HouseHold Direct Announces Launch of Updated Website
SOUTHBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 1999--HouseHold Direct, Inc. (formerly RDI Marketing, Inc.) (OTCBB: RDIM - news) today unveiled its significantly upgraded website. This website now brings into line the Company's website presence with its reengineered corporate focus. The improved site, householddirect.com, will enunciate this new corporate presence, and offer a glimpse of the expanding e-commerce capabilities of the Company that will be revealed over the next several months. For example, the mission of the Member Service and Support section of the website is to become the direct connection between thousands of manufacturers and millions of consumers.
During this rollout stage, HouseHold Direct's site will present Corporate and Management details as well as provide some of the look and feel that will foster increased membership participation. Member testimonials detailing savings from their HouseHold Direct activities will be included. Over the next few weeks, additional content in the form of membership applications, product price requests and other member support services will be made available.
LightMix Design Studio of Alexandria, Virginia (www.lightmix.com), provided the graphic design for the new site from an engineering plan created by Thunderstick Software. Led by Alex Gordiyenko, this professional design team has been responsible for some of the most famous website graphics on the Internet, including The Raging Bull site (www.ragingbull.com), Lotus Pacific (OTCBB:LPFC - news), Information Highway, (OTCBB:IHWY - news) and others. Another new entry for LightMix is WWStreet.com, to be unveiled shortly.
Expanded Membership Community
The new initiative for HouseHold Direct will include in the near future a community replication system, called ''US Reflect''. US Reflect projects a mirror image of every town and city in the United States. This cyber community allows the Company as well as its members to create content with the goal of providing cross references and indexing of businesses that offer supplemental product and/or service discounts to HouseHold Direct members. ''It is the goal of HouseHold Direct to create a user friendly web environment that supports the extensive purchasing requirements of the membership,'' said Alfred Werner, Chief Technology Officer of the Company. Werner added, HouseHold Direct plans to create a ''community'' within a business to
consumer area of the site that fosters open dialogue among local residents -- imagine the thread environment of Raging Bull or Silicon Investor based on local community issues. ''HouseHold Direct will be the ''content rich'' channel -- centralized around value pricing and delivery countrywide''.
HouseHold Direct is in discussions with several providers of set top boxes, PC's and other appliances which will enable the delivery of broadchannel media directly into the home to facilitate member interactivity with the Company.
Partnering and Revenue Sharing Relationships
HouseHold Direct is negotiating with several providers of products and services that will expand the benefit options of the Company and provide additional value to the members. Additional details will be made available through separate releases.
About HouseHold
HouseHold Direct is working to create the largest single source of discounted consumer transactions in the world. This will be accomplished through a roll-up of private consumer buying clubs which have harnessed the massive buying power of smart consumers who have joined a membership organization. Unlike the public clubs like Costco's (NASDAQ: COST - news), BJ's (NYSE: BJ - news) and Sam's Club (NYSE:WMT - news) whose combined sales exceed $50 billion, the wide variety of products available to our customers are current models, whereas many of the products available to these public club members are often noncurrent, overstocked, or factory close-outs. HouseHold Direct can manage specific individual shopping requests and facilitate purchases directly from the manufacturer, thereby eliminating normal retail and wholesale markups.
HouseHold Direct combines its physical member service locations with new technology that will bring existing interactive shopping right to the home. Gateway Computers (NYSE: GTW - news) has shown that taking a loyal, virtual customer will respond to a face-to-face relationship with the addition of their Gateway Country outlets. In addition, direct-to-consumer pioneer marketers like the giant CUC/Cendant (NYSE:CD - news) have paved the way for the current evolution of consumer buying. Using refined data warehousing and management systems, the Company can service each individual consumer as a personal entity-reminiscent of a time when shopkeepers knew their customers by name and could cater to their personal preferences.
HouseHold Direct members are ''varsity shoppers'' who understand both value and service. They pay a fee to have access to specialized information, services and prices unavailable to the general public, and that are tailored to their own individual wants and needs. HouseHold Direct besides providing significant savings on purchases, saves time, stress and also minimizes costly shopping travel. Recent, popular online IPO's like Value America (NASDAQ: VUSA - news) confirm the timeliness of HouseHold Direct's launch into this marketplace.
For additional information, or to have your name and address included on the Company mailing list, please address all inquiries to info@householddirect.com
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements: Except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the company's actual results in the future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, product price volatility, product demand, market competition, risk inherent in the company's domestic and international operations, imprecision in estimating product reserves and the company's ability to replace and expand its holdings.
Contact:
HouseHold Direct
John Folger, 203/364-0346
biz.yahoo.com
|
