Discover your next big idea at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September
Experience a breakthrough in packaging & processing and transform your business with solutions from 2,300 suppliers spanning all industries.
REGISTER NOW & SAVE

Buyer Gives Thumbs Up to Online Marketplace

The idea sounds enticing. Place a bid on a piece of machinery on an Internet marketplace, the seller accepts the bid, you have yourself a packaging machine.

No searching, no haggling.

But is purchasing packaging equipment over the Web as simple and trouble-free as Internet marketplaces claim it is? After trying it, Tom Stratil, general manager at Acme Soap Co., says he won’t purchase used packaging equipment any other way. Last December, Stratil purchased a used six-head Simplex filler through iMark.com (www.imark.com), which bills itself as a used-equipment marketplace rather than an auction. That’s because it simply brings buyers and sellers together, similar to a classified ad in a magazine. After placing a bid, the buyer can pull out at any time before the bid is accepted, as can the seller. The seller determines the winning bid and pays iMark.com 5% of the winning bid upon completion of a successful transaction.

San Antonio, TX-based Acme Soap manufactures institutional cleaning chemicals. Stratil says he was looking for a machine that could fill quart and gallon plastic bottles when he encountered iMark.com. Although Stratil didn’t find anything that met his needs when he first logged on, iMark.com notified Stratil when a potentially suitable filler was listed. “I went online, found [the filler], put in a bid . . . and it was accepted,” he explains. Only a few minutes had elapsed before he found out the seller had accepted his bid.

List: Digitalization Companies From PACK EXPO
Looking for CPG-focused digital transformation solutions? Download our editor-curated list from PACK EXPO featuring top companies offering warehouse management, ERP, digital twin, and MES software with supply chain visibility and analytics capabilities—all tailored specifically for CPG operations.
Download Now
List: Digitalization Companies From PACK EXPO
Annual Outlook Report: Workforce
Hiring remains a major challenge in packaging, with 78% struggling to fill unskilled roles and 84% lacking experienced workers. As automation grows, companies must rethink hiring and training. Download the full report for key insights.
Download Now
Annual Outlook Report: Workforce