Challenge
Build an online B2B exchange for artisans, sole-proprietorships, high-end gift vendors and museums to display and sell merchandise at wholesale prices. MuseumShop.com, who currently owns and operates a B2C online marketplace of high-quality museum merchandise, wanted to establish a presence in the B2B market. This implementation includes a secure approval process for new users, a clear interface for less technology-savvy users, and a complete back-end database system.

Solution
MuseumTrade.com is a cashless wholesale exchange offering thousands of unique fine-art collectibles and gifts. Registered vendors access a personalized "Micro site", a site within a site, to view their product line. This feature/setup allows them to easily add and edit products, publish news releases and company events, upload photos, and more using the simple, consistent interface. The system permits vendors to price products in multiple "tiers", giving them the ability to discount for bulk purchasing. Buyers can easily browse the vast array of items offered by choosing a specific category, museum or product name. Items can also be saved to a wish list for future purchase. With simplicity in mind for the sake of less "wired" users, MuseumTrade.com offers prospective buyers an innovative "9-Up" design displaying 9 item photos per page, with the accompanying product details accessible by placing your mouse over an image - keeping the page attractive and uncluttered.

This solutions permit MuseumTrade.com administrators to review all applications for site registration. They then approve every buyer or vendor before the applicant can log in to the system. This benefit ensures that only qualified parties have access to the exchange. MuseumTrade.com's back-end architecture uses ASP, COM and SQL to serve thousands of product images and related information. Future enhancements will include an XML interface so that new vendors can import images and information about goods from any type of delimited file (Excel, plain text, etc.). They will also be able to rate and review other vendors and their products.

Result
The aggressive build-time allows the client to use the MuseumTrade.com site in promotion of their new B2B business model.