General Manager of ProjectorCentral, says, ìProjectorCentral is a community of projector people-users, buyers, dealers, and manufacturers. Itís a place where everyone can come to learn about projectors and conduct business. And with the power of the Internet, all community members benefit. Our member buyers get the best products at great prices through competitive bidding and low transaction costs. Suppliers also benefit, since the reduced prices and transaction costs will stimulate demand, and unit sales volume will increase.î ProjectorCentral has had a pre-registration page up since mid-November. The site should be open and fully operational about the time this issue hits the street. To check it out, go to www.projectorcentral.com. Next time you're in the market for a projector, this online community may give you buying leverage you've never had before. For more information contact Evan Powell, General Manager, ProjectorCentral at epowell@projectorcentral.com.