KOZ.com First to Make Community Commerce a Reality; Partners with Orbit Commerce and Vicinity Corporation to Combine Community Interaction and Local E-Commerce.RESEARCH TRIANGLE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 1999-- KOZ.com, a leading provider of Web-based community building products, services and support, today announced Community Commerce(SM), a new model aimed at small to mid-sized businesses that will generate revenue needed to sustain local online communities. KOZ.com has partnered with Orbit Commerce, Inc., an e-commerce application service provider, and Vicinity Corporation, an e-retail Internet marketing See Internet advertising. solutions company, to combine community interaction and local e-commerce. Community Commerce will be available to businesses through KOZ.com's network of more than 300 local media affiliates beginning September 20. Community Commerce draws on the depth and richness of KOZ.com's Community Publishing System (CPS (1) (Characters Per Second) The measurement of the speed of a serial printer or the speed of a data transfer between hardware devices or over a communications channel. CPS is equivalent to bytes per second. ) 4.0 and features directories; storefronts, including community-enabled business sites and electronic catalogs; and media-affiliate branded malls. This comprehensive community-based e-commerce offering will allow local businesses to quickly and easily customize the content of their storefronts, provide targeted customer service and strengthen local ties, while encouraging online "stickiness" and encouraging customers to visit their brick-and-mortar stores. By generating traffic for KOZ.com's local media affiliates' Web sites, Community Commerce provides an added revenue stream and a way to partner with local-area merchants seeking to offer an online storefront A store on the Internet that offers items for sale and is capable of handling the financial transaction online. See cybermall and digital money. . Community Commerce will help the media affiliates to serve their communities online, within their geographic location and across the KOZ.com national network. "KOZ.com has always believed that community and commerce are inexorably in·ex·o·ra·ble adj. Not capable of being persuaded by entreaty; relentless: an inexorable opponent; a feeling of inexorable doom. See Synonyms at inflexible. linked: one cannot exist without the other," said Mike Moran Mike Moran is the name of:
"While national commerce players such as Amazon.com have grabbed the public's attention, local businesses also have a major role to play. In fact, our research shows that more than two million local businesses have already established Web sites, largely with the intent of complementing their existing offline activities," said Peter Krasilovsky, program director, The Kelsey Group. "In our view, KOZ.com's e-commerce solution is positioned to put many more local businesses online by utilizing the sales force of its local media partners, providing full storefront capability and uniquely allowing stores to be an integral part of the community they serve." Components of Community Commerce Directories KOZ.com has selected Vicinity Corporation (www.vicinity.com), the leading provider of Internet-based corporate locator e-retail solutions for businesses, as its partner for Community Commerce directories. Vicinity's directory solution will facilitate sales at local merchants' virtual and brick-and-mortar locations by providing customers with practical and timely geographic and retail information. Vicinity's product suite of private-label and co-branded content and services includes Business Finder, the Wireless Locator Service, Maps, Driving Directions and Business Directory. Storefronts Community-enabled Business Sites Community-enabled business sites return to businesses the control of their marketing messages and the ability to deliver timely messages without dedicated technical staffs. These sites provide a number of new functions normally available only to large businesses with dedicated new media staffs and budgets. These functions include calendars, message boards, chat and even news feeds from local media affiliates. Electronic Catalogs KOZ.com has selected Orbit Commerce (www.orbitcommerce.com), an e-commerce application service provider (ASP), as its partner to provide businesses with a powerful, easy-to-use, end-to-end e-commerce solution. Orbit's SiteBuilder tool kit will enable order management, marketing promotions, sales tracking, real-time payment, secure Internet transactions and complete back office management support. Back end office systems, including shopping cart, credit card authorization, transaction and settlement, will allow merchants to easily manage and update their catalogs as well as gather important and timely information on what's selling, where shoppers are looking and other pertinent traffic statistics. Through the KOZ.com/Orbit Community Commerce solution, the barriers to entry for merchants are surprisingly low, thus extending the simple, low-cost publishing model of CPS to the KOZ.com e-commerce offering. Media-Affiliate Branded Malls KOZ.com will also help local media affiliates to create and manage branded malls, where local online shops will be linked. This will make it easier for consumers to locate local online shops. In addition, the scalability of Community Commerce will allow local merchants to extend their reach far beyond their local community, if they choose to do so. KOZ.com will network its media-affiliate branded malls, which will provide merchants with increased exposure and sales opportunities. "KOZ.com has successfully helped more than 300 media companies to extend their communities online, including schools, churches, civic organizations, non-profits and even government agencies," said Kim Dixon, senior director of e-commerce programs for KOZ.com. "These groups provide the audience that small merchants need in order to conduct business online. Community Commerce, combined with the sizeable, loyal audience that the KOZ.com network has built, makes it easy for merchants to take their businesses online and initiate e-commerce at the local level." Pricing and Availability Community Commerce will be available to merchants and organizations through local media companies that seek to augment their online initiatives with e-commerce. Contact sales@koz.com for specific pricing information. About Orbit Commerce Orbit Commerce is an e-commerce application service provider (ASP) specializing in building and managing branded online marketplaces for ISPs, telecommunications firms, portals, digital communities, industry associations, financial institutions and other organizations interested in providing customers or members with a cost-effective, turnkey e-commerce solution. Founded in 1998, the privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. is headquartered in Chicago, with operations in Santa Clara Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif. For more information about Orbit Commerce, call 312-670-0040, ext. 208, or visit www.orbitcommerce.com. About Vicinity Corporation Vicinity Corporation is the leading provider of Internet-based corporate locator e-retail solutions for businesses. Using Vicinity's e-retail marketing solutions, corporate customers possess the most robust technology for their content and service sites, providing their end-users with practical and timely geographic and retail information. Vicinity's customers gain a competitive advantage through facilitated sales to customers buying at their brick-and-mortar locations. Vicinity's product suite of private-label and co-branded content and services includes Business Finder, the Wireless Locator Service, Maps, Driving Directions, and Business Directory. Some of Vicinity's more than 220 customers include Fed Ex, Ford, GM, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton, Marriott, McDonald's, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. , Nike, Pizza Hut, Preview Travel, Starbucks, Taco Bell Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is a Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain based in Irvine, California, United States. The restaurant has locations primarily in the United States and Canada, but also operates outlets in several other markets. , Toyota and UPS. Funded by CMGI CMGI Commonly Maintained Grounds Infrastructures CMGI College Marketing Group Information (Services) , Oak Investment Partners, 21st Century Internet and the Encompass Group, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif. About KOZ.com KOZ.com, located in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. , is a leading provider of Web-based community building products, services and support. By licensing its Community Publishing System(TM) (CPS) to publishers such as Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder (IPA: /ˈrɪdɚ/) was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. New Media, MediaNews Group Not to be confused with Media General, an unrelated newspaper and TV group. MediaNews Group, based in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States. , Donrey Media Group, Gray Communications Systems In telecommunication, a communications system is a collection of individual communications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and data terminal equipment (DTE) usually capable of interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole. Inc., Orlando Sentinel The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently in its 131st year of publication. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. and The Bergen Record, KOZ.com is building the largest network of local online media affiliates in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . KOZ.com also markets the ichat community product suite, which includes ichat Rooms (chat), ichat Boards (message boards), and ichat Pager 1. (hardware, communications) pager - (Or "beeper", "bleeper" (UK?)) A small wireless receiver that, when triggered (generally via phone), will beep or vibrate (un)pleasantly. (instant messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or ) tools. Voted one of DigitalSouth's 50 companies to watch in 1999, KOZ.com has received investments from a European family group advised by Barnard & Co., BancBoston Ventures, The Bergen Record, The CIT n. 1. A citizen; an inhabitant of a city; a pert townsman; - used contemptuously. Which past endurance sting the tender cit. - Emerson. Group, CMGI@Ventures, Donrey Media Group, Encompass Ventures, Guy Gannett Communications, Pulitzer Publishing, SG Capital Partners, Southeast Interactive Technology Funds and other private investors. Visit KOZ.com at www.koz.com. Note to editors: Community Publishing System, CPS and ichat are trademarks of KOZ.com. All other company and product names are the property of their respective owners. |
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