CrossCommerce Expands Market Reach to Accelerate E-Commerce for Leading Consumer Product Manufacturers.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2001

Innovative CrossCommerce Platform(TM) Provides Comprehensive

Commerce Channel Management Solution

CrossCommerce, the leading provider of commerce channel management solutions, today announced an aggressive market expansion strategy that extends its solution to consumer product manufacturers. This vital new class of customers is actively seeking turnkey solutions to engage in direct e-commerce and manage existing channel relationships.

"If consumers know what a product is, and if that product has a brand, they expect to be able to buy it online," states the Hurwitz Group in today's research bulletin titled, "Squandering Brand--Who's at Risk and Why." "Pointing online buyers to brick-and-mortar stores is tantamount to saying `take your business elsewhere.' The bottom line is simple. If a manufacturer has brand, they must use it online--or lose it."

According to a March 2000 Forrester Research report, 80% of online consumers visit manufacturers' sites multiple times during the buying process to research a product and find a place to buy it. Consequently, the report finds that 70% of manufacturers intend to engage in direct e-commerce within the next three years to meet the consumer demand. However, despite manufacturers' recognition that they must engage in direct e-commerce, there are several significant barriers to entry.

The prohibitive cost of developing an e-commerce infrastructure from scratch is a major inhibitor. This slow design and implementation process also carries a significant time-to-market penalty. From an operational standpoint, e-commerce initiatives consume valuable IT and management bandwidth, and create complex system integration problems. Managing an e-commerce program also involves intensive ongoing maintenance that may require additional technical hires. Manufacturers have little to no experience in managing direct-to-consumer fulfillment logistics. And finally, manufacturers typically have little of the required online merchandising expertise.

To overcome these barriers to entry, CrossCommerce provides a turnkey e-commerce infrastructure and Web-based application suite that enable product manufacturers to easily manage the sale of their products directly from their own sites and through other online and offline channels they designate. By outsourcing their e-commerce operations to CrossCommerce, manufacturers can accelerate their e-commerce implementation and more quickly benefit from enhanced margins, tighter brand and channel control, new distribution channels, and direct interaction with their consumers. CrossCommerce also provides manufacturers with the tools they need to mitigate channel conflict through customer referrals, revenue credits, and other collaborative commerce strategies.

The CrossCommerce Platform(TM) enables easy management of the entire e-commerce operation, including storefront and catalog creation, merchandising, transaction processing, order fulfillment, and customer service. This eliminates the need to devote understaffed IT departments to the lengthy design and integration required when building an e-commerce infrastructure from scratch, and enables manufacturers to launch direct e-commerce and Web-based channel management in sixty days or less.

CrossCommerce provides real-time analytics that manufacturers can leverage in order to respond quickly to changes in consumer behavior. With real-time business intelligence reporting, it is easy to measure consumer behavior and spot trends that affect all channels. Manufacturers can also determine which online and offline distribution channels are most efficient and effective at building brand loyalty. This enables manufacturers to continually adjust the distribution of individual product brands through those channels that are generating and fulfilling the greatest demand.

To immediately increase the online reach of its manufacturer customers, CrossCommerce also offers them access to its eChannel Network(TM), a rapidly growing network of publishing, entertainment, community, affinity, and portal sites, as well as corporate intranets. These sites provide manufacturers with an entirely new online channel that will expand their reach while offering them the opportunity to efficiently evaluate contextual merchandising strategies.

"Consumer product manufacturers are committing to Web-based channels in order to capitalize on the enhanced margins, increased brand equity, and customer relationship intelligence offered by e-commerce," said Peter Nordberg, President and CEO of CrossCommerce. "Because we provide them with a turnkey e-commerce solution for accelerating their entry into the electronic marketplace, we are gaining tremendous traction in this new market segment."

About CrossCommerce

CrossCommerce, the leading provider of commerce channel management solutions, delivers a turnkey e-commerce infrastructure and Web-based application suite that enable product manufacturers and Web businesses to control the distribution and presentation of consumer product brands across direct, online, and offline channels. Eliminating the need to build an e-commerce infrastructure from scratch, the CrossCommerce Platform(TM) automates end-to-end e-commerce operations, provides real-time business intelligence for quickly optimizing channel strategies, and is easily managed by existing, non-technical staff.

The company's co-founders--Peter Nordberg and Jim Oliver--are industry veterans with backgrounds at leading companies that include WebLogic, Apple Computer, and Hewlett-Packard. Formed in 1999, CrossCommerce is privately held, with investors that include The Sprout Group, Nexus Group, and Osprey Ventures. CrossCommerce is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.crosscommerce.com or call 415/315-1000.