B2B Deals? MarketSharing Aims at Business Market

The deals space is largely oriented toward consumers, but is there a role for B2B? That’s the question that entrepreneur John Amato has asked himself. B2B deals have typically been limited to coupons and auctions (i.e., Overstock.com).

The founder of Show Media, a successful NYC taxi advertising company, Amato is trying to carve out a niche for B2B deals with Marketsharing.com. His 18-person company launched this year in New York, and is set to go in Austin and Los Angeles as well. Four more markets will be launched within a few months.

The company has done about 20 deals so far, and has taken a featured deal format. It has “more deals” grouped on a second page. This works since deals typically run for a few days or until they are sold out. Twelve deals can be shown at any time.

Deals have included business cards, websites, a Dunkin’ Donuts office package (SOLD OUT), a happy hour deal at a local watering hole, a UPS package, an introductory parking garage offer, a multi-use Messenger service trial, an office dodgeball tourney and a pair of installed hi-def security cameras.

On the whole, Amato says the company has been seeing promising results. The business card deal, for instance, had a 30 percent open rate and 5 percent clickthrough, he notes. The B2B audience also seems primed for big ticket deals. The security camera deal sold 10 at $1,100 each (the wholesale price would have been $2,100). The $375 website deal also did well, as did the $250 happy hour deal at Hudson Terrace for 10 people — a $500 value.

The long-term version for the site is to provide a wide range of marketing services for businesses around the U.S.. “We see it as similar to Etsy but populated by our salespeople,” he says.