Digital River Announces Winners of its 2005 ICE Awards for Internet Commerce Excellence
Honors e-commerce best practices achievements by Allume Systems, FarStone Technology, Newegg.com, Pinnacle Systems, Simply Youth Ministry, Symantec, Tenebril and Trend Micro
MINNEAPOLIS, May 5, 2005--
Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, today announced the winners of its 2005 ICE Awards for Internet Commerce Excellence. The winning companies were honored last night at a ceremony held in conjunction with Digital River’s Network Summit conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. Digital River presented awards in six categories to client companies putting e-commerce best practices to work to optimize and drive revenue through their online stores. The winners included:
• Newegg.com for Best Online Performance by a Retailer
• Trend Micro, Inc. for Best International E-Commerce Strategy
• Pinnacle Systems®, Inc. and Symantec Corp. for Best Promotional Performance
• Simply Youth Ministry for Best Direct Marketing Performance
• FarStone Technology, Inc. for Best Network Sales Performance
• Allume Systems, Inc. and Tenebril™, Inc. for Best Product Launch
“We are pleased to recognize these companies for their e-commerce leadership and use of best practices,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “Our ICE Award recipients are experts at fine tuning their sites, optimizing their e-commerce programs, and delivering top quality online shopping experiences for their customers. They understand the importance of integrated marketing, regular testing and building relationships with their customers. And they have a multi-channel vision for growing their businesses across international boundaries. Their online performances are impressive.”
Each of Digital River’s award winners submitted entries, which summarized the e-commerce best practice campaigns they implemented and the results they generated by marketing and selling products in their online stores:
• Best Online Performance by a Retailer
- Newegg.com – “By forging the relationship with Digital River, Newegg.com was able to enter the downloadable software industry and bring forth a new revenue stream that has proven to have great potential for continuous success and growth,” said Howard Tong, Newegg.com’s vice president of marketing. “In fact, by combining an innovative viral marketing program with an aggressive combination of merchandising, advertising, e-mail marketing and site optimization, we grew our average daily sales more than 500 percent during a one month time period.” Newegg.com is an e-commerce marketplace for computer software and hardware, consumer electronics, peripherals and accessories.
• Best International E-Commerce Strategy
- Trend Micro, Inc. – “With the help of Digital River, we have been able to expand and refine our international online sales efforts by deploying a truly global purchase path for our customers,” said Jill Margolis, Trend Micro’s global web marketing manager. “Today, we have international Web stores that serve a variety of global geographies. Our focus on this international e-commerce initiative continues to pay off as our global reach continues to expand.” Trend Micro, Inc. is a leader in network antivirus and Internet content security software and services.
• Best Promotional Performance
- Pinnacle Systems, Inc. – “Our goal was to maximize our online channel by increasing traffic and sales on our site during the weekend, which was typically a slower activity time,” said Jon D’Angelica, director of online sales, Pinnacle Systems. “Working with Digital River, we put together an integrated marketing plan that included launching weekend-only promotions with e-mails, shopping cart banners, pop ups and free shipping offers. Bottom line is we were able to significantly expand our weekend close ratios and revenue.” Pinnacle Systems, Inc. provides broadcasters and consumers with cutting-edge digital media creation, storage, and play-back solutions for use at home, at work and on the air.
- Symantec Corp. – “By combining an intriguing price discount and free product offer to promote a new release of one of our popular products, we were able to offer our customers an important value add,” said Terry Sullivan, Symantec’s vice president of global online sales. “The promotion was successful in not only attracting new customers, but also building customer loyalty and retention among our existing customer base.” Symantec is the global leader in information security.
• Best Direct Marketing Performance
- Simply Youth Ministry – “Our goal was to improve our ranking in major search engines to increase visibility and generate more traffic and sales for our site,” said Andy Brazelton, Simply Youth Ministry’s director of e-commerce and product development. “Leveraging Digital River’s strategic marketing expertise, we have been able to implement a program that produced a 906 percent return on our advertising dollar in the first three months of the year.” Simply Youth Ministry is an online publishing company that provides youth ministry resources to youth pastors all over the world.
• Best Network Sales Performance
- FarStone Technology, Inc. – “By building important partnerships and third-party relationships within Digital River’s Sales Network, we’ve been able to expand our online sales efforts beyond our direct store to include affiliate and retail channels,” said Dave Moser, FarStone’s e-commerce and web project manager. “During the first three months of the year, we increased online channel sales 194 percent and grew our third-party sales by 5000 percent over the previous quarter.” FarStone Technology, Inc. is a leading developer of PC and network-based digital content security, replication and management solutions.
• Best Product Launch
- Allume Systems, Inc. – “By carefully testing a variety of e-mail offer letters with Digital River’s best practice promotions, we were able to create a more enticing customer promotion and gain higher sales for our product launch,” said Jonathan Kahn, Allume’s president. “In fact, our revised online promotion generated 150 percent more revenue than our previous offer. Digital River’s best practice promotional strategies and testing tactics helped us not only optimize our campaign, but also create a better buying experience for our customers.” Allume Systems, Inc., an IMSI company, develops and publishes award-winning software solutions that empower users in the areas of information access, removal, recovery, security, and Internet distribution.
- Tenebril, Inc. – “Using Digital River’s e-commerce best practices and leveraging lucrative relationships that we built at the company’s annual Network Sales Summit, we successfully launched a new version of GhostSurf, our flagship product,” said Lisa Gilbreath, Tenebril’s director of e-commerce. “With minimal expense, we created an integrated e-marketing campaign that grew our direct sales four-fold and online channel sales five fold year-over-year.” Tenebril is a growing software company specializing in comprehensive Internet privacy products, including SpyCatcher, a best-selling enterprise and consumer anti-spyware title.
About Digital River, Inc.
Digital River, Inc., a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, builds and manages online businesses for more than 40,000 software publishers, manufacturers, distributors and online retailers. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation. The company’s comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, fraud prevention, export controls, tax management, physical and digital product fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service, advanced reporting and strategic marketing services.
Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in major U.S. and European cities. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com or call 952-253-1234.
Digital River is a registered trademark of Digital River, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.
|