David Schwedel News

Miami-based Marex.com, a leading marine industry B2B e-commerce company, was selected for inclusion in Forbes.com's first annual Best of the Web: B2B Guide. According to Forbes.com, editors worked with industry experts to sort through more than 1,000 B2B marketplaces. The result was a list of the most promising B2Bs based upon their strategy, execution and financial staying power. "We're very pleased to be included in this prestigious group," said David Schwedel, president and chief executive officer of Marex.com. Marex.com has developed a proprietary set of procurement solutions that together address the entire marine industry purchasing lifecycle, from planning through procurement to liquidation.

Phenomenal is perhaps the only word adequately to describe the rampage of new, integrated e-commerce solutions that have recently swamped the maritime industry. The marine market, which has a solid reputation of following rather than leading technological surges, has gone from "zero to sixty" in record time on the e-commerce front. But while the industry today has a bevy of selections from which to choose — including portals for conducting every transaction conceivable, from fixing cargos to buying bunker fuel, spare parts or a ship's stores — the critical question revolves around not which choices are available today, rather which choices will be available one year from today.

Marex.com, Inc., a marine industry B2B e-commerce company, announced that it has achieved rapid and significant growth in the number of builders and suppliers currently online and using the company's two e-commerce products, MarExpress! and MarexPO!, to facilitate electronic procurement. The company reported that 15 builders and 50 suppliers are now "live" and utilizing the Marex system, an increase of 76% over the number of members online at December 31, 2000. Recently, Marex reported that since the launch of its e-commerce products in June 2000, more than $6 million worth of orders had passed through the Marex system in e-procurement transactions linking boat builders and suppliers -- more than 40% of which occurred in February and March alone.

In today's competitive and bustling marketplace of Internet technology, users expect to accomplish daily tasks with just one click of a mouse. While many companies have begun to lean this way, the maritime industry has joined the ranks of various other Internet sites with the recent strategic alliance of Marex.com and Boatscape.com. It was a combination that was likely to meld well…a rookie company that is known as the largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company (Marex.com), and an online destination that provides community, information and e-commerce to the recreational boater (Boatscape.com). Together, these two companies will be able to provide users with the utmost in comprehensive e-commerce solutions for the marine industry.