CCIA Lessons from 20 years of B2B Complementary Currencies, 25pp

Travel report USA 8 Feb – 19 Feb 2013

Rob van Hilten & Lotte Boonstra

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This guide has been produced by Qoin and the Erasmus University Ro9erdam as part of the Community Currencies in Ac=on (CCIA) collabora=on project, with support from S=ch=ng DOEN. CCIA is a transna=onal partnership working to develop and deliver community currency demonstra=ons in several member states across the North West of Europe. CCIA will lead the way in sharing knowledge and best prac=ce to enable communi=es throughout Europe to grow stronger in their ability to achieve vibrant and prosperous networks that are efficient from social, economical and environmental perspec=ves. CCIA will design, develop and implement community currencies across NW Europe; providing a rigorously tested package of support structures to facilitate the development of CCs across NWE and promote CCs as a credible (policy) vehicle for achieving posi=ve outcomes. CCIA is part funded through the INTERREG IVB North West Europe (NWE) Programme, which is a financial instrument of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy -‐ Inves=ng in Opportuni=es. Find out more about CCIA on our website: www.communitycurrenciesinac=on.eu

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Travel report In this presentation we will present our most important findings on retail bartering. The findings are based on 20 years observing bartering and our most recent trip to 4 companies in the USA February 2013. We travelled across the South-East, to talk with experienced trade exchange owners and their staff. We came home with meaningful lessons and best practices that are worth to share. Complementary currency designers can learn many lessons from the barter industry and vice versa. ‘The model is simple, but it is not easy to keep it going’ Dane Arnold - Broker Trade Authority

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Our hosts •  The global industry association,

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•  10y old, ‘new kid on the block’

•  25y experience, software supplier

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Organizational structure and culture Most trade exchanges have similar organizational structures and similar internal cultures. They are privately owned (by a small group of people), focus on profit and have broker- and sales departments. Almost all exchanges are broker driven (more than 75% of their trade happens via brokerage). We will address them as the traditional barter models. Alternatively we visited another type of organization with a different model: cooperative barter exchanges. These exchanges are owned by its members and have an internal culture focusing on the quality of the currency above profit.


TRADEOOIN

Turnover Traditional Barter Network No. Members Trade Volume Av. per member Commission Traditional Barter

1.600

$ 8 million

$ 5.000

13 %

Traditional Barter

900

$ 3.6 million

$ 4.000

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Turnover Traditional vs Cooperative Network No. Members Trade Volume Av. per member Commission Traditional Barter

1.600

$ 8 million

$ 5.000

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900

$ 3.6 million

$ 4.000

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600

$ 8 million

$ 13.300

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Remarkable difference The cooperative barter has a notable larger turnover and substantial lower fee structure than its traditional barter peers. Several aspects explain the difference: 1.  Vision, Mission & Ownership 2.  Member profile 3.  Service & Culture 4.  Quality of the currency


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Vision, Mission & Ownership

Traditional Barter Cooperative Barter Commercial aim: making profit

Social aim: strengthening local businesses

Ownership: Proprietary

Ownership: Cooperative


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Member profile •  Anything versus the right match Traditional barter exchanges will accept any business to

sign up new membera. The cooperative has strict criteria for new members. They focus on the added value of the business in the network and on everyday regular recurring expenditure. Only when the business provides quality goods and services needed in the network it will be accepted.

Important lessons:

•  Focus!: on everyday regular recurring expenditure •  Young, progressive, profitable business


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Regular recurring every day expenditure & cash saving

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Strengthening local businesses If you want to strengthen the position of local businesses and built local resilience, your barter network should focus on everyday regularly expenditure instead of luxury goods. If members want to acquire luxury goods you can offer them cash saving options. Members can use trade dollars to save cash and buy the demanded luxury goods with the saved money. With this focus, a barter exchange will work countercyclical within the macro-economy. And serve as a tool to built resilience against global crisis. Spendings in a traditional barter only offering luxury goods will drop simultaneously with the macro-economy.


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Service & Culture

‘No one will wake up and think about trade dollars’ Scott Whitmer, CEO Florida Barter Brokering is an important service with three functions:

1)  Education 2)  Consultation 3)  Matching

•  Traditional Barters: ±80% broker driven

•  Cooperative Barter: <10% broker driven


TRADEOOIN

The role of the broker In the cooperative barter less than 10% of the transactions is broker driven. A strong emphasize on the educational role of the broker generates the low percentage. In the cooperative barter brokers educate members to take care of their own transactions, so avoiding costs of the service. Traditional networks brokers facilitate and mediate every transaction, so allowing for a higher fee. It takes some years to educate a member to understand the barter-trick fully. In the first stages more transactions are broken driven. With the right attitude you can reduce the amount of brokered transactions every year. However brokers are crucial to instigate the velocity of the currency in early stages.


TRADEOOIN

Quality currency in a traditional barter

•  All transactions 100% in ‘Trade Dollars’, except…. •  No inflated prices •  Trade maximised per business

•  Set realistic ambitions •  Negative limit, On hold

•  Only good quality products / service •  “UC” as boost for trade


TRADEOOIN

Quality currency in a cooperative barter

•  All transactions 100% in ‘Trade Dollars’, NO exceptions

•  No inflated prices •  Trade maximised per business

•  Set realistic ambitions •  Negative limit, On hold, Accumulation limit

•  Only good quality products / service •  “UC” as boost for trade, Balanced inter-community trade •  No aggressive promotion / sales •  Member balloting •  Focus on velocity speed: regular recurring every day expenditure

& cash saving


TRADEOOIN

A member’s perspective

•  Trade dollars are less valuable than regular dollars. The value of a trade dollar will increase with the amount of available goods and services in the network.

•  People are more generous when they spend trade dollars. ‘Spending trade dollars feels like getting things for free’ (member barter exchange)

•  It takes a couple of months to sign up a new member •  Members tend to forget the currency when they are to busy with

their business. •  Most members are not interested in the currency design only in

the advantages (marketing tool etc.)


TRADEOOIN

Best Practices


TRADEOOIN

Best practices

1)  Always start with the needs of the businesses (use a wish list

2)  Convince business owners with the advantages for them, do not bother them with the currency design

3)  Find businesses and products everyone wants and try to sign up important community members (early adaptors)

4)  Expand via referrals


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5)  Giftcards increase spending options for businesses because employers can distribute them amongst their employees.

6)  Giftcards are injections of trade dollars in the region

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Best practices 7)  50 members is minimum

100 members is sufficient for a vital network with 600 members most required items are available

8)  Focus on regular occurring everyday expenses

9)  Service providers are easier to sign up than businesses that sell hard goods

10) Transactions of T$50,- are the building bricks


TRADEOOIN

Best practices

11)  Start with spending! Built trust in the currency, let members experience what they can buy with the currency.

12)  Spending is more difficult than earning trade dollars.

13)  Start with small credit lines AND accumulation limits, expand them organically

14)  Create a sense of shared ownership and responsibility of members for the network.


TRADEOOIN

Best practices 15) General rule: what is the best for the network?

16)  People tend to forget the currency

17)  Education education education education

18)  Pay attention to the facilitation of the transaction - in first stages: brokers are key to close deals - in later stages: brokers have smaller mediating role


TRADEOOIN

Travel report USA 8 Feb – 19 Feb 2013

Rob van Hilten & Lotte Boonstra

TRADEOOIN


STICHTING

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DOEN•• •••• ***** ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM

ERASMUS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICSThis project has receivedEuropean Regional

Development Fundingthrough INTERREG IV B. INTERREG IVBV

CCIA Lessons from 20 years of B2B Complementary Currencies, 25pp

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