Crabtree & Evelyn Selects Venda to Bring Luxury Beauty Products to Online Shoppers Worldwide

Business Wire, Jan 23, 2006

NEW YORK -- Crabtree & Evelyn, Ltd. and Venda, Inc. jointly announced today that Crabtree & Evelyn, a leading international retailer whose passion for English originality inspires its collection of naturally-derived bath, body and home care, has selected Venda, the leading global provider of on-demand eCommerce solutions, to extend its online stores globally. The luxury goods retailer plans to use Venda's platform and outsourced service to re-launch its flagship U.S. site. The site will then be rolled out to other key markets including UK and Canada.

Crabtree & Evelyn's eCommerce strategy leverages the company's global distribution network to establish a consistent brand communication platform, provide local markets with effective marketing tools and drive sales revenues worldwide. Online since the late 1990's, the company plans to replace its current Yahoo! Stores platform with Venda to leverage the rich features, flexibility, and revenue-generating capabilities that can accelerate the growth of their online channel. The company also plans to upgrade and extend their overseas eCommerce efforts by deploying multiple online stores adapted to local languages, currencies, payment methods, tax and regulatory issues and supportive of unique eMerchandising and eMarketing strategies.

"The Crabtree & Evelyn brand is known and respected around the world. We are looking to provide our on-line customers with the same great shopping experience they receive in our retail stores," said Stephen Bestwick, VP of Operations for Crabtree & Evelyn. "With Venda, we've gained a powerful yet economical merchandising and marketing platform for extending our brand and delivering a superior customer experience, anywhere in the world."

Crabtree & Evelyn was seeking a stable and self-sufficient technology infrastructure for its continued growth and found it in the Venda platform. Venda's hosted offering delivers the robust capabilities Crabtree & Evelyn customers expect while freeing the company's internal staff to focus on strategic marketing and creative initiatives.

"Before Venda, merchants looking to market products domestically and overseas in a cohesive way had little choice but to custom build multiple sites," said Jeffrey Max, CEO of Venda, Inc. "This involved not only addressing language, currency, tax and regulatory issues, but integrating many different technical components, such as payment gateways, site-search tools, hosting and call centers. Our proven international model enables high-end retailers like Crabtree & Evelyn to effectively extend their online brand into international markets without the inherent costs, complexity and risks of building and maintaining multiple sites."

About Crabtree & Evelyn

Founded in 1973 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Crabtree & Evelyn has evolved from a small, family-run business to an international company. With its roots firmly in the natural world, this unique brand is respected for its eclectic mix of beauty remedies and home comforts inspired by an English passion for all things individual, quirky and unusual.

A pioneer in botanical formulations for over 30 years, Crabtree & Evelyn blends the best of nature and modern science to create benefit-rich bath, body and home care that deliver sensuous experiences and a sense of wellbeing. This heritage of innovation is reflected in its name: Crabtree, the original plant from which all cultivated apple trees have derived, and John Evelyn, the 17th century renaissance Englishman, who wrote one of the first important works on conservation.

Crabtree & Evelyn is available online and in more than 40 countries, with over 8,000 locations and 400 concept stores worldwide.

About Venda, Inc.

Venda delivers on-demand eCommerce to some of the world's leading retailers and manufacturers, including Virgin Megastore, Panasonic, Pokemon, Ted Baker and Xerox. The Company's complete eCommerce platform combines flexibility, reliability and scalability with the operating advantages of an outsourced service. Multi-lingual and multi-currency capable, Venda's B2B, B2C and B2E solutions provide "best of the web" capabilities to mid-tier and Fortune 1000 companies. Venda allows customers to reduce the risk, complexity and cost associated with eCommerce, while empowering business users and delivering unprecedented ROI. With offices in New York, London and Bangkok, the Company is managed by a team of eCommerce veterans with more than 20 years of experience in online businesses.