| site | Grade | Review | Site Home |
| Retail Exchange | A | Because of a unique relationship with Gordon Brothers, this negotiation site features a large selection of products from prominent vendors in the apparel, accessories, home, gift, and health and beauty industries. Straight forward navigation. However anything beyond clicking in to see product visuals requires an intensive registration that includes 3 credit references and tax id number. |  |
| Softgoods Matrix | A | Gone but Parent company i2 still around. Strong Partners. One of serveral industry marketplaces. Easy to use, comprehensive. |  |
| WorldWide Retail Exchange | A | 2002 alliance with Global sources. A consortium of leading global retailers, (The Gap, Target, JC Penney, Marks & Spenser, to name a few) have partnered to create a " food, textile and drugstore e-commerce marketplace." Formed, as an alternative to existing exchanges on a model of: "open, neutral, independently managed, driven by needs and goals of participating retailers and suppliers and vendors." Sound a bit altruistic? This business will be interesting to watch from a neutrality and recruitment prespective. Partners include: IBM, Ariba, i2, Syncra Systems, viaLink, QRS and Retek. |  |
| FashionChain | A- | Apparel supply chain software design-to-retail cycle.Nothing available for review. Password protected. No Registration. $21M first round. Strong partners. |  |
| Fasturn | A- | Fasturn is an international company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seoul, and in 'major centers in Asia and Latin America." Also impressive for this young company whose focus appears to be on sourcing, supply chain and surplus management, is its roster of partners, including: Scient, I2 and CIT... |  |
| Global Net Exchange | A- | One of the largest industry trading hubs online. The Sears/Carrefour/Oracle B2B network for mass merchants, specialty, grocery and category retailers to buy, sell, trade or auction goods and services. Subscription only. |  |
| Magic Online | A- | While MAGIC may be the ultimate apparel tradeshow, this online counterpart has far to go. Recycled content throughout the site causes navigation confusion. And, the site seems to be one big advertisement. |  |
| FTA Direct | A- | * Out of Business *Collaborative Commerce software for the soft goods industry. FTADirect has hosted more than $22 million in transactions since August. Strong Partners. Strong board. Password protected. |  |
| Market 4 Retail | A- | * Out of Business *Collaborative software for the retail industry. Parent company Market Mac. Password protected. Strong clients, partners and history. |  |
| TextileWeb | A- | Customizable features. Great for research, slim pickings for online ordering. Can be difficult to navigate. Features news and training. Key industry player backed by VerticalNet. Career: Search by keyword, company name, or job title. Textile Web has international and domestics listings focused on the design and engineering aspects of the industry. Check out the employer spotlight. |  |
| Doneger Marketplace | B+ | An offshoot of The Doneger Group, this subscription based site features 100+ online showrooms, the beginnings of a private label sourcing center and business planning tools. As one might expect from this established retail consultant, there is great analysis and trend editorial, some of which is accessible without registration. |  |
| FobConnect | B+ | * Out of Business *A subscription based sourcing tool with lots of promise. Find importers, exporters, and service providers in 72 countries. Strong management team. |  |
| Apparel Buy | B+ | Operated by Guess, based on PeopleSoft/CommerceOne. Open only to "Reviewed" registration. |  |
| BuyTextiles | B+ | Online auction for textiles. $95 bidders fee. 190 auctions currently in progress. Simple, easy to use format. |  |
| Clicktex | B+ | * Out of Business *Doesn't get any easier than this. Nice presentation and navigation. Textile focus. Super easy to use. Lots of product. Based on Ariba Software. $2.2M first round. |  |
| Esasa | B+ | * Out of Business *Marketplace for surplus capital equipment. Easy to use. |  |
| Etexx | B+ | * Out of Business * Easy to use format. Lots of suppliers and products. First round funding £7M. Six owners. |  |
| FreeBorders | B+ | * Out of Business *Technology, global sourcing, and then trading, seems to be the order of business at Freeborders judging by the way the intro is written and its management team is presented -- technology first, apparel second... While still under construction, the site does have demos for 3 areas: "Private Trading," "Public Trading," and "Textile & Component." Be forewarned, you need to register to view the demos. Partners include IBM and ICG. 2001 Purchased Applied Intranet. |  |
| Gem Key | B+ | * Out of Business *In addition to secure catalogs, this site offers gem and jewelry businesses terrific value adds such as financial services, order tracking history, directory and a market monitor for wholesale prices on gems. A lot of content is accessable without a password. GemKey also has a very informative newsletter! Definitely worth signing up for. Great site. Offline customer service however needs some help. |  |
| Global Sources | B+ | Online since 1995, this general merchandise trading hub, does have product verticles dedicated to bags & footwear, fashion accessories, and fabric & trim. Apparel is somewhat hidden but can be found by doing a keyword search.The site boasts integrated cataloging, messaging with its new "Connect" feature, product alerts, easy inquiry and sample ordering. Theyhave scored big brownie points for being one of Forbes 200 small companies to watch. |  |
| Retail.com | B+ | apparel, jewelry footwear and grocery?! A suite of extensive solutions for retail industry. Site contains a mish mash of information. Focus unclear. |  |
| TexTrade | B+ | * Out of Business *Established in 1996,TexTrade (successor of Global Textile Network) is the first and claims to be the largest textile trading hub. Textrade offers its members (currently 5,100) a marketplace service that appears to be an RFQ/Contact/Order Management tool with features that allow members to choose who they want to communicate with. Value adds such as insurance, financing, logistics are also available. The site is easy to navigate and worth registering to use portal member features such as original editorial and analysis. |  |
| The Thread | B+ | * Out of Business *The Thread's management team of industry hot shots lend enormous credability to this trading hub whose focus seems to be first and foremost on supply chain services... The site is still under verbiage and demo wrap of what is coming. See for yourself, there is an accessable demo (you will need flash plug-in). Be perpared for a jarring but informative intro. |  |
| UBid | B+ | "provides buyers the opportunity to set their own prices on popular products at significant discounts to prices found through traditional channels." Though this site is consumer oriented, many items are available in significant quantities. Buyer registration is easy. |  |
| Edaflow | B | * Out of Business *Edaflow, a likely long distance contentder takes a whimsical approach in presenting a full service trading hub that includes an "Industry Communications Platform," with private branded catalogs, rep support and order tracking functions. However, to see an interactive demo, you have to make an appointment. Also, forget trying to access this site using Netscape. |  |
| Fashion Emarket | B | * Out of Business *Great calendar. Lots of Web links. Easy to use. Limited vendors but good selection of products. Cannot buy online. |  |
| Leather Xchange | B | Poor URL. Focus on raw through finished Leather. Over 300 clients. Closed Registration. First Round £11.5M. Annual membership Fee $2,500 plus lots of additional service charges. |  |
| Liquidation | B | "a full service B2B solution for surplus assests." Along with a solid selection of apparel goods, there are a lot of terrific features -- shipping / logistics tracking, notify me when, and sample ordering -- that make this site business friendly. |  |
| Textile Solutions | B | * Out of Business *Clean. Easy to use. Great to look at. Available in Italian, French, German and English... Textile Solutions is focused on (you guessed it) the textile trade. This new site, produced by the same Swedish company that is working with the Woolmark Company to develop www.WoolXchange.com is promising. Granted there is not much to look at yet, we can only hope that the finished markeplace functions in the same intuative style as is evident on the site today. Check out the buyer & supplier benefit demos, a complex subject is made easy. |  |
| ThreadExchange | B | * Out of Business * Global sourcing solution. "Brings factories from 48 countries to the buyers desktop." Round 1$5.5M. |  |
| TradeEasy | B | Asian focus. Established 1993. Staff 300. Supply Chain Management orientated trade solutions providing information on over 200,000 kinds of products with a customer base of 10,000 sellers and 60,000 buyers, handling 50,000 trade inquiries per month. Overly cluttered site, difficult to navigate. Covers all industries, not just fashion. Tons of product. Mass market focus. Minimal branded products. Inquiries only. No eCommerce yet. |  |
| Tradeout | B | Acquired by Dovebid. " The business-to-business exchange for excess inventory and idle assets." TradeOut.com presents a venue to buy and sell surplus assets in over 100 product categories including apparel, footwear and accessories. Registration is easy and instantaneous for buyers. An approval code is delivered (via email) within in a minute of registering! |  |
| Tradeweave | B | Tradeweave is a retail trade destination that serves both the apparel and food industries. On the apparel side of things visitors will find a terrific news/trend section and an OK directory both of which are accessible without registering. Commerce and supply chain mangement features are slated for the future. For now there are only descritpions. Couple of things, make sure you are paying attention when using the site or you might end up in the food court. Also, Mac users be aware, only the newest version of Internet Explorer works here (there is a handy IE link). |  |
| Worth Global Style Network | B | Lots of Trend-based content. No catalogs/eCommerce. Navigation can be confusing. Hefty subscription fee.Two rounds of Funding $12/25. Owned by English Worth Brothers. |  |
| 7th Online | B- | Online showrooms and business tools. $400 month for vendors, Free for retailers. Password protected. "established a base of major industry players". Named by Forbes.com as the leading B2B Web site serving the fashion apparel industry |  |
| Apparel Bids | B- | This apparel marketplace "offers live auctions and in-stock merchandise for at once delivery direct from major manufacturers." Auction categories include: T-shirts, Fleece, Jackets, Ladies, Placket Shirts, Woven Shirts, Shorts, Other Apparel (fabrics), Machinery... Easy Registration. |  |
| Italian Moda | B- | A terrific source for information and services regarding the Italian Fashion Industry. |  |
| i-Textile | B- | Asian focused textile exchange. Lots of product. Detailed Specs. No photos.Easy to use site.Nice search tools and swatch request features. |  |
| iCongo Sporting Goods Marketplace | B- | Basic catalog and auction tools with sporting goods products. Difficult to judge product selection without membership. |  |
| MenswearShow | B- | * Out of Business *Provides online product preview. Represent over 4,150 menswear buyers from North America. A convenient research tool to access complete style and corporate information from vendors in all categories of men's apparel. |  |
| Off Price Trading Zone | B- | A little difficult to navigate. Slim selection of products. Owned by Off Price Specialist show. |  |
| Textile Co | B- | eCommerce enabled. Password required. |  |
| Textiledge | B- | * Out of Business *supply chain and collaborative tools. Latin America focus. |  |
| TexWatch | B- | 3 sites in one. TexWatch (News), TexExchange (a buy & aell platform) and TexStudio (a design management tool that is in development). This Asian based site offers a lot, particularly on the TexWatch channel where news is powered in part by Lexis-Nexis. For some of us, perhaps the site offers too many choices. Kind of overwhelming in light of the fact that it is slow to load. See for yourself. Available in Spanish, Korean, English and Chinese. |  |
| Fabria | C+ | Nothing available for review without password. Strong India partners. |  |
| India Apparel | C+ | Internet based supply chain technology. Assuming india focus based on name. |  |
| Licensing Zone | C+ | A permission-based licensed products marketplace. |  |
| Market Threads | C+ | * Out of Business * Flashy demo, looks good. Good Industry participants on Board of Directors. |  |
| Garmentrade | C- | * Out of Business *A global sourcing and e-commerce site for the apparel and textile industryƒ Still in development.and definetly worth watching. Judging from the site, this group has a knack for making complicated tools user friendly. See for yourself, register and take the site tour. |  |
| Trade Textile | C- | Seems like lots of "stuff" but way too confusing to use. Catalogs and Auction have slim content. membership required. |  |
| CloseOut Now | C- | * Out of Business *"Makes it easy to acquire or liquidate overstock merchandise." With no nonsense registration, this site presents merchandise that goes beyond basic Tee's. Auction categories include: Apparel, Accessories, Footwear, Fashion Components (fabric, fibers, garment accessories, filament, yarn, non-fabric). A GREAT SITE! when its up. Owners currently regrouping |  |
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