Ubid adds new channels to service excess inventory market

[mandy]

uBid.com Holdings, Inc. (UBHI.OB), owner of uBid.com -
one of the leading business-to-consumer and business-to-business online auction
companies, today announced it is changing its business strategy to focus solely on
liquidating excess inventories for top-brand manufacturers. This new direction meets the
growing demand among major manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for a
streamlined asset recovery solution and builds on the company’s solid foundation,
having liquidated more than $2 billion of excess inventory for over 7,000 sellers in the
last 10 years.
“The excess inventory problem exists across every vertical. Because no manufacturer,
retailer or distributor can predict the future, there are going to be supply-chain
inefficiencies and a need for uBid.com Holdings’ services,” said Jeffrey Hoffman, Chief
Executive Officer.
Unlike most of its competitors that have a single-channel sales model, uBid.com
Holdings will augment its existing auction platform, located at www.ubid.com, with an
additional four channels to better serve its sellers’ asset-recovery efforts. The additional
four sales channels include:
• uBuy – Many online shoppers prefer the instant gratification of a traditional
ecommerce purchase, this new website will offer top brand name excess
inventory at fixed prices.
• uLive – Building on its success helping financial institutions liquidate the retail
facilities of brands such as Appliance Electronics Depot, Laminate Store
International and Hollywood Video with offline brick and mortar sales, uBid.com
Holdings will continue to scale its facilities liquidation model with a new uLive
channel.
• uBiz – To accommodate the large volume transactions commonly associated
with business-to-business sales, uBid.com Holdings has created the uBiz
wholesale/business-to-business channel.
• uSaaS – Using the emerging Software-as-a-Service model, trusted partners will
have the ability to leverage uBid’s technology platform to conduct both charitybased
auctions and private, invite-only auctions...

full press release: http://www.ubid.com/about/press_room/v7_...212008.pdf

[mandy]

IR on the new strategy:

Besides selling manufacturers’ excess inventory on its existing auction site, uBid.com, which is being redesigned, the company plans to also sell merchandise through several new channels. These include selling products at fixed prices at a new web site called uBuy, through a business-business site for large-volume transactions called uBiz, and licensing its auction technology to host charity and private auctions.

In addition, uBid will sell offline when opportunities arise, as it has done this year in Florida to liquidate the stock of a chain of appliance stores. “Washers and dryers are large and they don’t lend themselves to the Internet because of shipping,” Hoffman says. “So for the first time we sold offline.” ...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=26187