What is Tom Up to Now?

You may have seen me teasing the launch of a new business venture and then kicking off MarketsConnection.com at the ISSA Show in Toronto several weeks ago.

I realize this begs some questions:

What does this mean for the Shade’s Mills Group?

And also:

What is exactly is MarketsConnection and how do the two businesses coexist?

In terms of the Shade’s Mills Group, this business and my work with clients will continue. Most certainly, I will continue to work with my current and past clients. I do have capacity to take on new projects but a lot of that will depend on how quickly MarketsConnection scales up and how much of my time it demands.

What is MarketsConnection?

This is a new incorporated venture in which I am partnering with Kevin Budzey of AIM Redistribution. MarketsConnection is an ecommerce site, more specifically a multi vendor marketplace that exists to serve B2B wholesale distributors.

Say that again?

It is a website where distributors can buy from and sell to distributors.

MarketsConnection is the space where those connections can be made. For selling distributors, we feel it is ideal for clearing out dead stock, slow moving inventory, obsolete items or any product line that the distributor wishes to generate volume. For buying distributors, it will be a great place to find deals, hard to source or discontinued items or items that can represent new categories expanding their market basket for their existing customer base.

MarketsConnection does not buy or inventory product. We facilitate the sale of items from distributor to distributor for which we will charge a commission.

When Will MarketsConnection be Live?

Very soon we hope!

We have been testing the site and discovered a bit of a wrinkle with the shipping integration and calculator which we continue to work to find a solution.

Once resolved, we will begin beta testing with some distributors acting as vendors as we build towards a fully functional marketplace.

We are very excited about our concept and will be sharing more news soon!