A broker makes its money by charging a fee for each transaction it enables. Also, travel agents fit into this category. Some models work on volume and low overhead to deliver the best negotiated prices, for example, CarsDirect . Good examples are MetalSite or ChemConnect's World Chemical Exchange . In the exchange model, the broker typically charges the seller a transaction fee based on the value of the sale.
Sellers pay a small percentage of each sale on a per-transaction basis.
B2B models are increasingly common. Broker facilitates business transactions between franchised distributors and their trading partners. DigitalMarket describes the benefits as twofold. For buyers, it enables faster time to market and time to volume as well as reducing the cost of procurement. For distributors, it decreases the cost of sales by performing quoting, order processing, tracking order status, and changes more quickly and with less labor.