Intelligent Shopping Toolbar From ShopAtHome.Com Delivers Great Deals Automatically

DENVER, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ — With the new ShopAtHome Intelligent Shopping Toolbar, power shoppers can stop worrying about missing the best “free shipping,”"percent-off” deals or a quick turnaround special offer from their favorite merchants.

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Shoppers can now receive instant notification of special savings as they browse the Internet for products. The ShopAtHome Toolbar installs easily and unobtrusively into Internet Explorer and delivers instant updates about special offers, cash back, and coupons as shoppers surf the ‘Net.

“Our market research showed that 78 percent of our shoppers wanted an easy, unobtrusive way to make sure they were notified that their favorite merchants were having limited-time-only sales. They wanted to learn about coupons and one-time offers as soon as they became available. While we have a dedicated team in place searching the Web for the best deals, our new Intelligent Shopping Toolbar makes sure our power shoppers get those deals first — before they sell out or expire,” said Marc Braunstein, president of ShopAthome.com.

Customers felt that while e-mail notification is a valuable and timely service, valid e-mails may be diverted by spam filters and sometimes are not delivered in time for shoppers to take advantage of special offers. For example, if Dell offers a 12-hour unannounced sale, an e-mail might not arrive until after the sale is over. With the Intelligent Shopping Toolbar, shoppers instantly learn of the offer through the automatic text Alert feature.

The text Alert feature displays related text link in the middle of the toolbar. Consumers set Alerts to their favorite stores such as Coldwater Creek or J.C. Penney. An Alert is triggered if a shopper’s favorite store is having a special sale, such as a 50-percent-off or 24-hour sale. The Alert also is triggered if a customer shops at an Internet store, and that store is offering special deals or coupons. The displayed text links go to a Web page summarizing the special deals for each store, and how to make sure you qualify for those deals.

For instance, a member might type “laptop computer” into the toolbar’s search box. The toolbar would then return links to ShopAtHome.com vendors offering discounts or rebates on laptop computers, allowing customers to comparison shop and save. This feature remains available when shoppers enter text into search engines like Google or Yahoo. If the search engine returns vendors not affiliated with ShopAtHome, the toolbar presents links to ShopAtHome merchants offering exceptional values on the requested product.

The toolbar is highly customizable, making it easy for consumers to display or hide features as desired, even changing the colors of the toolbar itself. The entire toolbar can be hidden by unchecking the Internet Explorer view option, or completely removed if desired.

“We wanted to give consumers the ability to shop the instant they open their browsers, without even having to log on to ShopAtHome.com,” Braunstein said. “And with the text Alert function, we can announce merchants’ special offers in a low-key but attention-getting way. This benefits merchants as well as shoppers, because customers are immediately informed of great deals from the stores they love to shop at.”

About ShopAtHome

Headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colo. since its founding in 1986, ShopAtHome.com is a division of the Belcaro Group, Inc. ShopAtHome.com is the largest discount shopping Web site. Consumers who use the site receive cash back, exclusive money-saving specials and access to comparison shopping at more than 1,500 leading retailers. In addition to its Web site, the company publishes the ShopAtHome Catalog of Catalogs, a magazine with an annual circulation of seven million. This magazine features hundreds of specialty catalogs that consumers can request through the company’s one-stop requesting service. More than 10 million consumers have used ShopAtHome’s easy-to-use services from the comfort of their own homes. For more information visit http://www.shopathome.com/.

   Media Contact:   Jennifer Lester   303-394-2366   jlester@philosophycommunication.com  

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ShopAtHome.com

CONTACT: Jennifer Lester, +1-303-394-2366,jlester@philosophycommunication.com, for ShopAtHome.com

Web site: http://www.shopathome.com/