To clear warehouse space, many companies liquidate these kinds of goods, even though the products are top quality. Corporate barter has traditionally been limited mainly to new or unused items. Now, though, companies are sometimes disposing of used goods over the Web, either on auction sites such as eBay Inc. or some new barter sites. Information technology staff can help improve a company's overall bottom line by putting used IT equipment like computer hardware and software up for barter. Used IT equipment is sometimes bartered when one company buys another or when a company decides to upgrade its IT systems or close or relocate a branch office.
Corporate barter can also save money by reducing a company's inventory storage needs.
Other advantages include the chance to minimize losses from perishable goods, boost export business and cut corporate purchasing costs for such items as airfares, hotel stays and advertising. Chief financial officers are usually the ones who arrange for corporate barter. In industry as a whole, Vroman sees a need for corporations to better track barter credits with IT tools such as enterprise resource planning and manufacturing resource planning systems. Manufacturers of computer parts have been more likely than computer makers to participate in barter exchanges. One key reason is the reluctance of computer makers to compete with existing market channels.