TRB Tribune

Unprecedented Use of Internet for In-store Shopping by Retailers and Consumers CHICAGO, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- ShopLocal(TM), the leader in multi-channel shopping and marketing services, today announced that the ShopLocal Index was up 60% in November 2007, compared to the same month last year. This includes a dramatic 84% spike in the two days prior to Black Friday as shoppers searched for the best deals ahead of a big weekend of shopping. With predictions of a "soft" holiday season, retailers aggressively promoted on the Internet and savvy consumers exhaustively researched these offers online to optimize their in-store shopping experience. The flurry of activity described by the November ShopLocal Index resulted in strong sales around Thanksgiving for most retailers. This is reflected in the same-store sales results retailers are reporting for November, a definite improvement compared to September and October. However, the ShopLocal Index also shows a slowdown this month, suggesting that retailers have more work to do to sustain sales momentum for the rest of the holiday season. The ShopLocal Index is the advertising industry's first market indicator designed to track the influence of the Internet on in-store shopping. Updated monthly, the Index is based on the online activity of an average of 20 million monthly consumer visits to store promotions that are presented on the sites of 50 major U.S. retailers, including JC Penney, Best Buy, CompUSA, Walgreens and The Home Depot. These retailers cover major retail segments such as computers, consumer electronics, office supplies, home improvement, department stores, mass merchants, grocery, drug and various specialty stores. November 2007 ShopLocal Index highlights include: -- The ShopLocal Index reflected sustained growth (year-to-year page views) throughout the month of November, up 60% versus last year, to reach a seasonal high of 488 (benchmark of 100 from January 2006). -- Wednesday before Thanksgiving had a 100% increase in page views over the same day in the previous year and Thanksgiving Day showed 71% growth. -- Page views per visit on a per retailer basis also reached an all-time high of 13.8, a 7.6% jump from 12.8 last November, the previous high. -- During the peak hour, between 9 and 10 p.m. CST on Thanksgiving Day, consumers flipped through 10.87 million pages online in last minute preparations for Black Friday. -- Department stores outperformed all other retail sub-segments, with November page view volume at 161.7 million. "Retailers and consumers are increasingly taking advantage of the Inter-net, not only for transacting online, but now much more so to connect at the store. The Internet is proving to be a timely, far-reaching and cost-effective marketing vehicle for retailers to reach tens of millions of consumers and present store offers, and the week of Black Friday most clearly illustrates how the Internet is essential for retailers who want to drive in-store sales," said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal. "Consumers appreciate the efficiency and convenience of browsing on the Internet before they go to the store -- they are letting their clicks do the walking." The ShopLocal Index includes hundreds of millions of monthly page views, and, initially benchmarked at 100 for January 2006, reached a seasonal peak of 488 in November 2007. The Index has shown strong growth in 2007, increasing 34% year-to-year through November. ShopLocal, the leader in multi-channel shopping services, offers a complete suite of solutions connecting advertisers and consumers online and in-store. The company's consumer Web site, ShopLocal.com, provides users with choice and control in their shopping experience by offering the most comprehensive selection of timely online and in-store offers on one easy-to-use site. With ShopLocal.com, consumers can find millions of products and up-to-date weekly sales, deals, and coupons for consumer electronics, apparel, groceries and more. ShopLocal's customers include Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, CVS and Sears. ShopLocal powers multi-channel shopping for hundreds of newspaper Web sites and other leading local and shopping sites, such as Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, Google and SuperPages.com. ShopLocal is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI). For more information, visit http://www.aboutshoplocal.com/. ShopLocal, ShopLocal.com, SmartCircular, SmartCatalog, SmartMedia and ShopLocal Index are trademarks of ShopLocal. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. DATASOURCE: ShopLocal, LLC CONTACT: Tim Young of L.C. Williams & Associates, +1-312-565-4628, , for ShopLocal, LLC Web site: http://www.shoplocal.com/ http://www.aboutshoplocal.com/

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