Smart
buyers worldwide know there is only one website worth bookmarking
when it comes to searching for high quality, competitively priced
products on the Internet.
Sourcing
Guide at hkenterprise.com has been making life easier and
a lot more profitable for buyers since 1996, when the Hong
Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) first realised the immense
potential of online sourcing.
The hkenterprise.com
formula of offering specific marketing, sourcing and partnering
services at the TDC's award-winning tdctrade.com portal currently
draws an average of two million hits a day.
A new
and exciting dimension allows visitors to search for potential
suppliers in the whole of the Greater China region as well
as Hong Kong. "The look and feel is the same as the former
hkenterprise.com, but buyers can now browse by regions,"
explains TDC senior publications manager Henry Ng.
The navigation
bar allows a buyer looking for toys, for example, to search
for toy makers by market - Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland,
Taiwan or Macau - or by region.
Type
in a product name or keyword and a list of Greater China suppliers
and their details will appear on-screen. "We have more
than 3,000 categories to cover all products," adds Ng.
He says
Sourcing Guide, which is a key component of tdctrade.com,
is convenient, can be accessed whenever and wherever the buyer
is and is also efficient, as just one click provides access
to banks of information.
"It
is very cost-effective as buyers enjoy free access once they
have registered online," Ng adds. "Sourcing Guide
also features popular specialties like enquiry baskets, a
message centre, new product alerts and recommended categories."
This
user-friendly approach has seen tdctrade.com recognised by
ACNeilsen as The Best Trade Promotion Portal In Asia in May
2003 and win CMP Asia's fourth Annual Intelligent20 Awards
in November that year. "tdctrade.com also won a Standard
of Excellence Web Award from the Web Marketing Association
of the US in 2002, 2003 and 2004," Ng notes.
Most
visitors to hkenterprise.com are from Asia (31%), followed
by Europe (27%) and North America (26%), with the rest split
between the Middle East, Central and South America, Australia
and Africa. "Just over 26% of visitors are importers,
16% are manufacturers and nearly 18% are wholesalers/retailers,"
Ng observes.
One of
the keen advantages of hkenterprise.com is its pricing: it
costs US$3,800-5,000 a year to advertise on the website. "For
small and medium-sized enterprises and overseas buyers, hkenterprise.com
offers large exposure at a very competitive price compared
with similar websites," Ng points out.
WRITTEN BY JAMES PALMER