PRESS RELEASES
New Mercado Offering Enriches Online Catalogs through Automated Attribute Extraction and Accurate Product Categorization
PALO ALTO, CA - August 10th, 2005 - Mercado Software, a leading provider of e-commerce search and merchandising solutions today announced the release of a new product that enriches e-commerce catalogs through attribute extraction and highly accurate product categorization. Built on patented technology, Mercado UniClass™ offers businesses engaged in e-commerce an easy means to make the most of product data and related literature, regardless of the level of inherent structural simplicity or complexity of data sources.
"In the office products business, it's all about having a rich, comprehensive catalog. Mercado's UniClass technology enriches the catalog – and therefore the shopping experience – by making sure products are categorized accurately and in a way that makes sense to our shoppers," said Blake Moritz, Senior Director, E-Commerce IT at OfficeMax.com. "UniClass is capable of mining product information for descriptive gems that can be used to make search more accurate and build more intuitive categories – this will be good for our business because it will help our customers better find what they're looking for."
UniClass integrates seamlessly with Mercado's e-commerce search and navigation environment – delivering immediate value for businesses wishing to build new online product catalogs or reinvigorate existing ones. UniClass is a highly scalable solution, providing e-commerce businesses with the ability to handle thousands of catalogs containing millions of SKUs – covering multiple domains.
Making use of patented algorithms and a customizable knowledge bank, UniClass employs a combination of linguistic and taxonomy analysis to provide fast and accurate attribute or concept extraction and classification of product data and related content ranging from the most structured to least structured.
"In many cases we find that e-commerce businesses have highly structured catalogs, but wish to categorize them in a more granular fashion or optimize find-ability based on characteristics unique to their domain or shopper population. In other cases businesses wish to exploit less structured content, such as brochures – with UniClass they can," said Dr. Shai Geva, Chief Scientist at Mercado. "By offering a simple means of extracting and applying a wide variety of product attributes, Mercado now enables our e-commerce customers to build and maintain smart, well-categorized catalogs. Automating these functions with UniClass means cost savings and faster time-to-market."
Mercado UniClass is available immediately and can be licensed on its own or as an add-on to Mercado CSN, the company's flagship e-commerce search & navigation, and advanced merchandising solution.
About Mercado Software
Mercado is a leading provider of e-commerce search & navigation and advanced merchandising solutions for B2B and B2C businesses. Through offering online customers a superior buying experience and equipping business managers with a powerful platform to implement merchandising strategies, online retailers and businesses can constantly grow their business results. Sears, Williams-Sonoma, JCPenney, Macy's, Target, Tower Records, Blockbuster, MSN, Caterpillar and OfficeMax, are some of the companies benefiting from Mercado's solutions. Mercado's unique technology, combined with its commitment to innovation and its experienced team, delivers bottom line results for its customers. Such benefits include increased revenues, higher productivity, reduced operational costs, and improved customer satisfaction. For more information about Mercado Software, please visit www.mercado.com or call (888) 376-1400.
Media Contact:
Kevin Lindsay
Tel: (403) 697-3183
Email: klindsay@mercado.com
