ActivePoint's Contextual Natural Language Search and Guidance Engine is the On-line Answer for $3 billion Furniture Retailer.

NEW YORK -- ActivePoint's Technology Helps MFI to Speed Consumer Buying Process from Web Visit to In-store Purchase

ActivePoint, a provider of contextual natural language search and guidance engines that emulate the human communications process to provide pinpointed discovery, announced that MFI, Britain's largest furniture retailer, is utilizing ActivePoint's TX5(TM) Discovery Engine system to help consumers formulate their purchasing decision before arriving at the store.

ActivePoint's interactive TX5 Discovery Engine system, which is deployed in the kitchen furniture area of MFI's Web site, deciphers fast-typed chat language and quickly delivers a short list of options for the consumer to browse through. The patented technology also provides a query string to permit further refinement to help the Web visitor locate the exact product of his or her choice.

"A majority of our customers visit our Web site at some point during the kitchen buying process," said Peter McKenna, Head of E-Commerce of MFI. "ActivePoint's solution helps in the consideration phase of the sales process, so when the customer arrives at our retail location, they are more prepared to make an informed buying decision. Another feature of ActivePoint's technology permits us to capture the chat session so we can better listen and learn from our customers to ensure MFI understands and satisfies their needs," added McKenna.

MFI is the UK's largest furniture retailer, offering solutions for every room in the house. One in three UK households have an MFI kitchen. MFI benefits from having its own manufacturing ability, which allows it to respond quickly to new trends in design and materials, and the company delivers the consumer's selection from the store to their door.

"MFI is known for its utilization of technology and innovation to better serve its customers and bring more value to the company," said Moshe Ofer, CEO of ActivePoint. "I am pleased that the TX5 Discovery Engine's smart logic is making a difference in the sales process by helping the customer make a buying decision before entering the store, and also helping MFI get closer to its customers," he added.

The TX5 Discovery Engine patented system is a powerful software solution that can automate an important part of the on-line selling process. Its uniqueness is that it has the ability to find products using ActivePoint's natural language engine that incorporates sentence contextual understanding. This means that users can ask about products in plain English and expect to receive a targeted response. The TX5 Discovery Engine system also makes use of specially formulated guidance engines that help direct the on-line customers towards the required information or products while simultaneously educating the customer about the product offerings. The natural language follows the interaction and is able to provide the user with pertinent information based on their previous choices.

About ActivePoint

ActivePoint, a provider of contextual natural language search and guidance engines, is based in New York, NY with development facilities in Netanya, Israel. ActivePoint's TX5(TM) Discovery Engine is a contextual relational search and guidance system that emulates the human communications process. Built on an application service provider (ASP) model, the company has customers in the US, UK and France. ActivePoint is a subsidiary of ActivePoint Inc., a Delaware holding company. TX5 is a trademark of ActivePoint Inc. ActivePoint is a registered trademark of ActivePoint LTD. For more information go to www.activepoint.com.