Digital River Launches Physical-on-Demand Software Publishing Service
Global production labs print, package and ship software CDs on demand to fulfill e-commerce orders
MINNEAPOLIS, September 12, 2005 -- Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, today announced it is offering its software publishing clients a new Physical-on-Demand™ service. The automated offering enables publishers to use Digital River-managed production labs located in the United States, England and Germany to produce physical copies of their software and ship them to customers on an as needed basis. By using the production labs, which are integrated into Digital River’s e-commerce infrastructure, software publishers can simplify and cut costs of production as well as reduce global shipping costs and physical inventory requirements.
“With our new on-demand software publishing service, we can offer publishers an efficient, low-risk method for cost-effectively producing physical products on a global basis,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “We not only produce the software, we also assume the inventory, taxation and export compliance risks on behalf of our clients. When combined with our digital download service, we believe the Physical-on-Demand service offers our clients a truly robust and end-user focused e-commerce operation.”
Digital River’s Physical-on-Demand service is a fully automated system. It sends order information from Digital River’s e-commerce system to the production lab nearest the end-user; produces copies of software programs on CDs; and prints branded CD labels, manuals and jacket inserts in localized languages. Then, it ships the product to the end-user within minutes of the order being placed.
Digital River’s Physical-on-Demand program is designed to cut costs for software publishers and their customers. For publishers, the Physical-on-Demand program is expected to reduce shipping costs due to the compact packaging design, and remove upfront inventory and printing requirements as well as investments in logistics platforms. Additionally, it eliminates not only wasteful pre-prints, and damaged and out-of-date boxed products, but also lost sales due to out-of-stock inventory. For customers who prefer to purchase physical products, the Physical-on-Demand program can significantly reduce taxation and customs charges because the CDs are produced, packaged and shipped from labs in close proximity to their region of the world.
“As a game publisher, we have to offer both a physical product and digital download to satisfy our customers’ product fulfillment preferences,” said Erik Rutins, director of product development and business relations for Matrix Games. “While many of our customers often choose to digitally download our products, the Physical-on-Demand service allows us to give our customers a flexible alternative to the digital download and more efficiently and cost-effectively meet the demand for physical products than we could previously.” Matrix Games produces, markets and publishes historical war games as well as other computer gaming products, including Gary Grigsby’s World At War™, Starshatter™ and Crown of Glory™, among others.
To support continued growth in international e-commerce markets, Digital River intends to open production labs in other geographies. The company’s Tokyo lab is scheduled to launch during the fall of 2005.
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. cities as well as London and Cologne, Germany. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com or call 952-253-1234.
Forward-Looking Statements
In addition to the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the potential advantages of the Physical-on-Demand service, the company’s plans to open additional Physical-on-Demand production labs, and extend its global e-commerce service offering and operation, as well as other statements containing the words, “will,” “believe,” “intends,” and “plans” and similar words. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: Digital River’s limited operating history and variability of operating results; competition in the electronic commerce market; difficulties and other risks associated with expanding and supporting its Physical-on-Demand production labs and service and the market’s acceptance of the service and other offerings, and other risk factors referenced in Digital River’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Digital River is a registered trademark and Physical-on-Demand is a trademark of Digital River, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks, registrations or copyrights of their respective owners.
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