buySAFE, Inc., a leading provider of conversion and customer satisfaction programs for internet retailers, andUnbound Commerce, the #1 provider of mobile commerce solutions for online retailers, announced to the launch of a strategic partnership that promises to dramatically accelerate the mobile commerce revolution. By integrating buySAFE’s Guaranteed Shopping program into the Unbound Commerce mobile commerce platform, retailers will enjoy increased conversion and customer satisfaction with their mobile customers when utilizing the world’s leading mobile commerce platform.

Smartphone usage is booming but has yet to fully translate into significant purchasing from mobile users. The two key reasons for low mobile purchasing are Confidence & Convenience.

Confidence. Most consumers are still unfamiliar with making purchases with their mobile devices, analogous to the early days of internet commerce. Establishing buyer confidence throughout the purchase process is especially important in mobile shopping, and buySAFE provides consumers with the confidence they need, thus boosting conversion rates for the mobile retailer.

With buySAFE, retailers provide buyers a 3-in-1 Guarantee that includes:

1. blanket identity theft protection,
2. a low price guarantee and
3. a purchase guarantee that reassures a customer’s buying decision.

These benefits are free to the consumer and provide added value and peace of mind with their purchase and result in higher conversion and customer satisfaction for retailers.

Convenience. Mobile-optimized sites provide an improved customer experience that is proven to yield better results than standard sites, which lead to “pinch & zoom fatigue.” Retailers who cater to mobile customers see higher usage and increased conversion rates in the range of 300-500%. More retailers choose Unbound Commerce to mobile-optimize their business, in order to take advantage of the booming adoption of smartphones among their buyers and to provide the convenience of anytime-anywhere service.

“The combination of buySAFE and Unbound Commerce to enable retailers to provide Confident & Convenient mobile shopping is a huge leap forward for mobile commerce. Together we address head on the two biggest limiting factors to mobile shopping and do this in a way that provides added value to shoppers and significantly more sales and profits for retailers,” said Shane Lundy, VP of Business Development of buySAFE, Inc. “This is a great partnership for both companies and for all online retailers interested in providing their customers a top notch mobile commerce solution.”

“This new partnership provides just what retailers need to take advantage of the tremendous growth in mobile,” said Keith Lietzke, VP of Marketing & Business Development at Unbound Commerce. “Consumers have embraced smartphones, giving retailers whole new, always-available points of sale. Combining mobile-optimized sites with the consumer confidence provided by buySAFE will drive new sources of revenue for retailers.”

About buySAFE
buySAFE, Inc. provides website conversion and customer satisfaction programs for online retailers that increase profits and lift buyer loyalty. buySAFE is partnered with Liberty Mutual, Travelers, ACE USA and Assurant Specialty Property. With over 5 billion online impressions of buySAFE each year, 22 million guaranteed purchases and over 5,000 buySAFE Merchant sites, buySAFE is widely recognized as the sole provider of its unique guaranteed shopping programs. buySAFE’s investors include Grotech Ventures, Core Capital Partners, Symantec Corporation and The Hartford Financial Services Group. For more information, visit: http://www.buysafe.com

About Unbound Commerce
Unbound Commerce is the #1 provider of mobile commerce solutions, chosen by more retailers than any other.  (Internet Retailer 2011 Mobile Commerce Data Book)  Unbound’s solutions are designed for retailers who want to maximize their revenue from their smartphone customers, using the best mobile and social techniques and tools available.  Unbound solutions provide a full range of integration options for leveraging the e-commerce assets already in place.  For additional information, please visit us atwww.UnboundCommerce.com.

For Media Contact:
buySAFE, Inc.
Hans Dreyer, VP

703 778 4445 x 110

hdreyer@buysafe.com

Unbound Commerce

Keith Lietzke, VP of Marketing & Business Development

617 935 5216

[email protected]

Unbound Commerce Announces New Low-IT Impact Solution Targeting Mid-Sized Online Retailers

San Diego, CA at the 2011 Internet Retailer Show- Unbound Commerce announced today a mobile commerce solution that allows mid-sized retailers to quickly and easily monetize mobile traffic and generate incremental sales by launching a mobile-optimized version of their online store.

This unique new SMC software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering utilizes Unbound’s market-leading Mobile Presence™ software to build a mobile optimized website with a hosted product catalog built from a standard comparison shopping feed. The solution is called Streamlined Mobile Commerce (SMC) and incorporates mobile payment systems from PayPal and Google, to provide an express checkout platform, with full retailer control.

Best of all, this new mobile commerce solution requires very little IT involvement on the part of the retailer, for rapid site deployment. Using this new approach, a powerful, fast and fully-functional mobile commerce site can be live in as little as one week.

“While there are several options for large enterprise-level merchants, we noticed that mid-sized online retailers were not being served. Unbound still offers the larger, deep integration approach that we are known for, and this adds a new way to address a large and underserved market” reports Wilson Kerr, Director of Business Development at Unbound Commerce.

Google recently reported that 79% of their online retail advertisers did not have a mobile-optimized site. With web-connected smartphone market penetration expected to top 50% in the US in the next year, there are a lot of businesses who can benefit from a cost effective solution to mobile commerce.“ The top tier of the market has been contacted by nearly every solution provider,” said Kerr. “SMC is designed for the thousands of mid-size online retailers looking to mobile-optimize their sites, but at a reasonable price point”.

Facebook commerce can be easily added to the SMC solution. While Facebook Commerce is new and does not yet to have the proven ROI of mobile, it is growing fast and retailers are keen to monetize its traffic, The new solution is ready now and the first four deployments will be launched in the coming weeks. For more information on the new SMC solution. Visit SMC product pagefor more information.

About Unbound Commerce

Unbound Commerce is a leading provider of mobile and social commerce solutions, designed for Retailers seeking to reach their customers anytime and anywhere. Unbound’s unique approach treats mobile as a powerful new channel, not merely as a smaller version of the standard site or as a function to be outsourced. Unbound customers benefit from a solution directly under their control and integrated into their existing e-commerce operations. The 2011 issue of the Mobile Commerce Data Book from Internet Retailer shows Unbound Commerce as the top mobile commerce vendor with an industry-leading number of mobile web deployments for Retailers. Unbound Commerce’s approach also delivers a social commerce application for Facebook, allowing consumers to buy where they connect through social media. For additional information, please visit us at www.UnboundCommerce.com.

From Mobile Commerce Daily.

Outdoor gear and apparel retailer Moosejaw Mountaineering is using video on its mobile retail site to let consumers experience products before they buy them.

The company partnered with Invodo and Unbound Commerce to implement the videos on its mobile site. Moosejaw claims that the convergence of both the mobile site and the videos are going to be powerful for the retailer.

Moosejaw offers products from several outdoor manufacturers including The North Face, Arc’teryx, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear and Black Diamond, as well as under its own Moosejaw brand.

Invodo claims that it helps online retailers sell more via video.

Unbound Commerce provides companies with new revenue opportunities from consumers who want access to their favorite retailers via mobile devices.

Video frenzy
Moosejaw decided to incorporate video into its mobile offerings after the company saw great results from implementing informational videos for products on its online site.

The company is currently working with Invodo to create video content for its top products on the site and optimize videos for additional syndication through social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

In addition, Moosejaw’s partnership with Unbound Commerce will help optimize the video delivery to the company’s mobile sites, letting customers shop from their mobile devices and experience the benefits of seeing the products in action.

Mobile site
Consumers can access Moosejaw’s mobile site by entering http://www.moosejaw.com from a mobile device.

Customers can browse different categories such as men’s clothing, women’s clothing, backpacks, tents, climbing gear, sleeping bags and footwear.

There is a search tool on the top of the site where customers can search for a specific product.

Additionally, consumers can browse the best deals and shop by brand.

From Internet Retailer

The reason online cubic zirconia retailer Ziamond built a mobile commerce site is one that’s becoming quite familiar: That’s where the customers are.

“Statistics could not be ignored: There was no denying that we had a very healthy percentage in both traffic and sales via mobile customers. According to some mobile developers we spoke to, they had not seen numbers as high as our mobile activity for our vertical,” says Sarkis Kalandjian, president and CEO, who declines to reveal specific figures. “Mobile users were making purchases from their mobile devices and we wanted to make their mobile shopping experience faster, easier and better.”

Mobile web browsing is becoming commonplace—half of mobile phones in use by the end of the year will be smartphones, The Nielsen Co. says—and an increasing number of retailers like Ziamond hear the mobile call.

Consumers using Ziamond’s m-commerce site can shop the merchant’s entire catalog of products. They can log in to their Ziamond accounts created on the e-commerce site to access their account, including billing and shipping information. Overall, navigation has been greatly simplified, an important element to any m-commerce site, Kalandjian says.

The fully transactional mobile site is the product of a partnership between two of Ziamond’s vendors. E-commerce platform provider Yahoo Stores and m-commerce platform provider Unbound Commerce have integrated their systems and build m-commerce sites for Yahoo Stores merchants.

Ziamond says more mobile is on the way. It’s working with Unbound Commerce on a mobile app, which will include text messaging and push notifications. A push notification is a small badge that appears on an app’s icon on a smartphone that also may include a window with a message and an alert sound.

From Internet Retailer

After considering several options for getting started in mobile commerce, The Finish Line Inc. chose to work with Unbound Commerce because the vendor could quickly leverage technology the running shoes company had deployed on its e-commerce site, the retailer’s director of e-commerce Scott Reasinger said today at the Mobile Commerce Forum in Chicago.

Finish Line has solid in-house technology expertise for its e-commerce site and its 700 stores, but it learned that developing a mobile site raised more questions than it was comfortable addressing, Reasinger said. A major challenge, he added, was figuring how to leverage its existing technology to support a mobile commerce site. “The mobile platform is very different,” he said.

The retailer operates its e-commerce site, FinishLine.com, on an e-commerce platform from Art Technology Group Inc. The site uses several integrated applications, including customer reviews from Bazaarvoice, site search and navigation from Endeca Technologies Inc. and Omniture analytics from Adobe Systems Inc.

One option would have been to update its ATG platform to use ATG’s mobile commerce platform, but that would have required extensive development work to integrate with the Bazaarvoice, Endeca and Omniture applications, Reasinger said.

By choosing Unbound Commerce, which offered pre-integrations with these applications, the retailer was able to get its mobile site, m.finishline.com, up and running in six weeks from the date it signed on with Unbound, Reasinger said.

Finish Line also considered building a mobile site through transcoding, a method of re-sizing the web pages of a retailer’s e-commerce site for a mobile phone screen. But the Unbound’s mobile presentation method facilitates building more functionality designed specifically for the mobile site, Reasinger said. After deploying its mobile site, for example, Finish Line was able to go back and improve the functionality of features such as its store locator, which can show in-store product availability as well as store locations.

Although the mobile site hasn’t yet produced the high conversion rate that Finish Line had expected, it has been effective at driving significant volumes of visitors to its e-commerce site and stores, Reasinger said.

The Finish Line is No. 166 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.

Unleashing mobile commerce-driven revenue opportunities for Yahoo! Stores
Unbound Commerce announces the availability of its new mobile commerce service: Mobile Presence™ for Yahoo! merchants. Developed with the support of Yahoo! Small Business, this new offering makes it easy and cost-effective for merchants to deploy a mobile commerce site, and is seamlessly integrated with their Yahoo! store. Mobile Presence from Unbound is a complete service, including mobile-optimized product catalog and shopping cart, and is cost-effective for almost any merchant. Fees are $50 – $125 / month, plus a one-time fee of $300 for basic implementation.

“Our merchants are very aware of the growth in mobile internet usage among their buyers. Mobile commerce came through as one of the top priorities in our market research,” said Paul Boisvert, Director of Product Management at Yahoo! Small Business. “Unbound Commerce’s platform has proven to be a great fit with Yahoo! Merchant Services. We received very positive feedback from the market trial we just ran with Unbound. We are delighted that Unbound Commerce is now releasing the product to all interested Yahoo! merchants.”

SERVING THE ANYTIME/ANYWHERE CUSTOMER
More Selling Opportunities, More Revenue

Mobile commerce lets your buyers reach your store – any time and any place a need or urge arises. Online retailers will fall behind if they insist that their customers can purchase and interact only when they are behind a desktop or a laptop computer. Unbound’s new mobile commerce merchants report on their experiences:

“Cyberweld’s customers are professionals and hobbyists, working in the field or in the shop. They aren’t spending a lot of time behind a PC,” notes Bob Goodliffe, President of J.W. Goodliffe & Son, who operates http://www.Cyberweld.com. “Our mobile site lets us reach them where they are doing their work, and when they are most likely to find that they need the products we sell.”
“Our customers were telling us that their computer usage at work is being monitored, cutting down on personal use. Including buying our candy!” reported Pam Macharola, a partner at Blair Candy (http://www.BlairCandy.com). “We have so many more chances to interact with customers if they can check out our products on their breaks or at lunch.” Blair Candy sells bulk candy, and candy not often found in local stores, online to both retail and wholesale customers. “Our new mobile site is so easy to browse by phone, and our customers have really taken to it. It’s been profitable for us since the very start.”
The Director of Retail & E-Commerce at a prominent DC-based Museum notes that “Our customers are into technology and gadgets, so mobile is a must for us. The initial response is beyond what we expected. For example, visitors to the Museum purchase items from our Museum Store on the way out, but sometimes there’s not enough time to shop. Our new mobile site lets them take our product catalog along with them in their pocket, allowing us an opportunity to engage with them, and for them to make purchases on their way home.” “We’re surprised at how much traffic we’re seeing from smartphones,” says Mike Eldridge, President, Safety Glasses USA (http://www.safetyglassesusa.com). “Our customers are at job sites. I really like the idea that they are able access us from anywhere.”
EASE OF DEPLOYMENT, EASE OF OWNERSHIP

Unbound’s mobile commerce solution for Yahoo! merchants is designed to be very easy to deploy. “Going mobile has been really hands off for us,” reports David Hauser, President of ABC Underwear (http://www.ABCUnderwear.com). “All we’ve had to do was to make sure our product categories lined up with what we wanted. Easy for us, and ten times easier for our mobile customers. The integration is absolutely seamless.”

“It’s been really easy,” says Mike Neff, Director of E-Commerce at Sports Unlimited, a full line Internet sporting goods retailer (http://www.SportsUnlimitedInc.com). “It’s clear that Unbound has done all the leg work for us. This is one of the easiest e-commerce initiatives we’ve ever done.”

Srinivasarao Nandiwada, CTO of Unbound Commerce, points to the importance of the seamless integration with Yahoo! Merchant Solutions. “We’ve taken great pains to make certain that this is painless for our customers. Merchants only have to manage their products on Yahoo!, just as they already do, and the mobile site automatically stays up to date with new products, prices and availability. Orders placed on mobile use the Yahoo! shopping cart, but formatted for mobile, so that merchants can handle their mobile-generated orders just as they do their online ones.”

The Director of Retail & E-Commerce at a prominent DC-based Museum summarizes: “This has been a BIG win for us, and a very positive experience to date. It was very smart of Unbound Commerce to develop a cost-effective solution for this customer base, and definitely a win for Yahoo! store merchants.”

THE 3X EFFECT: MOBILE-INFLUENCED SALES

Merchants want to see a hard ROI from their mobile commerce initiatives and Unbound Commerce’s customers are getting that. Mike Neff of Sports Unlimited offered: “Of course, we’ve noticed the growth in our mobile visitors over time. Since we’ve deployed our mobile site, not only have visitors greatly increased, but mobile conversion rates have gone up 500% and AOV increased by 27%. Mobile is giving us a 1.25% cost of sale for mobile-competed orders. I’ll take that any day!”

But looking only at mobile-completed orders misses a big part of the story. “Retailers that deploy mobile-optimized sites benefit all their channels,” notes Keith Lietzke, Marketing VP at Unbound Commerce. “Our customers find their mobile product catalogs are an on-ramp to their call centers. One of our largest retailers reports that nearly 1% of mobile site visitors place calls to their call center. Mobile retailers also observe their customers using their mobile phones to find products that interest them, and then buy them later online.”

“Our call centers are now getting inbound calls from customers who found us through mobile search,” reports David Hauser, President, ABC Underwear. “We never got these calls before we deployed our mobile site. The other benefit we’re seeing is that customers at our competitors’ brick & mortar store can check our prices before making a purchase there.”

A prominent DC-based Museum notes that their mobile site has lead to increased responses from their email marketing campaigns. Compelling e-mail offers opened on mobile devices are often saved to “favorites” so that orders can be placed at a later time, resulting in a longer order cycle and slightly higher sales conversion.

At the recent Mobile Commerce Forum, sponsored by Internet Retailer, Forrester estimated that the value of mobile-influenced sales exceed mobile-completed orders by at least a factor of 3 for most retailers.

Leading Equestrian Retailer Is Unbound’s 125th Mobile Commerce Client

Unbound Commerce announced today that Dover Saddlery, the leading multichannel retailer of equestrian products in the US, is the newest retailer launching a mobile commerce site based on Unbound’s unique, integrated approach.

Dover Saddlery is the milestone 125th Retailer using Unbound Commerce to capitalize on the surge in purchasing by consumers via smartphone.

“We have noticed a dramatic increase in mobile visitors to our site, and wanted to be sure we were converting these customers by providing the best possible mobile experience” reports Jason Loy, Director of Ecommerce at Dover Saddlery.

“Our customers are active people – in the stable and the field; or at horse shows,” added CEO Stephen Day. “Mobile is a great way to connect with them. By being more convenient, by providing anytime-anywhere service, we can capitalize on mobile’s unique ability to serve our customers whenever and wherever they have a need.”

Dover Saddlery selected Unbound Commerce for their mobile site because “Unbound made it easy and cost-effective,” said Jason Loy. “We found Unbound’s solution to be the most effective way to leverage the e-commerce assets we have to deliver the mobile customer experience we want.”

Dover had a high-level vision for the kind of customer experience they wanted, and mocked up a design for their mobile pages. “We then used Unbound’s expertise to refine and complete our requirements and to implement the mobile site for us, basing the solution on our current online assets,” said Jason Loy.

The new mobile site is scheduled to launch in mid-February. It will be found at m.doversaddlery.com or from any mobile browser at www.doversaddlery.com.

About Unbound Commerce
Unbound Commerce is a leading provider of mobile and social commerce solutions, designed for Retailers seeking to reach their customers anytime and anywhere. Unbound’s unique approach treats mobile as a powerful new channel, not merely as a smaller version of the standard site or as a function to be outsourced. Unbound customers benefit from a solution directly under their control and integrated into their existing e-commerce operations.

The 2011 issue of the Mobile Commerce Data Book from Internet Retailer shows Unbound Commerce as the top mobile commerce vendor with an industry-leading number of mobile web deployments for Retailers. Unbound Commerce’s approach also delivers a social commerce application for Facebook, allowing consumers to buy where they connect through social media. For additional information, please visit us at www.UnboundCommerce.com.

About Dover Saddlery
Dover Saddlery, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOVR) is the leading multichannel retailer of equestrian products in the United States. Founded in 1975 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, by United States Equestrian team members, Dover Saddlery has grown to become The Source® for equestrian products. Dover offers a broad and distinctive selection of competitively priced, brand-name products for horse and rider through catalogs, the Internet and company-owned retail stores. Dover Saddlery, Inc. serves the English rider and through Smith Brothers, the Western rider. The Source®, Dover Saddlery® and Smith Brothers® are registered marks of Dover Saddlery.

PRESS CONTACT: Keith Lietzke
[email protected]
617 935 5216