Online Retailer’s Third-Party Sales Increase with Addition of New Categories and Name-Brand Sellers

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., March 4, 2010 – Buy.com®, the Internet Superstore™, today reported 146 percent year-over-year sales growth for its retail Marketplace, which currently has more than 11.5 million product listings from thousands of qualified third-party retailers.

Buy.com's Marketplace represented 46 percent of the company's site orders in the fourth quarter of 2009 and more than 50 percent of Q1 2010 site orders to date. The growth of the Marketplace also helped contribute to Q4 2009 being Buy.com’s 13th consecutive profitable quarter.

The Buy.com Marketplace, which initially offered consumer electronics and technology products as a way to ensure Buy.com customers received the lowest prices on the Web, has grown tremendously the past three years. Buy.com attributes this growth to its strategy to become a complete retail marketplace, with products spanning more than 20 product categories, including games, apparel and shoes, books, bags and luggage, fragrance, home and outdoor, software, sporting goods, jewelry and watches, toys and baby goods, and more.

In December 2009 alone, Buy.com added name-brand retailers such as Tiger Direct and Paul's TV, as well as Alibris, a premier marketplace for independent sellers of new, used and rare books. Buy.com continues to aggressively add qualified new sellers and categories, though the company limits Marketplace participation to select retailers with strong customer service and fulfillment excellence.

"As we move into 2010 and beyond, Buy.com has transformed from an online retailer with marketplace functionality, to a multi-category retail marketplace platform," said Buy.com CEO and President Neel Grover. "We firmly believe that our marketplace platform is the future of online retail."

The Buy.com marketplace team would like to thank all of our sellers for your continued involvement. Please make sure to keep adding all of your sku's and maintain your excellent seller metrics. Thanks again.

The Buy.com marketplace Team

In an effort to improve consistency in the buyer experience here at Buy.com, we will now require that sellers provide accurate tracking or USPS delivery confirmation numbers and carrier codes for orders across all categories when confirming an order as shipped; previously, this wasn't mandatory in our Book, Music, and Video stores. All shipments must be sent with accurate carrier codes and tracking numbers for any shipped items after March 22, 2010.

We have recently added additional carriers to accommodate for this change. Please review our updated shipment confirmation specifications for all carriers including and provide the appropriate tracking or USPS delivery confirmation numbers.

Thank you in advance for reviewing your shipment confirmation program to ensure that you are in compliance with this change.

We wanted to alert you to a requirement that will go into effect on Feb. 1st 2010

Buy.com Marketplace automatically sends emails to buyers to confirm orders, shipment and cancellation/refunds as well as request buyer feedback. In an effort to keep all communication with Buy.com customers consistent, we are requiring that all sellers remove their order confirmation, shipment confirmation, and feedback follow up emails. Buy.com Marketplace will send these emails to customers in all cases. Please ensure that these emails are removed by Monday, February 1, 2010.

As stated Buy.com Marketplace will send all shipping emails, but do ask that all sellers work directly with buyers to resolve any issues. Please review all direct emails you send to Buyers and ensure that you there are no links to your website or requests to visit your website in your customer service communication.

Thanks for a successful holiday season. We look forward to a great 2010!

Buy.com Marketplace

Our Marketplace has grown tremendously over the last year and we want to thank you for contributing to its success. During this critical holiday sales period we ask that you ensure customers receive their orders before the holiday deadline. Please choose shipping methods appropriate for these holiday items to arrive on time, including expediting if needed. Also, please review your inventory closely and remove those items that cannot quickly ship in the coming days.

Thanks for helping Buy.com to be a great shopping destination. We look forward to an even more successful 2010.

Happy Holidays!

The Buy.com Marketplace Team

You asked for it and we have delivered!

We have recently updated the View Orders section of the Buy.com Seller tools, now you can view pending orders as well as open and closed orders.

Occasionally there are delays in processing orders before we pass them on to you for fulfillment and with this most recent update you will be able to see if an order is pending. pending orders will not include any order detail other than your reference id, Buy.com SKU, Qty. ordered and price.

When an item is purchased we decrement your inventory, but there may occasioanlly be delays before we send the completed order to you. Now you will be able to seach on specific orders or on all pending order over a specified time period. This should help with customer service as well as inventory management.

Under the the Manage Orders section in your seller account, just select the Manage Your Marketplace Orders link.

You can search by Open, Closed, Pending or All orders, over a specified time frame. We hope this will be a beneficial tool for your Buy.com business.

The image below will give you an idea what the "Pending" report will look like.

The holiday shopping season officially starts this week, so make sure you don't miss any sales because your listings have closed. Listings expire after 30 days, if there has not been a sale or the listing has not changed. So make sure to update your entire inventory before the holiday rush.

You certainly want to have all of your available inventory ready for the increase in shoppers.

Happy Selling!

Buy.com Marketplace Team

As we move closer to the peak holiday shopping season, it makessense to go over some basic tips for selling on the Buy.com marketplace. Customer expectations are much higher this time of year so now is the time to make sure you operations are in tip-top shape.

• Monitor your Seller Metrics - Be assured that the marketplace team here at Buy.com is monitoring your seller metrics, so it would be a great idea for you to keep on top of things as well. You can review your seller metrics under the View your Performance linkin your seller account. We measure 4 major metrics over a 90-day period to determine your selling status including promotional opportunities, premium status, etc. We will be reviewing each selling account before the peak selling season begins to insure that our top performing sellers get the most exposure on the site. High Cancellation and Refund rates and low Feedback and Fulfillment rates will reduce your exposure on the site and result in account closure.
• Cancellation Rates - Imagine finding that perfect gift for a family member only to find out the item is actually out of stock -- nobody likes that shopping experience. Inventory management is doubly important this time of year, especially when selling on multiple platforms. Please make sure to update your inventory regularly so that you maintain cancellation rates of 5% or lower. Also, make sure to update your entire inventory, even if the inventory has not changed, so that all of your product will be available to buy.com shoppers. Remember that product listings end after 30 days if they have not had a sale or been updated. We require that sellers maintain a cancellation rate of less than 5% of your orders over a 90-day period but during Q4 we will be looking at your 30-day numbers even more carefully. This 5% cancellation threhold allows for customer requested cancellations.
• Fulfillment Rates- Once a customer has made their purchase they expect to receive it in a timely fashion. While you have little control of transit time, we do expect you to process and ship orders within 2 business days. The only exceptions to this are in the Toys and Baby and Home and Garden categories; when indicated in the inventory feed. Orders not shipped within 2 business days are subject to cancellation. We require that you maintain an 85% fulfillment rate, which just means that 85% or more of your orders need to be shipped within 2 business days -- this standard should not be difficult to meet.
• Feedback Rating - As customers make their buying decisions they will be reviewing your feedback rating and reading reviews from previous customers. We require a feedback rating of 4.25 or better to be a Premium seller or have access to promotional opportunities, so make sure to manage your feedback effectively -- you may email your customers to request they rate the transaction. Customers have 60-days to change or update their rating and comments, so be proactive and resolve their concerns as quickly as possible.
• Refund Rates - We realize that errors happen and that customers return product occasionally but we want to make sure that refunds do not become excessive. Please maintain a refund rate of less than 5%

We are looking forward to a very successful holiday selling season, so make sure to manage your operation and listings effectively to maximize your sales here at Buy.com

We are just about ready for the official unveiling, but the you can get a sneak peak at the new Musical Instruments store here: http://www.buy.com/dept/musical-instruments-pro-audio/67561.html

The store is live now and we are filling the shelves with hot new items in Pro Audio, DJ Equipment and Musical Instruments.

If you sell product in the Musical Instruments or Pro Audio category now's the time to list your product.