30 days from oct 24
Michael Smyth, the new president and CEO of WiredMerchant.com Inc., admits he has a tough job ahead of him trying to crystallize the online company’s business model.
The original leaders of WiredMerchant.com wanted to build a megasite that would bring vendors and buyers from all industries together in e-commerce harmony. Unfortunately, trying to be all things to all people did not quite work.
Now, Smyth has reshaped and refocused WiredMerchant.com into a 24/7 online B2B marketplace for buyers and sellers of end-of-line and off-lease computer-related products. WiredMerchant.com, based in Richmond Hill, Ont., is backed by Name Inc., an Internet services firm that provides seed capital to Web start-ups.
“We are not a threat to VARs because most of them want to sell services, which makes them more money,” Smyth said. “In today’s marketplace only 20 per cent of VAR business is hardware.”
“We are a channel for the channel,” Smyth said. “Our customer is the VAR. That is our customer and I do not have to compete with them for integration of the hardware. I just want to fulfill their need to move hardware. End-of-the-line PC products is our focus, new or used,” he said.
Smyth replaces the loquacious Don Sanderson and equally talkative Tim Sjoholm, who were WiredMerchant.com’s CEO and president respectively.
Smith said that both Sanderson and Sjoholm where two quality executives who had difficulty executing the original plan. With competitors coming into the market, Smyth was brought in.
“I recognized right away from the original plan that there was an opportunity here,” he said. “My job is to make this happen right away.”
Smyth has a lot of experience in fixing things. He was part of the 25-person team that was brought in to reorganize Bell Canada after regulation ended. One of Smyth’s major successes was the creation of Bell Emergis.
Smyth has already hired long-time Computer City executive John Lambert to help him bring WiredMerchant’s new message of being the one-stop on-line source for end of line and off-lease PC products to Canada and the U.S.
WiredMerchant is also going public with a reverse takeover bid that should be finalized in the next 30 days.
WiredMerchant.com’s business model a simple one. It charges the vendor a margin of between eight and 10 per cent on every transaction. For that fee, WiredMerchant.com provides vendors with VARs who need product for their clients.
Currently, WiredMerchant.com has more than 400 registered users.
The company has also revamped its web site and added a wider range of computer-related products. The web site now features more than 1,100 computer product sku’s, worth approximately $20 million.