Be Free, Inc. Enhances Merchant Experience With Version 5.0 of Its BFAST Technology; New Interface & Improved Reporting System Increase Ease-of-Use & Flexibility.MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 1999-- Be Free, Inc., a leading provider of performance marketing technology, services and knowledge, today announced Version 5.0 of its BFAST BFAST Be Free Affiliate Service Technology (Be Free Inc.) (SM) technology. This upgrade is designed to improve overall usability and provide more program flexibility for Be Free's e-merchant customers. A new user interface for the merchants incorporates a more intuitive look and feel, and improvements to the reporting system provide added capabilities for tracking results and data, as well as communicating with affiliates. "We believe that affiliate sales channels are becoming key to online merchants reaching new customers and increasing sales," said Ellen Brezniak, vice president of product marketing at Be Free, Inc. "Anything we can do to make the program more flexible and easier to manage helps our merchants and Version 5.0 is designed to address both these needs." New Look & Feel--Improved Usability Be Free's merchant application is updated with a new look and feel modeled after commonly used tree-view navigation applications. The new interface makes locating specific program functions simpler and allows users to more easily manage multiple windows for performing analysis. The new interface should also make training new staff quicker and more efficient. Merchants must be able to understand and manage the detailed data contained in their traffic and sales reports in order to build lasting relationships with their affiliate partners and increase sales and customer acquisition. Version 5.0 is designed to make the overall process of accessing sales and affiliate information and reports much easier and more efficient for Be Free merchants. Additional Compensation Flexibility Be Free already has a wide variety of compensation options available to merchants, including the ability to pay a bounty bounty, payment made by a government bounty, amount paid by a government for the achievement of certain economic or other goals. It often takes the form of a premium paid for the increased production or export of certain goods. to affiliates referring first-time customers. Building on these features, merchants using Version 5.0 can now benefit from several additional compensation-related features. -0-
-- Merchants have been able to pay a bounty based on the number of
items ordered. In Version 5.0, merchants can now structure
compensation tiers based on the number of orders shipped. For
example, a program may offer a bounty of $1 per shipment for the
first 50 orders, increase the bounty to $3 for the next 50
orders, and then further increase the bounty to $5 for subsequent
orders. This should be of special interest for merchants who are
running a cost per lead program.
-- To provide further granularity in accelerated compensation
options, Version 5.0 will allow merchants to have five tiers of
compensation for affiliates.
-- Previously, when an affiliate reached the threshold for an
increased commission rate, the higher commission rate would apply
to all sales within that payment period. Version 5.0 allows
merchants to pay accelerated commissions for the entire period,
or just forward from the point at which the affiliate reached the
threshold.
Reporting Improvements In addition to the overall interface change optimizing ease-of-use, a number of step-saving conveniences have been added to Be Free's reporting. Merchants can now save the last criteria when running a report. Version 5.0 also includes a calendar-based date range selector (programming) selector - 1. In Smalltalk or Objective C, the syntax of a message which selects a particular method in the target object. 2. An operation that returns the state of an object but does not alter that state. and the ability to print only selected pages from reports. Other improvements to reporting include a revised vendor report and additional detail in the "Inactive in·ac·tive adj. 1. Not active or tending to be active. 2. a. Not functioning or operating; out of use: inactive machinery. b. Affiliate" report. There are some high level variables, such as click-through rates The number of times a link on a Web page is clicked compared to the number of times it is displayed. Advertising royalties paid to Web sites are often based on click-through rate (CTR), and the amount paid per click-through is considerably higher than the cost of an ad that is displayed , impressions and net shipped sales that affiliate program managers watch frequently. Version 5.0 has a special QuickStats(SM) menu option so merchants can access these key program metrics metrics Managed care A popular term for standards by which the quality of a product, service, or outcome of a particular form of Pt management is evaluated. See TQM. instantaneously in·stan·ta·ne·ous adj. 1. Occurring or completed without perceptible delay: Relief was instantaneous. 2. , without running a report. Communications Upgrade The ability to send targeted messages to affiliates using Reporting.net(SM) and the ability to send targeted e-mail to groups of affiliates are both extremely useful tools for managing and optimizing affiliate sales channels. Be Free merchants can already target these communications based on selected criteria such as the affiliate's number of impressions, click-through rate, net shipped sales and level within the merchant-branded program. With Version 5.0 another selection criteria has been added -- affiliate category. Merchants can ask affiliates to categorize cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat themselves. As an example, a merchant can offer an incentive to all affiliates designated in the sports category whose sales last month totaled more than $250. Re-organized FastApp(SM) Makes It easy for Affiliates to Select Merchants Be Free has contracted to provide more than 160 merchant customers with affiliate serving technology. The Version 5.0 FastApp groups merchant programs under topical topical /top·i·cal/ (top´i-k'l) pertaining to a particular area, as a topical antiinfective applied to a certain area of the skin and affecting only the area to which it is applied. top·i·cal adj. categories to help prospective affiliates quickly and easily locate merchants whose programs fit with the audience and focus of their site. About Be Free, Inc. Be Free, Inc. is a leading provider of performance marketing technology, services and knowledge. Be Free helps merchants build and manage merchant-branded online sales channels, e-nabling(SM) these e-retailers to capture revenue by selling products in context on locations throughout the Web. The company's product offerings include the BFAST(SM) affiliate serving technology, the BFIT BFIT Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (Boston, Massachusetts) BFIT Before Federal Income Tax BFIT Battle Force Inport Training BFIT Battle Force Interoperability Testing BFIT Battle Force Inport Trainer (SM) targeted advertising delivery system and the B-INTOUCH(SM) e-mail marketing Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. service. Be Free's customers have more than 1.6 million affiliates in their sales channels and include some of the Internet's leading merchants such as barnesandnoble.com (bn.com) (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : BNBN), Travelocity.com, Mercata.com, Reel.com (NASDAQ: HLYW), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN PCLN Priceline.com (stock abbreviation, AMEX) ) and Yahoo!(R) GeoCities (NASDAQ: YHOO YHOO Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ symbol) ). Affiliates can enroll in performance marketing programs using Be Free's technology with a streamlined application form called FastApp(SM), located at http://www.reporting.net/networks/affiliates/bf_fast_app. Founded in 1996, Be Free has offices in Marlborough, MA, Pittsburgh, PA, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , CA, Campbell, CA and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY. For more information, visit http://www.befree.com. All companies, product names, servicemarks and trademarks are property of their respective owners. |
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