Active Research Turbocharges e-Commerce Engines With New ''Active Product Spex'' Product Information Service.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2001

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Active Research Inc. (ARI), a leading provider of Web-based eCRM (e-commerce customer relationship management) decision-support applications, today unveiled Active Product Spex(TM), a service offering that provides companies with comprehensive, current product specifications for more than 130 categories. The service is targeted at merchants, publishers, and portals that require comprehensive, easy-to-understand online product catalogs for their customers.

Active Product Spex offers detailed specification data and photographs for products including consumer electronics, office equipment, computers and computer peripherals, home appliances and sporting goods. Because it allows e-tailers of all types ("bricks and mortar," "clicks and mortar," and so-called "pure" e-commerce companies) to offer their customers vastly superior, side-by-side, error-free product comparisons, Active Product Spex helps online shoppers make more educated purchase decisions, which in turn builds customer satisfaction and loyalty. Since customers can find what they want quickly and easily, they are more likely to purchase.

"We're dedicated to providing consumers with a broad selection of fully featured consumer entertainment electronics, including digital products and Internet appliances and services, at extremely competitive prices," said Walt Mulvey, president and CEO of goodguys.com. "These days, merchandise has become so highly technical that buyers need some direction when trying to compare and evaluate purchases. Active Product Spex is a fantastic source of technical product data, enabling us to offer our shoppers enough detailed product information to make informed buying decisions. In turn, we are seeing that consumers are increasing their buying because we are using Active Product Spex."

"Despite all the recent media reports about the decline of the dotcoms, we have seen online shopping as a whole continue to grow by leaps and bounds, with this year's holiday sales up an estimated 60% over year-earlier figures," said Jeffrey W. Dunn, president and CEO of Active Research, in making today's announcement. "This recent, explosive growth is proof positive that e-commerce is really entering the mainstream, as average Americans become comfortable with the idea of shopping online. Our new Active Product Spex service is designed to further increase that comfort level by offering consumers reliable and credible information for researching and comparing products -- especially highly technical products, like DVD players and computers -- online."

"Studies show that a major complaint of online shoppers is that they can't find sufficient information about products to make informed buying decisions," added Tom DuBois, COO of Active Research. "One of our core competencies is collecting, cleansing and normalizing product data to provide the most accurate and comprehensive source of product data available. Active Product Spex enables shoppers to "touch" products online through better information. Our service allows retailers to concentrate on their core competencies while outsourcing the dirty work of data collection to the experts."

Active Product Spex provides comprehensive product information on all consumer-level products available across some 130 product categories. The information includes brand, model name, manufacturer SKU, average online price, manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP), top features in each product category, product photo, manufacturer logo, and manufacturer URL. Specification data are carefully collected and inspected by category experts. Leading manufacturers also subscribe to the service to track competitive product specs.

Active Product Spex data is "high-octane fuel" used to power many of the Internet's most popular e-commerce sites, including some of the world's largest shopping sites such as Lycos, Go, and mySimon.

Pricing and Availability

Active Product Spex is available now from Active Research, Inc. Pricing begins at $20,000 per year. Product Spex data are available in three formats: XML, Excel, and tab-delimited. Customers can access updated data monthly, or more frequently, via FTP or ASP to the hosted specification pages.

About Active Research

Active Research, Inc. (ARI) is the leading provider of eCRM decision support applications. The company helps businesses increase revenue by providing online sales assistance while generating real-time intelligence about customer needs. More than 80 Fortune 500 companies, leading portals, and ecommerce sites use Active Decisions' technology to reach millions of active shoppers every month. The company's products include Active Buyer's Guide(TM), the Web's leading recommendation engine; Active Sales Assistant(TM), a personalized online sales agent; and the Active Advisor(TM) demand forecasting system.

Named a 'Hot 100' company by Upside Magazine, Active Research provides solutions that span major markets including consumer electronics, computers, appliances, automotive and financial services. Customers include Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), Consumers Reports, Sony (NYSE:SNE), e*Trade (Nasdaq:EGRP), Ralston Purina (NYSE:RAL), GE (NYSE:GE), McKinsey & Co., Go.com (NYSE:DIG), and Inktomi (Nasdaq:INKT). Founded in 1997, Active Research is based in Burlingame, Calif. and on the Web at www.ActiveResearch.com and www.ActiveBuyersGuide.com.