What is TimesFirst Ranking?
TimesFirst Ranking charts the relative popularity of both suppliers within a given industry and also products across all categories. Suppliers and products are each assigned a ranking position that directly corresponds to their trading popularity on TimesFirst.com. The higher a supplier's or product's popularity features among the international buying community, the more prominently they are displayed within the ranking system.

How is TimesFirst Ranking useful to me as a buyer?
TimesFirst Ranking is a signpost for buyers, directing them towards those suppliers within a specific industry who are the most preferred by other international buyers. Buyers often favor working with these higher ranking suppliers because they have been judged as being more professional and reliable, or because their products are more popular, better quality, or simply the best deal.

How is TimesFirst Ranking useful to me as a supplier?
TimesFirst Ranking follows the TimesFirst.com tradition of providing proactive trade support to all of its suppliers. Through this service feature, suppliers gain extra promotion for their company and products making them more visible and accessible among a larger audience of buyers.

Where is ranking information displayed on TimesFirst.com?
Supplier ranking information is listed in three ways.
1. The top ranking suppliers within each specific industry are listed on that industry's category page.
2. The ranking history for a particular supplier is displayed as a time-series graph on their member page.
3. Non-industry specific ranking information for the suppliers who have received the largest positive change in their ranking status is
    displayed each week on the TimesFirst.com homepage under "Top 10 Popular Movers".
Product ranking information is displayed on the TimesFirst.com homepage under "Top 10 Popular Products".

How is TimesFirst Ranking different from other B2B ranking systems?
Unlike other B2B ranking systems that assign their ranking positions according to premium fees paid by suppliers, TimesFirst Ranking is completely free. Ranking positions instead rely on advanced algorithms to calculate the current trading popularity among all of TimesFirst.com's suppliers and products.

How are rankings calculated?
Rankings are calculated based upon both page views of various levels of key information across a supplier's site and also the supplier's overall trading activity on TimesFirst.com. Calculations of page views are limited by IP address to encourage popularity based upon a broad spectrum of buyers and not just a single trading partner.