Global Foods Online, which caters to the international gourmet specialty food industry, has added eight business-to-business e-commerce Web sites.
The company hopes the sites will complement a quarterly catalog set to debut in the spring. The 200-page catalog, which would be delivered to about 200,000 buyers, would enable sellers to advertise on the Web sites for free.
Global Foods would allow sellers to advertise in the catalog, which also would include beverages, confectionaries and fine wine. Advertisements would cost from $2,000 for a small portion of a page to about $10,000 for a full-page ad.
“We're trying to keep up with the tastes and demands of the buying public and the selling community,” said David Gordon, chairman at Global Foods Online, Los Angeles. “By driving the print reader to the Web site, we're providing the multimedia campaign for these companies' sales departments.”
Gordon said an additional “tens of thousands” of marketers are expected to advertise solely on the Web sites for a commission on transactions.
The structure for that marketing platform is still being developed, he said.
Global Foods Online, www.globalfoodsonline.com, acquired a kosher site, a natural-foods site and an organic site, in addition to sites in Italy, China and Latin America, among other places.
“[Manufacturers] don't know how to get those international markets,” Gordon said. “So what we do is tell that small, medium and emerging food company, 'We will expand your sales by getting you directly to the buyers of your specialty foods products.' “
The company plans to acquire 12 more BTB e-commerce sites in undisclosed locations, Gordon said.
“We're trying to get a wide and expansive reach,” he said. “Our goal is to offer the same range of products, either in print or on the Internet, that a consumer can get in any supermarket that offers gourmet foods.”
