With the slowdown, the size of the orders is down, but the number of orders is up 200 percent. When the market comes back, we'll be in better shape as the size of the orders goes up. Heyes would not provide further details on the company's revenue, which is derived from fees on completed sales. Meanwhile, traditional distributors are adding their own Web capabilities, raising further questions about the viability of third-party sites. Vicor and others offer similar capabilities.
Early indications are that such offerings are attractive to engineers.
As long as things are consistent, when engineers find they can use something and it works, they will come back to it. There is no immediate need for Pioneer-Standard's site to be profitable on a standalone basis, York said. Some companies are going beyond catalog offerings and providing public online exchanges for component sales. More recently, it redesigned itself as a real-time public marketplace for anonymous buyers and sellers trading in semiconductors. Whereas last year the company focused on building a real-time public exchange, today it's working to develop alternative services that it hopes will lead to profitability within six to 12 months.