IBM e-commerce Offering Helps Retailers Expand Sales Channels; Boost Revenue

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Public Relations Contact:
Nancy Riley
IBM
(919) 486-2834
nriley@us.ibm.com

Enhances Personalized Shopping Experience; Provides Greater Levels of Customer Service

SOMERS, N.Y., August 1, 2001-- IBM today announced a new e-commerce offering that helps retailers enhance the sales experience for their customers -- whether they shop in the store, from a catalog, by phone, online, at a kiosk, or from a handheld device.

Retailers of all sizes are striving to create the most efficient and personalized shopping experience possible for their customers by providing multiple avenues to their merchandise. According to AMR Research, retailers can increase their margins by 6 to 7 percent and exceed rising customer convenience and service expectations with multichannel retail systems.

IBM’s new software and services offering, the MerchantReach™ for e-commerce Solution, helps retailers promote the right product and service for individual customers, resulting in a unique customer shopping experience. Based on IBM’s award-winning e-commerce platform, WebSphere® Commerce Suite, the offering can increase revenue for retailers by providing product information, online customer service and real-time access to inventory.

“With the IBM MerchantReach for e-commerce Solution, retailers can help their customers buy what they want, when they want, from wherever they want,” said Sandy Carter, vice president, e-commerce, IBM. “Retailers can customize information -- such as product offers and special promotions -- to give their customers a more personalized shopping experience.”

Because it includes over 200 standard reports and analysis tools, the IBM MerchantReach for e-commerce solution helps retailers understand their customers’ preferences and develop customized marketing campaigns and promotions. With Lotus Sametime, retailers can chat online real-time with their customers and provide greater levels of customer service. In addition, solution developers such as CommercialWare, eCash and Kana are creating applications that enhance the functionality of the MerchantReach for e-commerce solution.

The offering is available immediately and priced by engagement. More information is available at ibm.com/software/commerce/retail_industry.

About WebSphere Commerce Suite

IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite, the first integrated family of e-commerce software provides multiple easy-to-use features and functions for content management, secure order and payment management, and relationship marketing for all types of Internet businesses. In 2000, WebSphere Commerce Suite posted more than 300% revenue growth, far outpacing the industry growth rate of 145%*. Additional information is available at http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/commerce.

About MerchantReach

MerchantReach is IBM`s broad portfolio of solutions for point-of-sale, kiosk, e-commerce, mobile and wireless commerce, customer relations management (CRM) and enterprise infrastructure that allows retailers of all sizes to integrate their multiple sales channels while leveraging existing investments. Through the MerchantReach portfolio, retailers can integrate some or all of these channels to present to their customers an integrated multi-channel shopping experience.

IBM Corporation

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at http://www.ibm.com/software.

IBM provides the Retail Industry with a full range of e-business solutions, including: hardware and software technology; consulting focused on business transformation, IT strategy and planning, store operations improvement, and supply chain optimization, and with services, such as outsourcing, managed operations, systems integration, and application development and design. For more information on IBM Retail Solutions, please visit www.ibm.com/solutions/retail.

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IBM and WebSphere are registered trademarks, and MerchantReach is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.