Regardless of what country, culture of currency, money makes the world go round, but today it’s not just cash fuelling commerce world-wide.
In 2016 Bartercard is celebrating 25 years of trading, and theGold Coast-born company has grown to operate the world’s largest trade exchange achieving $4.4 billion in cash savings for Australian businesses, equating to 21.9 million currency alternative transactions.
Bartercard Australia(http://www.bartercard.com.au/) CEO Clive van Deventer said although Bartercard has expanded into a multi-million dollar industry which stacks up approximately $600 million in transactions each year across eight countries, its vision remains unchanged.
“Barter has evolved and come a long way from the days of swapping a cow for a goat, but the basic principle of assisting small businesses to attract customers, conserve cash and increase profitsin almost every industry has stayed the same,” he said.
“Our vision is to make businesses successful by being the leading global business marketplace where SMEs connect and barter.”
Van Deventer said that fundamentally Bartercard is a tool to supplement the cash market, filling downtime, idle capacity and selling slow-moving stock as an additional sales and marketing distributuionchannel, but has turned into a viable economic alternative.
“Last year businesses saved over $130 million in cash through the indirect exchange of products and services,” he said.
“Today’s modern approach to barter steps away from a direct swap and instead uses trade dollars, recognised by the ATO as the equivalent to a dollar, transacted in a closed business network.”
He added that Bartercard works actively with Australian businesses to facilitate cashless transactions and above all, the system is about going back to basics.
“Bartercard started in 1991 when Australia was experiencing one of the worst recessions in history and businesses were looking for solutions to cash shortages,” said Clive.
“It was created out of the idea that going back to basics and using a closed group of businesses to conduct cashless transactions would rebuild small to medium-sized businesses in Australia.”
Van Deventer added that despite starting up in adversity, the company found a gap in the market to launch just at the right time.
“Twenty-five years down the track we’ve grown into a global brand under which thousands of members continue to remedy setbacks for SMEs, including competition from large enterprises,through technology platforms that support their vision.”
Mornington Peninsula-based business owner and Bartercard member Suzanne Johnson has saved $200,000 in her hair and beauty salon, Peaches & Cream, by earning currency alternative and using it to make business purchases in place of cash.
This included a $40,000 saving on a recent salon relocation.
Suzanne said she used Bartercard to offset the cash cost of the architectural plans, installing new fitout, painting flooring, new signage, plumbing, advertising and more, all paid using trade dollars instead of cash.
“Conserving $200,000 in cash has let me invest in new services like laser tattoo removal to stay competitive in the market,” she said.
“There’s nowhere else in business where you have the ability to offset cash flow like you can with Bartercard."
Van Deventer said the biggest areas where members trade are advertising, core busiensses products and services, lifestyle, and real estate, albeit the exchange has businesses across almost every industry.
“What started off as a small group of businesses trading has turned into a collaborative economy of scale which supplements approximately 24,000 business in eight countries.”
He added that Bartercard is looking at new expansion options daily to bring cashless transactions to more parts of the world, and recent expansion in the USA and South Africa has been the icing on the cake.
About Bartercard
Founded on the Gold Coast in 1991, Bartercard operates the word’s largest trade exchange where small to medium-sized businesses to conduct cashless transactions. There are currently 50,000+ card holders in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Thailand, Cyprus and UAE and South Africa. Bartercard transactions can be conducted online, via its mobile app, across more than 7,000 bank EFTPOS terminals and on bucqi terminals. Bartercard’s parent company BPS Technology, which listed on the ASX in September 2014, also owns the cloud-based software service TESS and rewards app bucqi.
For more information please contact:
Klara Vida
National Communications Executive
BARTERCARD AUSTRALIA
[email protected]
121 Scarborough Street, PO Box 582, Southport BC, QLD 4215
Phone: 07 5561 9094 | Mob: 0400 295 341
www.bartercard.com.au | mybc.bartercard.com