ABC's Owned Stations Partner With e-Commerce Solutions to Launch National Network of Custom Online Stores

Business Wire, May 16, 2000

Business & High Tech Editors

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2000

e-Commerce Solutions LLC (ECS), the Internet's leading developer of custom online stores for major Internet portals and destination sites, today announced a five-year agreement with ABC's owned stations to develop and manage online stores for the broadcasting company's owned and operated sites.

"This is the first step on the road to convergence for our television stations," noted Michael Chico, Vice President, Integrated and New Media Sales for ABC National Sales Inc. "The melding of the reach of television with the interactivity of the Internet begins now on the ABC Owned TV Stations."

"We intend to demonstrate for advertisers that they don't have to wait for technology to converge in order to start to realize the promise of convergence marketing", added Ron Stitt, Director of Convergence Sales & Marketing.

ECS will provide ABC's owned television sites a custom online shopping solution that will deliver increased site traffic, an additional revenue stream, more value to advertisers, cross domain search functionality, real-time customer service, and a full array of promotions and products targeted to the user demographics of each station site.

"Together with the nation's leading broadcast company, ECS will take marketing to the next level, tailoring product offerings to satisfy consumer demand based on regional trends, news and programming," explained George Russell, president and CEO of e-Commerce Solutions. "This is a major platform development for us and a great opportunity for ECS to demonstrate our superior technology and personalized business model."

According to the agreement, ECS is creating and managing customized ABC Online Marketplaces--New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, Flint, Fresno and Toledo--integrating ABC's programming content with their network of premier merchants to enhance the customized shopping experience.

The ECS technology has already optimized ABC's speed to market by developing and installing online stores for New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago markets within a month.

ECS was selected over many industry competitors for this partnership. Through its merchandising system of more than 5 million products from over 80 top online retailers, ECS will manage a turnkey online shopping solution for the ten station sites. Current merchant partners will be integrated into stations' online stores. New merchants will enter a revenue sharing agreement with ECS and be managed and maintained through the ECS tracking system.

ECS will provide its proprietary customer tracking system, data warehousing, graphical support, turnkey implementation and back-end support, as well as customized interface, data capture, targeted sales and promotions and merchant partner management services to ABC's owned stations sites. All promotional items displayed on each site will be selected by ECS to optimize the customer experience. All e-shoppers will have access to immediate shopping and search assistance through real-time customer service assistants by phone, email, or instant chat.

About e-Commerce Solutions(TM) LLC

e-Commerce Solutions LLC is the Internet's leading developer and operator of customized retail "e-partment" stores, e-Commerce Solutions enables portal and destination sites to offer private label shopping as well as state-of-the-art real-time customer assistance, cross-domain searches and valuable consumer promotions, e-Commerce Solutions clients include Mail.com, ZDNet.com, NY1.com, Cellular One, Gamesville.com, the NationalEnquirer.com, MDPennySaver.com, Brands For Less and Cybershop.

About ABC Owned Stations

ABC owned television stations collectively reach more than 24 percent of U.S. television homes. ABC owned stations also consistently rank among their local market's most popular news and entertainment providers. ABC owns 10 stations nationwide, including 6 stations in the top 11 markets. ABC owned television stations include: WABC-TV, New York; WPVI-TV, Philadelphia; WTVD, Raleigh-Durham; WLS-TV, Chicago; KTRK-TV, Houston; KABC-TV, Los Angeles; KFSN-TV, Fresno; KGO-TV, San Francisco; WJRT-TV, Flint; and WTVG-TV, Toledo. Some of the popular hits on ABC's primetime schedule include The Drew Carey Show, Spin City, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Dharma & Greg, The Practice and Monday Night Football.