ANDALE LAUNCHES MAJOR NEW FUNCTIONALITY IN AUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR SMALL BUSINESS ECOMMERCE

ExpressPay Checkout, Ad Design Studio and SalesCounter Console Features Deliver Unparalleled Customer Service Across Multiple Auction Sites

Mountain View, Calif. – May 30, 2000 – Andale™, Inc., the company setting the standard in auction management solutions for eCommerce, today announced major new functionality for its web-based auction management services that will significantly streamline auction buying and selling across multiple eMarkets including eBay, Amazon.com and Yahoo! Andale 2.0's new technology will set a new standard in eCommerce convenience by automating the entire sales cycle, dramatically simplifying the process for both buyers and sellers. Features offered include professional ad design automation, a single sales control center that spans multiple sites, and the industry's first automated checkout that will unify customers and purchases across multiple online marketplaces in order to finalize sales faster and easier than before.

"The online auction market is growing at a rate of 192% and will top $5 billion in small business sales this year," said Andale CEO and co-founder Munjal Shah. "With Andale 2.0, we are enabling the auction industry to deliver a more professional eCommerce experience, one that you'd expect from a serious business sales channel. We are also empowering small businesses to maximize revenue generation from auction selling and, as a result, significantly grow their businesses."

The Hidden Pot of Gold – Small Business eCommerce
Small businesses today are capitalizing on the bounty of online selling, driving the most profitable (40% margins) and fastest growing (192%/year) segment of eCommerce ($3.6 billion per year in sales on eBay alone). When compared to the single digit gross margins and slow growth rates of the largest e-retailers, small business eCommerce success may very well represent the majority of commerce conducted over the Internet within the next two years. At the forefront of this trend, Andale is delivering selling tools for small businesses leveraging online marketplaces, managing the entire online sales process, and helping them to move up to three times as many items in half the time and effort. Small businesses pay Andale a 2.95% transaction fee on all successful sales.

The new features being delivered today with Andale 2.0 provide important new tools to these online sellers as a benefit of Andale's Merchant network (see related release dated 5/30/00). In addition to these tools, the Andale Merchant network also includes programs designed to create buyer preference for Andale Merchants by building trust, ensuring convenience and offering rewards for buying. The Andale Merchant network brings a new level of professionalism and credibility to auction selling, much like the impact the VISA network has had on retailing.

Andale 2.0
The product features that Andale 2.0 provides are designed to enhance a seller's profit-making abilities by significantly streamlining the selling and buying process. As a result, Andale 2.0 allows merchants to sell three times the merchandise on more sites, in one-third of the time and effort. In fact, members of the Andale Merchant network report that their ads receive on average, 35% more bids and ultimately may end up commanding a higher ending sales price. Andale Merchants today are responsible for more than $100 million in annualized transactions on a variety of auction sites and serve millions of buyers worldwide.

Andale 2.0 key features include:

Third Generation Ad Design – With Andale 2.0, sellers can easily create impressive online auction ads with the Ad Design Studio's fast and easy "Power Mode" and the creative freedom of its "Design Mode." Either way, sellers can choose from savvy templates and merchandising wizards that help them create ads designed to attract more bids, generate higher selling prices, and successfully close a greater number of auctions. New ad navigation and standard areas for terms of sale like "shipping options," "payment process," "return policy," etc. give sellers true business credibility and buyers a sense of trust in the Andale Merchant. Powerful new scheduling capabilities allow merchants to pre-schedule hundreds of ads and automatically relist unsuccessful auctions, virtually eliminating the tedious and time-consuming aspects of online auction sales.

Andale SalesCounter Console – The SalesCounter is a remote control center personalized for each Andale Merchant's auction business. One stop on the web shows all sales on multiple markets, all customer communication activities, pending sales, and active reminders that prompt the seller when it is time to take actions such as "ship product," or "secure more inventory." The invoicing section allows merchants to ship professional invoices along with the product to their customers. Integrated with the Andale Merchant customer database, SalesCounter allows the seller to market to past sellers and drive customer loyalty programs as well. In addition, SalesCounter dramatically reduces the time needed for record keeping, allowing sellers to focus on increasing customer satisfaction and growing their businesses.

Andale ExpressPay Checkout – A first for the auction industry, Andale 2.0's ExpressPay drives auction transactions to a close as quickly as possible, helping sellers to collect payment more easily to avoid deadbeat bidder situations. As the only automated checkout in the auction industry that spans multiple sites and supports a variety of payment options (VISA, MasterCard, Paypal, checks, Billpoint, Amazon 1-Click, or money orders), ExpressPay sets a new standard in eCommerce convenience. ExpressPay also includes a unified "buyer's console" that lets buyers pay for and track all their purchases from any Andale Merchant, regardless of where on the Internet they bought. Andale's ExpressPay eliminates the time consuming back and forth email messages normally required to finalize a transaction.

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