New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/01/2014 -- Trading, swapping or bartering are options for businesses in today's challenging economy. Such methods have been around since ancient times, and clever businesses have found bartering a useful tool to improve productivity, attract new customers, reduce costs and enhance profitability.

"A barter exchange serves as a network of sorts, eliminating the limitations of one-to-one direct barter transactions and allowing multiple multilateral barter deals to take place at different times," says Cinzia Gremmo, Italy’s representative for the Ormita Commerce Network barter exchange.

“We decided to set up the Ormita Commerce Network barter exchange to help business owners stimulate sales, develop new clients, convert excess capacity or inventory into revenue and acquire what they need - all without the use of cash,” says the global CEO of Ormita, Daniel Evans.

To put it another way, businesses join the Ormita network to generate new sales to other members who they would not normally have as cash customers.

“By bartering, a business also ensures that anyone they sell to will also come back and purchase from them, or someone else in the network. This helps to keep wealth in the community and allows all businesses to benefit from one another even when money is tight,” says Gildo Gennari, owner of Tenuta Marajeva winery in Verona.

The barter network serves as a clearinghouse to track trades. When a sale is made, barter dollars are deposited in the member's account, which can then be spent to purchase from any other participating business. For facilitating the transactions, the network is paid a transaction fee percentage when members buy.

Genneri’s purchases have included international advertising, travel and materials for his business and he’s not alone in having saved cash through the Ormita barter concept.

Barter can also be considered a way in which business owners can use the value of their own products and services to fund the growth of their business. Sepa S.r.l, a company specialising in retail and shop display furniture, recently sold furniture to Welcome Club 91 FM and used the barter credits earned to purchase corporate gifts.

“Client retention is important to us, particularly when cashflow is tight as customers tend to shop around more. Bartering enables us to provide “extras” for our cash paying customers rather than fighting a discounting war,” says Sepa.

The concept realizes no tax advantage or disadvantage. Barter income and expenses are considered the same as cash income and all transactions take place at normal market prices.

Other companies have also reaped significant rewards from being a member. These include:

- Publiart (buying 2 stands at a wedding expo and direct marketing services from another member, Bussolino)
- Biogest (purchased furnishings and gifts on barter and repays with laboratory testing and certification services for food items).
- SanTeodoro.it (a Sardinian hotel which purchased an ebooking website and sells rooms on barter in return)
- Media E Media '93 (purchasing chocolates and presents from one member and selling advertising to a hotel in return)
- Centro Servizi Industriali (purchasing a vacuum and who sells dyeing and resinate flooring in repayment)

The company has already attracted several thousand Italian companies as members, the business is rapidly expanding.

Businesses can join the Ormita Commerce Network online at http://www.ormita.it

About the Ormita Commerce Network
The Ormita Commerce Network is a business to business barter exchange platform for the exchange of goods and services without the need for cash.

Ormita uses barter to provide efficient and low cost exchange functions which solves incentive problems that would otherwise prevent trade from taking place at all, particularly in cases where paying with goods rather than money can help to overcome creditworthiness risks.

Instead of traditional cash currency, the Ormita Commerce Network uses the proprietary currency method referred to as “trade dollars” to complete transactions. Each trade dollar is denominated in the local currency of the member, although accounts can be held in any currency nominated for the purpose of exchange rates. Since a typical member is purchasing a good or service in exchange for his or her own good or service, each purchase has a high likelihood of resulting in a completed sale transaction.

In doing so, a company can offer its goods or services to an entirely different market of potential buyers whereby new sales can arise even beyond the point of the initial transaction. Also, the company can limit its cash outflow by purchasing needed goods or services using cashless barter currency dollars.

Contact:

Gigi David
Broker Manager
Ormita Commerce Network
180 Broadway
New York, NY, 10001
Tel: +1 646 843 6214
http://www.ormita.it