Amazon.Com Third-Party Sales Achieve 42% Growth in Second Quarter 2009 According to Latest Mercent E-Commerce Index

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - July 23, 2009) - In advance of Amazon.com's second quarter earnings results, Mercent™, a leading provider of on-demand marketing solutions for retailers, today released the Mercent E-Commerce Index™ second quarter 2009 same seller and overall growth metrics for Amazon.com.

According to the Mercent E-Commerce Index, same-seller gross merchandise volume (GMV) for sellers participating in the "Selling on Amazon.com" program through the Mercent Retail™ channel management platform grew by 42% in the second quarter of 2009 relative to the same period in 2008.

Including existing and newly launched retailers, overall GMV generated by Mercent clients through Amazon.com doubled year-over-year, increasing 100% during the twelve months ending July 1, 2009.

According to Eric Best, CEO of Mercent, "The Mercent E-Commerce Index data clearly shows consumers are more frequently finding and buying from third-party retailers selling on Amazon.com. This is terrific news for Amazon and for our retail clients for whom selling on Amazon through Mercent Retail delivers growth rates that significantly outpace e-commerce analyst expectations and reported industry results."

Mercent attributes its clients' third-party seller growth on Amazon.com to the strength of the Mercent Retail platform, Mercent's proprietary approach to selling on Amazon, and to the retail giant's broad and growing product selection and competitive product pricing -- both a function of Amazon.com's market scale and expanding third-party seller program. Mercent also observes Amazon.com leveraging an inherently more efficient selling infrastructure compared to competing traditional retailers -- a function of the Company's 15-year investment in technology and logistics.

Last month Mercent announced it topped the 100 customer mark for retailers migrating to the Mercent Retail platform for their shopping feed and third-party marketplace optimization needs, demonstrating the market demand and business value of the Mercent Retail platform for large online retailers. Approximately 60% of Mercent's customers signed in 2009 rank within the top 250 retailers on the Internet Retailer Top 500 list. This includes leading brands PETCO, Sur La Table, Abt Electronics and others.

Mercent Index™ Methodology:

The methodology for this comparison matches our prior studies. The Mercent E-Commerce Index reports retail transactions driven through Mercent's network of online shopping and advertising channels including comparison shopping engines (CSEs), third-party seller marketplaces, and affiliate programs. To ensure continuity and to eliminate artifact associated with new customer ramp, the Mercent E-Commerce Index only references retailers live on the Mercent Retail platform prior to and during the entire reported term.

Information regarding Mercent Retail shopping feed management technology, Mercent Performance marketing services, and the complete list of online marketing channels in the Mercent Shopping Network are available at www.mercent.com.

About Mercent:

Mercent is a leading provider of online channel marketing technology and services for retailers. Through its award-winning Mercent Retail™ SAAS technology and Mercent Performance™ professional services, Mercent helps the world's most successful e-commerce merchants including 1-800-Flowers, Bass Pro Shops, Brookstone, GUESS?, L'Occitane USA, Redcats Group, and REI optimize online shopping channel marketing campaigns to drive customer acquisition, revenues, profits, and inventory velocity. Mercent is the single point of integration with a vast online advertising network that includes transactional marketplaces, comparison shopping engines (CSEs), and paid inclusion and affiliate marketing programs. The company is a Selling on Amazon.com Certified System Integrator, Buy.com Gold Certified Partner, eBay Certified Provider, certified Google Product Search Partner and Yahoo! Search Submit Pro certified feed provider. Founded by a seasoned team of Amazon.com veterans, Mercent is a venture-funded company based in Seattle, WA. For more information, visit www.mercent.com.

Contact Information: Mercent PR Contact: Kristine Szarkowitz Tel: 206.310.5323