ShopKo Selects Market4Retail.com as Cornerstone of its Business-to-Business e-strategy

Business Wire, Jan 17, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2000

Signs on as charter customer of first collaborative

Business-to-Business marketplace

ShopKo Stores, Inc. (NYSE: SKO) and MarketMAX(R), Inc., today announced that ShopKo is a customer of Market4Retail.com(TM), the world's first Business-to-Business e-marketplace and global collaboration network for retailers and suppliers. MarketMAX is the leading provider of integrated e-business, merchandise planning and optimization solutions for the $2.7 trillion retail market. ShopKo is a Fortune 500 company that operates 319 retail stores in 22 states.

As a charter subscriber, ShopKo will be among the first major retailers to optimize and transform their "go to market" processes leveraging Martet4Retail.com's collaborative Web environment. ShopKo's merchandising organization will be able to more quickly and efficiently plan, select, negotiate and purchase merchandise assortments, which will result in improved customer satisfaction, lower operating costs, and increased sales and margins. By integrating into both retailers' and suppliers' planning and operational systems, Market4Retail.com will enable ShopKo to dramatically reduce the redundancy, inefficiency and excess cost associated with today's "go to market" process, by facilitating seamless integration in managing categories, developing assortments, reviewing products for purchase, negotiating and collaborating with suppliers, developing in-store presentations and creating orders.

"ShopKo is formulating e-commerce strategies that address both the Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer sides of the equation. Combined, these strategies will give us powerful new ways to more effectively serve the ever changing needs of our customers," said ShopKo President and CEO, William J. Podany. "During my tenure with ShopKo, I have been proud of the way our management and operational teams have applied technology to deliver greater efficiencies. Market4Retail.com will allow us to explore how to further optimize our assortments while reducing the costs and time associated with selecting the assortment that best matches consumer trends and local market preferences."

Added Paul Burrows, ShopKo CIO, "In prior years, our IT team has worked closely with MarketMAX on a multi-year project that is valuable to all aspects of our planning and buying processes. They have demonstrated their ability to innovate, deliver and implement value-laden software that supports our business processes. Market4Retail.com fits in well with ShopKo's ability to implement innovative technologies and employ processes that will keep us ahead of our competition from both a market and a systems perspective."

"Bill Podany is an industry visionary and the strategist responsible for ShopKo's highly successful transformation to that of a specialty discounter focusing on lifestyle trends," commented Lori J. Schafer, President and CEO of MarketMAX. "Several years ago, in support of Bill's strategy, ShopKo partnered with MarketMAX to develop its powerful, integrated Merchandise Planning Initiative - highly innovative technology which aligns assortment and space plans with company financial plans as well as with consumer trends and local market demographics. In support of ShopKo's strategy, Business-to-Business collaboration with its suppliers is a natural next step for ShopKo as Market4Retail.com is designed to further optimize local assortments while compressing time and costs out of going to market and related merchandising processes. We continue to regard ShopKo as a visionary business partner, always looking to push the envelope of technology applications and processes that improve customer satisfaction and shareholder value. It is our mission to continue to assist ShopKo in achieving those goals."

About MarketMAX, Inc.

MarketMAX, Inc. is the leading provider of integrated e-business, merchandise planning and optimization solutions for the $2.7 trillion retail market. The company's Business-to-Business electronic marketplace, Market4Retail.com (www.market4retail.com), opens a global collaboration network to all types of retailers and their suppliers on merchandising and procurement decisions. Market4Retail.com complements the physical markets and buying world with an e-commerce toolset designed to optimize assortment selection and placement while dramatically compressing time and cost. By integrating into both retailers' and suppliers' planning and operational systems, Market4Retail.com provides both intra- and inter-company collaboration from initial market visits through the entire merchandising, design and manufacturing processes. Known for its reputation of innovative and quality products and services, MarketMAX delivers a compelling value proposition to its customers by maximizing sales, margin productivity and ROI of the product assortment. MarketMAX customers include Burlington Coat Factory, Circuit City, Gibson Greetings, Lowe's Companies Inc., Marks & Spencer (UK), Office Depot, REI, Service Merchandise, ShopKo Stores, The Sports Authority and VF Corporation.