ActiveFlash Allows Businesses to Survey E-Commerce Consumers as They Shop Online; Custom Web Survey Service from Active Research Reaches Shoppers at Top Web Sites.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2000 Active Research, a provider of Web-based Market Research Automation services, today announced ActiveFlash(SM), a custom Web survey service that surveys e-commerce e-commerce, commerce conducted over the Internet, most often via the World Wide Web. E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. consumers as they decide what products to buy across the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the . Businesses can pose questions on any subject and receive timely market feedback to aid day-to-day decision making. ActiveFlash is administered by Active Research through its extensive partner network, which includes dozens of top e-commerce destinations such as GO.com, iWon, mySimon, ShopNow, Productopia, and Lycos. Active Research specializes in continuously measuring shopping preferences and providing clients with up-to-the-minute insights on buyer behavior via the Internet. For example, the firm recently completed an ActiveFlash survey of online privacy concerns that found that 45 percent of consumers hold the individual web sites they visit responsible for protecting their personal information. The survey also discovered that 91 percent of consumers are willing to voice their opinion anonymously if they can influence the organization requesting their viewpoint. ActiveFlash surveys rely on a research method similar to 'mall intercepts' in the offline world -- where retail shoppers are questioned as they walk from store to store. ActiveFlash improves upon this by intercepting consumers at the virtual product shelf -- the actual point of decision online. ActiveFlash allows business decision makers to look over the shoulder of online shoppers and yield exclusive benefits from these interactions. The company currently covers more than 100 product areas. Tom DuBois, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Active Research, explains, "It's difficult to reach people actively shopping for a particular product, such as an MP3 player A digital music player that supports the MP3 format, which was the audio format that started a revolution in online music downloads and distribution. All portable music players, the iPod being the most popular, support MP3 along with one or more other audio formats. for example. ActiveFlash enables any business to get feedback quickly from these traditionally expensive, hard to reach consumer segments. By leveraging the Web, we intercept intercept in mathematical terms the points at which a curve cuts the two axes of a graph. people as they are in the process of looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. product information. They are much more willing to give feedback on what is important to them." Fast Support for Business Decisions Active Research provides custom ActiveFlash surveys as a fully outsourced, hassle-free service. Customers are freed from the labor-intensive steps of other self-service research methods, to focus instead on high value activities such as analysis and decision making. Active Research's secure web site delivers clients proprietary results within days, and allows them to choose from a set of robust, real-time 1. real-time - Describes an application which requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process control at a chemical plant is the classic example. analysis methods. Features include cross tabulation A cross tabulation (often abbreviated as cross tab) displays the joint distribution of two or more variables. They are usually presented as a contingency table in a matrix format. by question or demographic, analysis of open-ended questions A closed-ended question is a form of question, which normally can be answered with a simple "yes/no" dichotomous question, a specific simple piece of information, or a selection from multiple choices (multiple-choice question), if one excludes such non-answer responses as dodging a , and export of results to Excel A full-featured spreadsheet for Windows and the Macintosh from Microsoft. It can link many spreadsheets for consolidation and provides a wide variety of business graphics and charts for creating presentation materials. . Additional uses of ActiveFlash include assessing consumer needs or satisfaction, tracking promotional effectiveness, measuring brand perception, gauging competitor strengths and weaknesses, testing new product concepts, and defining target advertising messages. The service starts at $3,000 for a representative sample of 300 responses, with discounts for multiple surveys. Active Research occasionally fields ActiveFlash surveys for public release, tracking key e-commerce trends. Recent surveys have examined effectiveness of Internet ads and e-commerce customer satisfaction during the holiday shopping season, as well as Super Bowl dot-com (1) Refers to the period (dot) followed by the abbreviation of the commercial domain (.com) at the end of an Internet address. Since the .com domain is so widely used, the Internet became known as the "dot-com" world, and dot-com companies are those formed to offer services or ad recall. Active Research survey statistics have been cited in high-profile publications and by newswires such as Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The Industry Standard, The Red Herring Red Herring A preliminary registration statement that must be filed with the SEC describing a new issue of stock (IPO) and the prospects of the issuing company. Notes: and Business Week. About Active Research Active Research provides Web-based Market Research Automation services to help businesses attract and understand buyers. The company is the first to offer real-time market intelligence services that enable product manufacturers and retailers to understand and respond to changing customer demands. Market intelligence is generated through a network of portal, content and merchant partners that host buyer's guides powered by Active Research. Complete and unbiased, these buyer's guides help partners attract and retain customers. Founded in 1997, Active Research is based in Burlingame, Calif. and on the Web at www.ActiveResearch.com and www.ActiveBuyersGuide.com. |
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