b'BearingNet NewsGENERAL A new User Meeting location CHARITYVenturing further than we have ever Industry update from Nicola Beer been before. the Autumn of 2026 willRace for Life (July)bring a brand-new location for our global After speaking with ournetworking events. Currently, we hostEight members of the BearingNet team members from the UK,European User Meetings once a year, andtook part in the Cancer Research UK Germany, USA and UAE,US User Meetings every other year, butRace for Life 5K, raising awareness and it seems the story is thesome BearingNet member feedback hasshowing support in the fight against same across the boardpushed us to look further afield.cancer. The team raised a huge 1,105! things are still prettyWhere will you be joining us next? flat, or in some cases,Find out more on pages 14-15slightly down. Thats certainly what were seeing at BearingNet too. The biggest30 years of BearingNetchallenge everyone seems to be facingIf you have been with us since the is winning new customers. Its provingbeginning, back in the mid-to-late harder than ever to convince companiesnineties, you will have seen huge growth to part with their money, especially ifand change with both the BearingNet they dont already know you. That said,platform, and our annual User Meetings. weve also noticed something interesting,2026 will see 30 years of the BearingNetHerts Young Homeless Walk (September)many of our customers are actuallycommunity, and we will be celebratingSeven of us completed The Great Big spending more on marketing. When timeswith an extra special User Meeting inWalk for Herts, covering 13.1 miles to get tough, some businesses see it as aWarsaw, Poland in March. This will be ourraise vital funds for those they support. chance to step up, stand out, and makebiggest networking event to date with anWe raised 637 (and counting) as a team!sure theyre the ones people remember.expected 500-600 attendees! We would Its a brave and smart move that oftenlove for you to join us for the celebrations.pays off when the market picks up again. Whats Happening on BearingNet?Looking at activity on the platform, things are steady. Logins and searches are at about the same level as last year, which is good newspeople are still looking for products. However, quotes are down, which fits with the slower market wereOther activities coming upall feeling. But heres the interestingFor the remainder of 2025, we will part: webshop clicks have jumped byPLATFORM continue our charitable initiatives, 10,00020,000 per quarter across allincluding supporting Movember to raise the webshops listed on BearingNet. That tells us that users are still buying, butQuotes page funds for mens health and donating theyre being more focused. Rather thanChristmas gifts to hyh service users.shopping around, theyre going straightWe have launched an updated Quotes to the companies they already knowSystem, a redesign to simplify andSTAFFand trustthe ones offering the bestspeed up the quotation process price, delivery, and reliability. So whilebetween suppliers and buyers. BenefitsOur new Placement Student and overall activity might look a bit quieter,include centralised and organised RFQsome impressive milestones!it seems customers are simply beingmanagement, faster response with a more selective and sticking with theirsimple layout, enhanced filtering andChloe joined us in June to kick off preferred distributors. searchability, and an easier way toher university placement year. She is assign/transfer users for different RFQs.studying and working towards a degree Why This Matters for You Find out more on page 45. in Business Management, as well as This trend really highlights the value ofContinuous development working alongside the Marketing and connecting your webshop to BearingNetsFinance departments at BearingNet. In search results. If youve already investedThe team at BearingNet are continuouslyaddition to Chloe joining us, Commercial in your webshop, let us help you get itlooking at ways to develop and modernise Director, Chris has reached his 10 year connectedwe can even show you howthe platform for members in order tomilestone, and Finance Administrator, it works and let you try it for a while. keep up to date with the industry andSallie 5 years with BearingNet. Thank With more and more people shoppingtechnological changes. You may noticeyou for your support and well done onthrough webshops, its a great time tosome improvements as time goes on,the achievement!make sure yours is easy to find andwhether that is to improve and streamline ready to capture that traffic. Even thoughprocesses, or to modernise page design the market feels slow, there are stilland user experience. If you have any opportunities out thereespecially forsuggestions or ideas that you think would the companies that keep pushing forwardbenefit the BearingNet community, please and making themselves visible. get in touch with us. We are all ears! Left to right: Chloe, Chris and Sallie46'