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ChoiceBot Debuts Breakthrough Product Search and Selection Tool for E-Retail Sites

Posted on: Friday, 26 January 2007, 09:00 CST

OTTAWA, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- ChoiceBot Inc., an innovator in product search technology, announced the availability of ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites 1.0, a new product search tool designed for integration with online retail and shopping sites. An online demo of ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites was also made public, and can be viewed at http://www.choicebot.com/.

"Early in our R&D efforts, we identified more than twenty major complaints that most consumers voiced concerning current product search and selection tools," said ChoiceBot founder and CEO Nick Desbarats. "Everything from 'Why can't I say that I don't like a feature without saying that it's unacceptable?' to 'Even though all the feature data is there, there's no way I can take it all into consideration when making a purchase decision.' Based on this set of problems, we set out to design a fundamentally new type of product search and evaluation system -- a system that thinks more like a person, and less like a database."

Following more than 4 years of concept refinement and development, the company's first release, ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites, hits the market today.

"Once we realized that people make purchase decisions based on emotional responses to features, user problems started disappearing. We're very excited that our first product release successfully addresses every single user complaint that we identified, finally turning product search and selection from a time-consuming, hit-and-miss process into an accurate, efficient experience for online consumers," added Desbarats.

ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites arrives at a good time for e-retailers, who are losing millions of dollars each year because their customers are having trouble deciding which product to buy, and often walk away from the sale because they're simply overwhelmed with too much information.

A key differentiator of ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites is that it enables consumers to express how happy or unhappy specific product features would make them (rather than simply what their minimum feature requirements are), using ChoiceBot's provisionally patented product search interface. The company's breakthrough ChoiceBot Ranking Engine then ranks products by how well they met the consumer's overall needs, all things considered -- including price. Regardless of how many search results were returned, the consumer need only focus on the top-ranked three or four products, knowing that they won't find any better choices further down the list.

"Our ten-fold improvement is in the reduction of the amount of time and effort it takes for a consumer to come to a confident purchase decision," said Desbarats. "When the consumer clicks on a product they're thinking of buying, ChoiceBot generates a personalized 'pros and cons' view of that product, automatically showing the consumer how well it met, exceeded, or fell below their individual needs, on a feature-by-feature basis. The result: they no longer have to try to keep all of this information in their head. No other product search or evaluation system offers this capability."

ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites is available as a behind-the-firewall application or ASP service that can be easily integrated by e-retail and shopping sites within virtually any infrastructure. It can be used for a wide variety of product categories, and complements existing keyword-based search tools. It enables online retailers to:

-- Turn indecisive visitors into committed purchasers -- Increase average ticket size -- Reduce merchandise returns and customer education costs -- Increase user satisfaction and loyalty -- Gather unprecedented, real-time insight into why customers are choosing certain products over others, and what factors are driving their decision-making behavior How to get more information

ChoiceBot for e-Retail Sites 1.0 is available for immediate delivery. Please contact VP Business Development Alfredo Coppola at (613) 291-6267 or alfredo@choicebot.com.

About ChoiceBot

ChoiceBot believes that online shopping should be a whole lot easier, and has developed patent-pending technology that enables consumers to make better, more informed buying decisions. ChoiceBot's innovative product search and evaluation technology was developed following more than four years of concept refinement by the company's founder, Nick Desbarats. ChoiceBot Inc. was formed in December 2005 and has offices in San Jose, California and Ottawa, Canada. For more information, visit http://www.choicebot.com/.

Media contact: Tim Cox Zing Public Relations 650-369-7784 tim@zingpr.com

ChoiceBot Inc.

CONTACT: Tim Cox of Zing Public Relations, +1-650-369-7784, ortim@zingpr.com, for ChoiceBot Inc.

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

Source: PRNewswire

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