[Q11]Quantitative Trading How To Build Your Own Algorithmic Trading Business

It is not uncommon to see consumers comparing prices and reading reviews on the Internet before coming to a buying decision. They can compare prices for physical products such as automobiles, hand phones, MP3 players, or they can compare prices for non-physical items such as car insurance, credit card interest rates, and more. But what does such consumer behavior mean for the modern business owner?

As prices become transparent on the Internet, it is critical for businesses to maintain competitive prices so as to stay profitable. Either that, or they will have to come up with exclusive products that cannot be easily found elsewhere. But chances are, a wide range of products can be easily found online. For instance, anyone can just visit a trade lead directory and locate partners from different countries that supply similar products. They may then compare prices and select the best possible deal. In fact, this is a common procurement process adopted by many savvy business owners.

As mentioned earlier, it is crucial for businesses these days to keep their prices low so as not to lose favor with their customers. To do so, they have to achieve economies of scale. That means buying in volume to bring the prices down. Volume here becomes of vital importance. To own a certain segment of the market, they must sell as much as they can. Hence, the need to consider the global market - for what can be bigger than the global market?

In order to acquire customers from other countries, businesses are again turning to the Internet. They can list their business contact information on trade lead business directories, and allow targeted leads to contact them through these websites. Usually, a lead directory will allow the business to list their email contact information and their corporate website URL. Addresses and phone numbers can be listed too, but these are optional.

Once listed on a trade directory, other businesses interested to make contact can choose to email the business owner or visit their website directly. They may make contact to ask for quotations, or simply submit a product enquiry. However, note that the listing will expire after a certain period of time.

Even though listing a company in a trade directory means paying a small listing fee, this fee is often much cheaper compared to traditional print advertising. Advertising in international trade magazines may cost up to thousands of dollars. Sometimes, the leads acquired from these advertising channels do not even lead to actual sales orders.

As you can see, the benefits offered by trade directories are tremendous. You can minimize risk by buying a listing for a small fee, and be able to immediately tap into the global market. When such business networking activities are pursued actively online, business owners have a much higher chance of enjoying greater economies of scale, and thus enjoy more handsome profits.