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| "Smart"
Appliance Powered by HighPoint May Hold Key to Widespread Adoption
of Home Grocery Shopping |
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| --Initial
Results from Scotty's Home Market Indicate Smart Appliances with Bar
Code Scanning Increase Order Frequency and
Revenue-- |
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| Cambridge,
MA-December 7, 1999 - In an address at the iGrocer Conference
held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 6th and 7th, HighPoint
Systems, Inc. president and CEO Jonathan Green announced that
preliminary data from a first-of-its-kind customer deployment
indicate the use of information appliances positively impact
loyalty, sales and retention rates of home grocery shoppers.
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| Scotty's Home
Market, a Chicago-area home shopping provider began deployment of
its new "smart" information appliance -- the Scottyscan™-- with
online grocery shoppers in September of this year, with very
promising results. Scottyscan, a PalmPilot with a built-in bar code
scanner from Symbol Technologies (NYSE: SBL) and order entry
software from HighPoint Systems, was developed to address customer
retention issues such as convenience and ease-of-use-factors that
have limited many online food retailers from creating profitable
home shopping businesses. Using Scottyscan, home grocery shoppers
can create lists and enter orders by scanning the bar codes of
grocery items in their kitchens or from bar coded catalogs, making
home shopping easier and more convenient than traditional,
stand-alone PC-based home grocery shopping systems. |
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| Initial survey
data derived from 219 households revealed that use of the Scottyscan
increased home grocery shoppers' annual order frequency by 33% when
compared to a control group ordering directly with only a personal
computer. |
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| Preliminary
Trial Indicates HighPoint Systems-Powered "Smart" Appliance May Hold
Key |
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In addition,
the average annualized sales per Scottyscan household increased
$1,020 to $4,160. Other preliminary data indicate:
- "Light" users (customers previously ordering less than 24
times per year) showed the greatest increase in order frequency
with a 47% increase from 17 to 25 orders per year.
- Scotty's customers who signed on since the introduction of
Scottyscan showed a purchase frequency more than double the
Scotty's average (35 orders versus 17 orders per year);
- The use of Scottyscan resulted in a 33% increase in revenue
realized per household for Scotty's Home Market.
"These
preliminary results confirm what our own research has indicated for
some time-that portable, easy-to-use, scan-enabled smart appliances
make home shopping very attractive to consumers, and may unlock key
elements required for home grocery shopping to reach critical mass,"
stated Jonathan Green, president and CEO of HighPoint Systems.
"Using HighPoint's order entry software, the Scottyscan data is the
first to provide clear evidence that information appliance solutions
in home grocery shopping environments can increase shopping order
frequency, home shopping revenue and attract home shoppers from
different demographic and psychographic groups." |
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| In May 1999,
Scotty's Home Market turned to HighPoint Systems, an e-commerce
client and server software provider for the grocery and consumer
replenishables market, in an effort to improve customer loyalty,
increase home shopping revenues and differentiate Scotty's from
other home shopping providers. HighPoint Systems (www.highpoint.com)
provided Scotty's a fast, intuitive, portable order entry software
solution that improved the home shopping experience for the
consumer, as well as server software to streamline back end
processing. The Scottyscan was placed in 260 customer households in
August, making Scotty's the first U.S. retailer to offer a broad
scale home grocery shopping information appliance program to its
customers. |
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| Due to the
impressive results to date, Scotty's is continuing with Scottyscan
into next year, and will expand the scope of consumer data being
measured. Data will continue to be collected from the Scottyscan
households and PC control groups with analysis focused on order
frequency and size of orders. Customer data will also be used to
evaluate Scottyscan's effectiveness as a new customer acquisition
tool. Additionally, Marketing Corporation of America (MCA) has been
retained to gather data on groceries purchased elsewhere in order to
calculate Scotty's overall "share of stomach." MCA will also
interview Scotty's customers in an effort to better understand
attitudinal dynamics of shopping with Scottyscan. |
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| About
HighPoint Systems |
| HighPoint
Systems specializes in e-commerce software solutions for retailers
focusing on grocery and other consumer replenishables. HighPoint is
dedicated to offering these retailers a scalable, efficient
technology solution to take advantage of the growing online shopping
opportunity. HighPoint offers a wide range of electronic shopping
alternatives from easy to navigate Web storefronts to portable
scan-enabled order entry appliances. These solutions provide
consumers a fast, friendly and convenient way to order online. With
HighPoint Systems, retailers for the first time have a "future
proofed" home shopping solution that will accelerate the growth and
profitability of their online businesses. For more information,
visit HighPoint Systems' Web site at www.highpoint.com |
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