-- For the 24 hours of Thanksgiving Day 2009, Mercent reports overall
same-seller online retail GMV grew 33% relative to Thanksgiving Day 2008.
-- For the 24 hours of Black Friday 2009, Mercent reports overall same-
seller online retail GMV grew 41% on Black Friday relative to 2008.
-- On Thanksgiving Day, same-seller GMV of Mercent clients participating
in Amazon's "Selling on Amazon" third-party marketplace program increased
by 78% relative to Thanksgiving Day 2008.
-- On Black Friday, same-seller GMV of Mercent clients participating in
Amazon's "Selling on Amazon" third-party marketplace program increased by
56% on Black Friday relative to 2008.
2009 Key Holiday Shopping Days vs. Corresponding
Days in 2008 for eCommerce Spending
Holiday Season Day Online Shopping Channels
ALL AMZN
November 26th (Thanksgiving Day) 33% 78%
November 27th (Black Friday) 41% 56%
According to Mercent CEO Eric Best, "Mercent data indicates Black Friday
holiday eCommerce retail sales are markedly better than the same period in
2008, further confirming our belief the retail industry, especially online,
is in a measured recovery. Furthermore, we believe consumers are
responding well to aggressive merchant promotions, discounts and increased
customer service levels offered online -- particularly among market leaders
like Amazon.com. We anticipate this growth to continue on Cyber Monday and
through the peak selling season in December."
Mercent attributes merchant GMV sales growth across online channels to the
macro-economic recovery in non-discretionary and discretionary spending;
the increased draw of online channels that provide aggressive and
competitive purchasing options for value-conscious shoppers; and the
efficiencies of major online shopping destinations such as Amazon, eBay,
Walmart and others, that are placing downward pressure on industry selling
and fulfillment expenses. Furthermore, the most competitive merchants are
becoming intensely savvy and efficient with their online sales and
advertising strategies, leveraging technologies like Mercent Retail™ to
seamlessly integrate product data feeds with online sales channels and
fully optimize online ad campaigns and promotions to drive incremental
sales.
About Mercent Retail™
Mercent Retail™ is an on-demand, online channel management platform
designed exclusively for multi-channel retailers. The solution gives
merchants the power to reach more than 250 million customers with targeted
products, advertisements and promotions through the most popular online
marketing channels. Based on a proven and industry-leading platform,
Mercent Retail™ offers seamless integration with back-end retail
e-commerce systems and turnkey data integration with analytics and paid
search platforms to give retailers campaign intelligence and the power to
change product promotions and offers 'on-the-fly.' Most important, the SAAS
platform makes it easy and cost-effective for merchants to increase sales
revenue, improve gross margins and optimize their return on advertising
spend by promoting and selling the right products with the right
merchandising offers on key retail channels.
Mercent Retail™ helps the world's leading online retailers promote their
products across online transactional marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. The
technology handles the complex and unique challenges of managing multiple
data feed exchanges and is ideally suited for connecting retail systems
with sophisticated online marketplace and comparison shopping APIs. Mercent
Retail also addresses the correct mapping of products, automates order
processing, and provides ongoing data feed monitoring to rapidly and
efficiently grow marketplace revenues.
Information regarding Mercent Retail shopping feed management technology,
Mercent Performance marketing services, and the complete list of online
marketing channels in the Mercent Shopping Network are available at
www.mercent.com.
About Mercent
Mercent is a leading provider of online channel marketing technology and
services for retailers. Through its award-winning Mercent Retail™ SAAS
technology and Mercent Performance™ professional services, Mercent helps
the world's most successful online merchants including 1-800-Flowers, Bass
Pro Shops, Brookstone, GUESS?, L'Occitane USA, Redcats Group, and REI
optimize online shopping channel marketing campaigns to drive customer
acquisition, revenues, profits, and inventory velocity. Mercent is the
single point of integration with a vast online advertising network that
includes transactional marketplaces such as Amazon.com and eBay; comparison
shopping engines (CSEs) such as Shopping.com and NextTag; affiliate
marketing programs such as LinkShare and the Google Affiliate Network; and
other product advertising channels including Microsoft Bing Cashback and
Google Product Listing Ads (PLA). The company is a 'Selling on Amazon.com'
Certified System Integrator, Buy.com Gold Certified Partner, eBay Certified
Provider, certified Google Product Search Partner and Yahoo! Search Submit
Pro certified feed provider. Founded by a seasoned team of Amazon.com
veterans, Mercent is a venture-funded company based in Seattle, WA. For
more information, visit www.mercent.com.
Contact Information: Mercent PR Contact: Kristine Szarkowitz Tel: 206. 310.5323