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Nutranutra: industry's new online auctioneer

By Clarisse Douaud, 12-Nov-2007

The nutraceutical industry now has its very own version of eBay thanks to the online auction site Paul DeLalla announced at SupplySide West last week.

Nutranutra.com is the first online business-to-business auction site for this industry and DeLalla is designing it with built-in quality controls so as to create a standard of transparency for transactions in the industry.

DeLalla says he set about to create it simply because there was no such existing site to buy and sell nutraceutical ingredients, goods and related equipment for industry.

"There's no central marketplace in the industry, except for trade shows," he told NutraIngredients-USA. "I just thought there was a void."

While the site was launched last week, DeLalla says it still needs to be perfected and he is currently gathering information on setting up filters.

He has been in the industry for approximately ten years, marketing and re-selling goods and is concerned about a lack of disclosure in such transactions. Accordingly, the revamped site will have built-in fields requiring information on the testing of ingredients, for example. If a seller does not disclose this information, the field will show up to a potential buyer as "not disclosed".

While DeLalla says Nutranutra.com will have to operate on a "buyer beware" basis, he says a system of ratings will allow buyers to check-up on the history of a seller.

"In the world of online auctions, ratings are everything," he said. "Once you get negative feedback in comment section, people won't want to touch you."

The new site will give small and large companies alike opportunities such as to buy and sell excess stock, or save on equipment by refurbishing older machinery.

The site will generate revenue by means of listing fees and charges on sales. A certain percentage of each sale will go back to the site, however DeLalla says the cap will be at $250 regardless of the amount of the sale.

Founded in 1995, San Jose, California-based eBay claims to connect hundreds of millions of people around the world every day by providing them with Internet-based product sale and purchase platforms.