The rapid development of the Internet is creating entirely new business opportunities. "QWADIS.COM" is a current example developed in Sweden, where the first practical transactions have recently been completed. Using this service, interested companies can subscribe to receive specific requests for price quotes, with no need for technology investment or computer expertise. In return, the companies pay a modest base fee and low cost per referred customer contact. The service is provided free of charge to those seeking quotes and, for the first six months, to the subscribing companies themselves.

"Technological progress is making it possible to simplify the decision-making process associated with making purchases, and to make them in an entirely new way. The Internet and our type of interactive communication may thus pose a threat to those who take the traditional approach to doing business, but it offers enormeous future potential to those who are alert to it," comments Gabriel Walldén, marketing director of the IT firm Stockholmnet.
In practice, a future transaction will occur as follows: a subscribing company will receive, by e-mail or fax, requests for quotes that the customers have entered into the system. If the requests are compatible with the subscriber's profile, then the seller can start competing for the buyer's favor and business. It is assumed that the home appliance and consumer electronics markets will be most heavily affected during the start-up period.
"The concept behind "QWADIS.COM" is extremely sound, and at the same time provides an unbelievably inexpensive way to reach customers, while also obviating traditional advertising and the need to have your own sales force," says Mikael Blomkvist of Stockholm-based Imprint AB. "We logged one of the first price-quote requests within a week after starting the trial period." Imprint AB makes and sells its own computers and those of other manufacturers to customers such as SAS, Ericsson and the City of Stockholm.
The price-quote service was launched first in Sweden, and is now available in an English version for the US and other markets. German, French and Portuguese program versions are slated for release this fall. Following the initial thrust in the consumer goods sector, it is expected that the program will also be available for use in the business-to-business market by the end of the year.
"We represent a new, Swedish example of the power of an idea that grew out of Sweden's high level of Internet maturity, which will make life easier for a great number of people as the availability of goods and the pace of social development increases," says Project Coordinator Mattias Geisler.

(Graphics copyright: Gösta Lindwall)

For more information, please contact:
Stockholmnet, Vanadisvägen 27, SE-113 23 Stockholm Sweden
Tel.: +46 8 311 230, Fax: +46 8 311 240
e-mail: info@qwadis.com; homepage: www.qwadis.com

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