Monday September 20, 8:05 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Net Perceptions Inc.
Results In -- Real-Time Personalization Works
GUS Home Shopping Ltd., One of the World's Largest Catalogue Retailers, Announces Positive
Results of Personalizing Interactions With its Gold Choice Customers
MINNEAPOLIS, and MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- GUS Home Shopping, Britain's largest
catalogue retailer announced significant improvements in ''upsell'' results attributed to the deployment of real-time
personalization solutions from Net Perceptions® Inc. (Nasdaq: NETP - news).
GUS Home Shopping, whose business lines include the Great Universal, Choice and Kays catalogues, showed in a pilot
study that Net Perceptions' cutting edge real-time personalization technology increased the upsell acceptance rate --
additional items recommended to a customer who has already phoned in to purchase a specific merchandise item -- by 50%,
and boosted the average value of each upsell item by 60%. Moreover, the study showed that orders that included a
personalized recommendation were 23% larger than those without such recommendations.
''The results are a clear hat-trick,'' said David Main, Commercial Director of GUS' Home Shopping Division. ''We increased
our upsell acceptance rate, boosted the average value of each upsell item and showed that personalization technology, when
properly applied, is significantly more efficient and effective than a more manually intensive approach. In addition, we also
found that our sales advisors were enthusiastic about discussing personalized recommendations with their customers.''
Added Steven Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Net Perceptions, ''GUS Home Shopping set a very high
standard to begin with, and these results far surpassed both our expectations. It is particularly gratifying to see a large
traditional direct marketing organization such as GUS Home Shopping adopt the type of real-time personalization technology
already widely used by cutting-edge Internet players. GUS, which employed excellent techniques to tailor recommendations
to customers, was able to demonstrate superb results using this technology.''
The results of the study were also praised by software industry analysts. ''Many vendors in the personalization space have
been making unsubstantiated claims regarding the merits of their personalization technologies,'' said Donovan Gow, Senior
Analyst, Aberdeen Group. ''But these results clearly demonstrate that Net Perceptions can back its claims with tangible and
significant upsell improvements.''
''Our success at GUS allows us to enter the European market with a powerful testimonial from a highly respected customer,''
said Steve Jacob, Vice President of Net Perceptions' European operations. ''Our technology has emerged as a winner in the
global marketplace and in the sophisticated catalog environment with vastly heterogeneous consumer products. This proves
that consumers and marketers anywhere in the world can benefit from the use of leading-edge Internet personalization
technology in their everyday lives.''
About GUS Home Shopping
GUS Home Shopping is the market leader in home shopping in the U.K. It is the second biggest general retailer in the U.K.
and is a division of The Great Universal Stores plc Group. GUS Home Shopping Group's sales turnover was 2.1 billion
British Pounds. It has home shopping interests in Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, and Austria, and includes some of the leading
brands in home shopping. From its selection of agency and direct catalogues, GUS Home Shopping supplies a wide range of
clothing, furniture, toys, DIY equipment and other goods, to millions of UK customers every year, and has one of the most
sophisticated logistics and distribution networks in the U.K. Other GUS Home Shopping Group companies include Morses,
Family Hampers, Catalogue Bargain Shops, GUS Finance Ltd., White Arrow Express, and Family Album -- Eire.
GUS Home Shopping is also Britain's largest catalogue retailer with a market share of around 24%. The GUS Home
Shopping telephone service takes in a total of over 70 million calls per year and between 15,500 and 23,400 calls per hour.
In addition over 95,000 letters are received everyday. 14 million Agency catalogues are mailed annually, each carrying over
38,000 different items. The merchandise department sources over 100,000 options from more than 20 countries each year.
Personal customer service is provided across 7 sites around the clock to customers. 115 million parcels are delivered to
customers annually. GUS Home Shopping's Agency brands include Great Universal, Kays, and Choice. Its Direct Brands
include Marshall Ward, Style Plus, McCord, Innovations, and The Disney Selection.
With a group turnover of 5.5 billion British Pounds, GUS Home Shopping's parent company, The Great Universal Stores plc
Group (London: GUS.L), includes leading companies such as Argos, Burberry's, Experian, Metromail, General Guarantee
Finance, and Whiteaway Laidlaw Bank. For more information about GUS Home Shopping, visit gus.co.uk or dial
44 (161) 277 4588 from abroad, or dial (0161) 277-4588 in the U.K.
About Net Perceptions
Net Perceptions is the leading supplier of real-time personalization solutions that enable businesses to market to customers on
a true one-to-one basis across multiple touch points. Net Perceptions' solutions increase new and repeat business on the web
and in call centers by learning more about each customer's individual needs, tastes and preferences with every interaction, then
making increasingly personalized product and service recommendations. Net Perceptions, based in Minneapolis, is a publicly
held company (Nasdaq: NETP - news) which operates additional offices in New York, San Francisco, and England and a
joint venture office in Japan. Customers include many of the world's best known brands including: Art.com; Bertelsmann;
Billboard TalentNet; CDnow; E!Online, Micron, SkyMall, Tower Records and Ticketmaster Online. For more information
about Net Perceptions products visit netperceptions.com or call 800-466-0711.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are the
company's limited operating history, delays in product development, development of the Internet market, changes in product
pricing policies, competitive pressures, and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports and
registration statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE: Net Perceptions Inc.
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