Mercent Launches Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - July 24, 2008) - Mercent™, a provider of online marketing technology and services for retail merchants, today announced the launch and immediate availability of Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion™, a hosted software service that enables merchants to optimize product-level, category-level, and top-level pages on Yahoo! Search Submit Pro™ according to key performance metrics including profitability, revenue, return on ad spend (ROAS), and cost-per-order (CPO).

"Altrec.com selected Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion to gain insight into and control over our paid inclusion programs," said Derek Kershner, Search Marketing Analyst at Altrec.com. "Mercent helps Altrec.com more effectively manage our Yahoo! Search Submit Pro relationship based on the retail metrics that matter most."

Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion is the latest addition to the Mercent Retail™ family of hosted performance marketing services. Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion offers online retailers the ability to continuously track and improve performance on Yahoo! Search Submit Pro and related search engines on a product-by-product basis at scale. Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion includes full-service performance marketing account management, contract administration, and PPC / CPC billing services for Yahoo! Search Submit Pro.

Benefits of Mercent Retail Paid Inclusion include:

--  Native integration with Yahoo! Search Submit Pro and leading
    comparison shopping engines, cart-based marketplaces and affiliate programs
    through a common, optimized Mercent data feed
    
--  Access to the entire complement of Mercent Retail features including
    catalog assortment, offer management and search optimization tools along
    with customizable dashboards and reports
    
--  Automated control of paid inclusion campaign parameters based on ad
    and SKU-based performance metrics including profitability, revenue, return
    on ad spend (ROAS), and cost-per-order (CPO)
    

With Mercent Retail, retail marketers track and manage the performance of paid inclusion pages alongside ads placed on transactional marketplaces such as Amazon.com and SHOP.COM, shopping portals such as Shopping.com and Shopzilla, and affiliate marketing programs such as LinkShare and Performics. Mercent provides related full-service performance marketing account management and ad spend billing services through the Mercent Performance™ program.

Yahoo! Search Submit Pro lets merchants create titles and descriptions that are displayed as algorithmic search result listings. With Yahoo! Search Submit Pro, merchants don't have to wonder if and when Web site changes are updated in the algorithmic search results to reflect special promotions or changes in pricing or inventory levels. With Search Submit Pro, content can be refreshed as frequently as every 48 hours to ensure product and offer parity with other sales and marketing channels. The program can automatically generate result listings that best match user queries.

Leading retailers including 1-800-Flowers, Bass Pro Shops, GUESS?, REI, and RedCats Group trust Mercent to generate more revenues, profits, ROAS, and customer lifetime value from cross-channel online marketing campaigns.

Information regarding Mercent Retail shopping feed and paid inclusion management technology, Mercent Performance marketing services, and the complete list of online marketing channels in the Mercent Shopping Network is available at www.mercent.com.

About Mercent

Founded by veterans of Amazon.com, Mercent provides online marketing technology and services to help retail merchants optimize performance across online channels. Mercent's on-demand platform, Mercent Retail, increases revenue and gross margins by promoting the right products with the right merchandising offers and placement. Mercent Retail provides a single point of integration between existing retail management systems and The Mercent Shopping Network, supporting more than 50 leading online marketing channels including transactional marketplaces such as Amazon.com and SHOP.COM, shopping portals such as Shopping.com and Shopzilla, paid inclusion programs like Yahoo! Search Submit Pro, and affiliate marketing programs such as LinkShare and Performics -- making it easy for merchants to automate, measure, and optimize online product merchandising campaigns through these channels. Mercent customers include 1-800-Flowers, Benefit Cosmetics, REI, GUESS?, Bass Pro Shops, Redcats Group, Celebrate Express, Levenger, and other leading retailers. Mercent is an Amazon.com Certified System Integrator, Buy.com Gold Certified Partner, SHOP.COM Certified Data Feed Provider, and Yahoo! Search Submit Pro certified feed provider. Mercent is a venture-funded company based in Seattle, WA. For more information, visit www.mercent.com.