Chase Cuts To The Internet Shopping Chase

The Chase Manhattan Bank is launching an Internet shopping site in conjunction with ShopNow.com Inc., an Internet shopping network. As part of the agreement, Chase will be a preferred provider of financial services for ShopNow.com, offering co-branded ShopNow.com and Chase credit cards, merchant services and consumer services on its Web site. In addition, Chase will launch a customized shopping site for Chase customers, available at www.chase.com. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
      ShopNow.com will provide e-commerce technology, direct marketing services and a co-branded shopping site with over 29,000 merchants and a wide variety of services to Chase merchants and consumers. Chase financial services will also be offered at ShopNow.com and in MyShopNow.com consumer created personal stores.
     "Chase is committed to introducing Internet based solutions that will substantially benefit our customers," says Joseph G. Sponholz, Chase Vice Chairman and head of Chase.com, the Chase business unit responsible for joint ventures and marketing alliances with Internet companies. "This agreement with ShopNow.com is an outstanding example of how we are extending the Chase brand up the e-commerce value chain."
     Online shopping is a rapidly expanding market. According to eStats Research, a leading Internet research company, online shopping was a $4.5 billion industry in 1998. With a customer base of more than 30 million consumers and 350,000 businesses nationwide, Chase is in the unique position to benefit from this growth.
     The Chase agreement with ShopNow.com calls for ShopNow.com to develop an exclusive co-branded Chase shopping destination, complete with Chase and ShopNow.com merchants and a variety of personalized services. In addition, Chase merchants will gain access to ShopNow.com customers via the ShopNow.com network.
     ShopNow.com provides shoppers and merchants with a dynamic online marketplace and a broad array of effective e-commerce and direct marketing solutions. The ShopNow network, an online marketplace, is comprised of ShopNow.com, MyShopNow.com and the individual Web sites of its merchant customers. ShopNow.com aggregates more than one million products and services from more than 29,000 merchants at one Web site that can be rapidly and efficiently searched by category, merchant or product. MyShopNow.com enables shoppers to create personalized online stores by selecting the types of products and services offered to them. ShopNow.com has offices in Washington, Georgia and California.