ANDALE LAUNCHES AUCTION INDUSTRY'S FIRST COMMERCE MANAGEMENT SERVICE FOR INTEGRATED SELLING ON AUCTIONS, STOREFRONTS, WEBSITES, AND VIA EMAIL

A Breakthrough In Online Selling, Andale's New Commerce Management Service Helps Merchants Drive Multiple Purchases From Buyers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF., – June 25, 2001 – Andale, Inc., today announced the auction industry's first Commerce Management Service – an integrated suite of sales automation products for merchants selling across multiple online markets, including Internet auction sites, branded storefronts, any website, and via direct email. For the first time, auction sellers can augment sales on eBay, Amazon.com, and Yahoo by launching items for sale on other markets with just a single "click." Andale's Commerce Management Service is a new breed of sales automation that provides a single console for merchandising items, managing inventory, tracking sales, analyzing finances, and managing customer relationships.

"Andale is aggressively investing in the future of online sales and giving merchants something they've never had before – one integrated console for selling across markets, maintaining profitable relationships with buyers, and analyzing their results on different markets," said Munjal Shah, CEO of Andale. "With this release, we are pioneering a new category of automation service called Commerce Management that allows auction sellers to diversify their selling mix so they can maximize the number of buyers they can reach, build revenue, and generate new business opportunities."

"With Andale, I am able to sell significantly more inventory online and not spend half the time I used to behind the computer," said Suzette Assink, of House of Rocks, a business that sells rock tumblers and lapidary supplies on eBay and also out of a store in Modesto, CA. "Now I can easily turn my auction buyers into loyal customers and generate repeat sales. Andale's integrated Commerce Management Service makes it possible for me to sell at auction, track my buyers, build targeted mailing lists, and then periodically send out special email offers. Cross market online selling has never been so easy."

Auction Sellers are Diversifying

Despite the downturn in the economy, online auctions have continued to prosper as the most profitable segment of eCommerce today with over $8 billion in annual sales and more than 30 million shoppers. Successful auction sellers have expanded to other online markets in order to augment their auction sales and build revenue. Diversifying via other online markets means businesses can optimize sales based on the strengths of each specific market. For example, some online markets offer lower overhead or more first time buyers, while others deliver a higher average sales price (ASP). The problem, however, is that different tools, and a lot of manual time and effort, are needed to manage a cross market business.

With Andale's new Commerce Management Service, these successful auction sellers don't need to use several different tools to manage their businesses on each market, as they do today. Instead of using list management software to track customers, an auction management service for listing, special tools to manage a storefront, and yet another brand of desktop accounting software for financial tracking, Andale's Commerce Management Service provides one, easy-to-use, integrated system for complete management of a multi-market business.

"Andale is helping their small business customers avoid the mistakes of some earlier pure-play etailing concepts... today an effective selling organization must leverage all channels – online, offline and wireless – for a selling mix," said Kent Allen, managing director, e-business for the Aberdeen Group. "Andale's new suite of services gives small businesses the ability to sell where they want, when they want."

The NEW Andale Commerce Management Service

Andale has created the industry's first complete suite of commerce management products. Andale's new products, which will be available on July 4, 2001, raise the bar in the auction industry in terms of ease-of-use and can be used together as an integrated system, or individually depending on the merchant's business needs. Discount packages are also available.

Six customizable product suites make up Andale's new Commerce Management Service. If merchants prefer to work offline, a Lister Pro edition of Andale's Lister suite is available that can drastically speed sales activities for the highest volume sellers. Each product suite supports sales activities in an integrated way on all the following markets:

• Auction Sites – eBay, eBay Motors, Amazon.com, and Yahoo
• Branded Storefronts – Andale Stores, and very soon, other stores
• Any website – any other storefront, website, classified ads, and more!
• Email – targeted email offers to customer lists

Merchants can manage inventory (each SKU or lot), merchandise items, track sales, manage customers, and track finances across any combination of online markets that they use.

Track is Andale's free offering and includes the world famous Honesty Counters used to tell sellers how many shoppers viewed each ad they have live on any market. This is also where merchants view at-a-glance real time information about their live sales across different markets.

Images provides merchants with reliable image hosting services. Shoppers are much more likely to buy when there are clear pictures showing the merchant's inventory for sale. Sellers pay for image hosting each month based on the amount of storage space used. A single megabyte of storage costs anywhere from $0.40 to $1.75, depending on the total amount consumed.

Lister is where merchants keep track of all their inventory and create professional-looking ads to launch on any market. In fact, sellers can launch hundreds of ads at a time to the market of their choice or restock hundreds of SKUs with a single click. Each ad a merchant launches to any market will cost between $0.04 and $0.20, depending on the merchant's monthly volume. For another $5.95 per month, merchants can build their own Andale Store and brand their business with a customizable online storefront.

Checkout is Andale's Universal Shopping Cart that allows auction sellers to offer their winning bidders a safe, easy, and automated payment processing. Andale is unique in that its Universal Shopping Cart allows multiple items from different markets to be combined into a single purchase. Merchants can upsell or cross sell complimentary items or special offers to their buyers. Merchants can customize and place Andale's universal shopping cart just about anywhere online – any website, classified ads, email messages and more – instantly ecommerce-enabling any online sales channel regardless if Andale officially 'supports' the market. All transactions will be tracked and processed as usual. The fee for checkout is 2.3% of each transaction for the use of this commerce management service.

Customers is available to merchants for $5.95 per month and keeps track of buyers across all markets. Sellers can create targeted mailing lists of their customers and email special offers in order to generate repeat sales. Once a buyer and seller have successfully completed a purchase, they've established a level of trust that encourages additional online purchases.

Reports allows merchants to drill down and analyze their sales across markets for $19.95 per month. Sellers can now identify valuable merchandising trends and, as a result, build better business strategies. For example, the ads generating the highest average selling price (ASP) or best margin per online market may determine the strategy for how a business sells individual inventory items on each market, while watching successful close and inventory turn rates will help businesses plan procurement requirements.

About Andale

With more than a million online merchants using its services, Andale is the leading provider of commerce management services for automating and integrating all aspects of online sales across multiple channels - Internet auction sites, branded storefronts, any website, and direct email. Last year, merchants using one or more Andale services were responsible for approximately $3 billion in gross merchandise sales on eBay alone, and now drive more than 75% of all listings on eBay each week. Andale has secured exclusive technology integration and distribution partnerships with eBay, the leading online auction marketplace, PayPal, the number one person-to-person payment provider, and Intuit, the leading provider of financial software to the small business community. Andale has received $70 million in financing from Bowman Capital Management, Texas Pacific Group's (TPG) Tarrant Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Oak Hill Venture Partners and other angel investors. For more information visit app.vendio.com.

Copyright 2001 Andale, Inc.
All rights reserved.

EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Debbie Clima
Lutchansky Communications
408-938-9050 x16
debbie@lcomm.com