Bachir Kassir, an accomplished entrepreneur and founder of MyTradeZone and WebJaguar Digital Commerce, has a notable track record in launching ventures, notably Advanced E Media, Inc., which introduced the WebJaguar Commerce and Marketing Automation platform, a software-as-a-service model. His latest endeavor,
MyTradeZone.com, serves as a global B2B trade network, likened to LinkedIn for businesses, aiming to connect companies worldwide.
Machintel: Please share with us your journey that led to the founding of MyTradeZone? What inspired the concept of MyTradeZone?
Bachir Kassir: Some time ago, I thought about creating a B2B network to connect companies. At that time, I had just founded my digital commerce company, ‘WebJaguar’. So, I registered the domain mytradezone.com and kept the idea in the back of my mind.
During my tenure as President and CEO of MyTradeZone, I dealt with over 1000 businesses, and the idea of MyTradeZone evolved even more with feedback from real customers, discussing their challenges and how MyTradeZone could help. Consequently, we developed a prototype and launched the site as a beta.
Then, in December 2021, I had an exit when my company, WebJaguar, was acquired. With the freedom gained from the exit, I was able to dedicate 100% of my time to MyTradeZone, leveraging over 20 years of experience in B2B to officially launch the platform.
Machintel: In your view, what are the biggest challenges facing the B2B sector today?
Bachir Kassir: The biggest challenge facing the B2B sector is marketing and achieving cost-effective brand awareness for their products and services—to the right target audience. Many companies have great products and services, but the cost of exposure is expensive.
Additionally, many companies, restricted by their size or location, encounter obstacles in attending various trade shows, yet they continue to offer outstanding products despite these challenges.
Machintel: How does MyTradeZone aim to revolutionize B2B interactions, especially with its AI-driven matchmaking and recommendations?
Bachir Kassir: MyTradeZone, think of it as a digital twin of our physical world, where every business qualifies to join. Now,
MyTradeZone is the universe of companies. Within this platform, businesses are categorized, organized, and displayed according to their region, industry verticals, and more.
MyTradeZone uses data science and AI algorithms for smart matchmaking between companies. We aim to revolutionize B2B interactions using this smart B2B search engine. Every business has a supply side and demand side, and because of that, MyTradeZone helps companies connect with potential customers. At the same time, MyTradeZone assists companies in procuring products and services from suppliers.
Machintel: What methods are employed by MyTradeZone to ensure its users have fruitful networking experiences that result in lead generation?
Bachir Kassir: When a company is on MyTradeZone, it becomes part of a vast universe of companies. At the same time, it can belong to and be part of different networking groups, trade shows, events, associations, and so on. This method ensures that users are exposed to the right targeted audience of the group they belong to.
Additionally, a company can sponsor a specific group, thereby exposing itself to the members of that group. A group organizer can invite various companies to sponsor their groups, or companies can choose to sponsor a group through a self-service option. In the process, the group organizer can monetize their group. There are many free tools available, including live chat, video chat, group chat, private company notes, and other tools that ensure a fruitful networking experience.
Another key feature is the request for quotation (RFQ) system, allowing anyone to submit quotations, while companies have the capability to search through these submissions. However, if a company is on the paid plan, the Business Essential plan, they get automatically alerted when someone submits an RFQ that matches their selected tags. Another incentive for users to upgrade to the paid plan, the Business Essential, is that they can select up to 20 keyword phrases of their choice, ensuring their company appears at the top of the search results.
All the above and more provide both free and paid tools available for lead generation and smart matchmaking between companies.
MyTradeZone elevates business networking to a new level, essentially becoming the LinkedIn for businesses. Additionally, it functions as a B2B search engine for companies, products, RFQs, and groups.
Machintel: How can businesses effectively measure the ROI of B2B networking platforms?
Bachir Kassir: One of the important things we aim to achieve on MyTradeZone is to provide visibility for companies regarding links clicked, company and product views, group stats, and much more. All of these metrics are accessible via the advanced user dashboard. In addition, users have the ability to create tracking codes and then embed these codes in ad and marketing campaigns outside of MyTradeZone, such as a link in the footer of the site like ‘Connect with us on MyTradeZone’, or a link or QR code in the signature of their emails, or maybe links on their blogs or other social media campaigns. They will be able to measure the leads generated from those tracking codes, and determine which tracking code generated which lead. This way, they can measure ROI.
Another great feature that also aids MyTradeZone in viral marketing is the reward points program. Any user who signs up another user gets 100 reward points, and the newly signed-up user receives $20 in ad credit. This is a great incentive to help users start using MyTradeZone.
Machintel: In your opinion, what are the key factors driving innovation in B2B e-commerce?
Bachir Kassir: As background history, my previous venture, WebJaguar, which was acquired by QAD, a Thoma Bravo portfolio company, was a B2B digital commerce platform. The way we drove innovation to our customers was by empowering users to easily implement what they wanted without the need for expensive custom code. We employed the same technique here at MyTradeZone, where we empower our users to leverage many digital commerce capabilities on the platform. However, we intentionally kept MyTradeZone open-ended, allowing users to drive potential customers to their own e-commerce sites outside of MyTradeZone. In this way, MyTradeZone acts as a facilitator.
Machintel: Would you like to elaborate on some of the unique features and benefits that MyTradeZone offers to businesses and professionals?
Bachir Kassir: MyTradeZone is a platform that offers great features and benefits for a wide range of users:
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For businesses, whether they sell products or services, MyTradeZone is a helpful place to grow and connect. It's also designed to support trade show organizers, industry associations, and networking groups by making a digital version of their events. This means the value of these events can last much longer than the actual event dates, helping members, sponsors, and organizers alike.
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Creators can find a lot of value in MyTradeZone too, thanks to tools that make it easy to earn money. This includes working smoothly with Stripe for payments, making it simple to get paid for your work.
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Marketers and advertising agencies will find MyTradeZone an ideal tool for promoting their clients' work effectively.
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Even if you're a business professional without a company, you can join MyTradeZone. It's a place where you can be part of different networking groups, opening up more opportunities for you.
Yes, the best way to elaborate on the unique feature is through this link:
http://www.mytradezone.com/pricing
Take a look at what we offer:
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Build a permanent company profile
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List products & services
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Search, research, network, and share
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Text and voice notes
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Create private and public networking groups
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Peer-to-peer payment enablement
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Request for a quote (RFQ)
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Virtual business card exchange
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AI-powered matchmaking and recommendations (coming soon)
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Text, video, and group chat
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Pay-per-click and display ads
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Creator and monetization tools
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Always open networking event
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Ability for group owners to monetize from their members and sponsors and from ad revenue
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Payment technology powered by Stripe
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Reward points & gamification of MyTradeZone
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2 GB of free file storage per user
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CRM and email marketing tools
Also, here are the main target audiences for MyTradeZone:
Machintel: According to you, how are data privacy concerns shaping B2B digital strategies?
Bachir Kassir: Privacy is always a concern. On MyTradeZone, we address this by providing privacy settings at the user level, allowing the user to decide what is visible and what is not visible to the public based on their privacy settings. For example, a user could join a networking group but decide not to show that publicly to others.
Machintel: What ultimate impact do you aim to create for your user base at MyTradeZone?
Bachir Kassir: To be the ultimate social networking site for businesses, think of MyTradeZone as the entire universe of global business. It resembles an always-open, vast trade show.
Within this business universe, there are highly specialized networking groups based on regions, such as chambers of commerce, and on industries or trade show events for specific verticals, among others. Companies can network and join as needed, depending on their business needs.
In other words, MyTradeZone serves as a digital twin of the actual physical business world. Within this world, MyTradeZone hosts smaller digital twins of various networking groups, trade shows, and events. This, in turn, will create a fertile ground for companies to network with each other on both the supply and demand sides. It introduces a disruptive, cost-effective way for businesses to network and promote their products and services to their target audience, and for companies to source products and services from their target suppliers.
Machintel: How do you see MyTradeZone influencing global trade and e-commerce in the coming years?
Bachir Kassir: Huge impact, as it will be a game-changer for the trade show industry. It elevates business networking to a new level, essentially becoming the LinkedIn for businesses. It's important to note that ecommerce transactions take place outside the platform; MyTradeZone merely facilitates connections and networking. Additionally, it functions as a B2B search engine for companies, products, RFQs, and groups.
Machintel: What are the upcoming developments and features we can expect in MyTradeZone?
Bachir Kassir: Here are some of the recently released and upcoming features:
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Ability for users to take notes, could be text note, with voice and images. These notes help the user during networking make notes on any companies.
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AI matchmaking tools to help companies connect with the right customer and right sourcing partner.
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Visualizing and mapping data in different views including map view and VR view.
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Mobile App is coming soon!
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The features are driven by customers’ demand.
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Enhancing the group feature and the reporting behind it.
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In addition to group video chat, we will also have screen sharing.
Privacy is always a concern. On MyTradeZone, we address this by providing privacy settings at the user level, allowing the user to decide what is visible and what is not visible to the public based on their privacy settings.
Machintel: Could you discuss the impact MyTradeZone has had so far in the B2B sector?
Bachir Kassir: Users already benefiting from MyTradeZone are enjoying the perks of an always-open networking event to find potential customers and source products from suppliers.
The primary impact observed so far is that companies can achieve this quickly and cost-effectively. The Group feature is supporting existing networking groups and trade show organizers by providing a digital twin version of their group. This offers numerous benefits: members can network beyond the typical 3 or 4 days of the event, and sponsors maintain their presence beyond this period. Additionally, trade show or event organizers help their members access networking opportunities beyond the event's duration, attracting more members and sponsors. Additionally, trade show organizers can sign up companies that want to participate in their events but cannot attend physically due to various reasons, such as cost or location, allowing trade show and event organizers to enjoy increased participation from sponsors or members.
Machintel: As a leader and entrepreneur, what key lessons have you learned that you apply to MyTradeZone?
Bachir Kassir: A key lesson learned is that your idea will evolve once you start implementing it. This evolution is based on market feedback, user feedback, and so on. When we embarked on developing MyTradeZone, the scope was one thing, but as the product evolved and started receiving feedback, new ideas emerged that we had never considered before, leading us to even cancel other ideas we thought were important.
For example, with the paid plan, we discovered that the most important thing for companies is to be found in search results for a select set of keyword phrases. Consequently, we decided that the paid plan for the Business Essential Edition would be $240 a year ($20/month) and include up to 10 keyword phrases of the customer's choice, ensuring the company appears at the top of the search results. This feature resonated well with users and justified upgrading to the premium plan on its own. Users can still opt for pay-per-click, but this included feature is always available and provides great value. Many of my customers' friends have told me, "Bachir, I am willing to pay more; this is very valuable to me."
Imagine those special keywords and keyword phrases that are crucial for a business to be found in search results, causing the company to appear at the top of the search results. This is invaluable to the business.
This insight emerged after we received customer feedback. And this is true for any product, particularly technology products. This phenomenon has occurred with Apple and many other tech companies, with many of the products you use today not being designed this way from day one, but rather evolving over time.
Machintel: How do you balance innovation with practical business needs in your role at MyTradeZone?
Bachir Kassir: This is why I am excited every day to be part of MyTradeZone and make my job both fun and creative. There are endless creative solutions and innovative approaches that I think of every day, and the challenge is to balance this with practical needs. The idea initially emerges, then we discuss and brainstorm with key team members. After the feasibility is assessed, we run it by some key users/customers to get their feedback. And I wake up many times with cool ideas that eventually make it to the platform.
Machintel: In your opinion, what are the emerging trends in B2B marketing?
Bachir Kassir: The data is there; if there is a way to match the data with user needs and provide this data on demand to the client, then this trend will evolve, and many companies will rely less on physical trade shows, which tend to be extremely expensive. These companies will shift their marketing increasingly online, and MyTradeZone is a perfect breeding ground for that.
For example, in my previous company, we used to attend 8 to 12 trade shows a year (not during COVID), and every show, without exception, was profitable for us and provided a good ROI.
Our dilemma is twofold:
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Trade shows are extremely expensive; at the least, a 10 x 10 booth will cost us between $15K to $25K per show, and a 10 x 20 booth, depending on the show, will cost us between $30K to $50K per show. And this cost is only for a 3 to 5-day event.
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We want to attend more trade shows, including international ones, but our capacity is limited in terms of human resources and cost. So, we were missing out on many opportunities to expose our products and services.
MyTradeZone solves this dilemma; it will allow trade show organizers and event organizers to quickly create a digital twin of the actual physical event, and it will enable companies to participate online, thus expanding their reach and reducing costs.
Therefore, the trend in B2B marketing will gravitate toward more participation in online groups.
Machintel: Lastly, what do you think is the future of B2B marketplaces in the context of global trade?
Bachir Kassir: I'd like to highlight that MyTradeZone is designed as a social network for businesses. We intentionally did not want products and services to be sold on MyTradeZone like a marketplace, such as Amazon or Alibaba. Instead, MyTradeZone is a B2B search engine, more like Google, but focused on B2B, and helps companies find each other and connect. They then conduct the actual trade and selling outside the platform. We have built many creator tools on the platform to allow creators to monetize their creations. For example, a trade show organizer, a creator, can create a networking group and build it to maybe 5,000 members of wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, jewelry, cosmetics customers, and so on. Then, they can approach sponsors, for example, Company A, which provides website and e-commerce solutions to this group to sponsor the group. This way, the group organizer can charge money. MyTradeZone uses the Uber model to make money from creators and takes a 20% cut from the money they charge. For example, if they charge a sponsor $100/month, the organizer will make $80 net. An organizer could also charge members maybe $10 to be part of this group; again, the organizer will keep $8.
So, we are creating an ecosystem where creators can thrive.