PRESS RELEASES

Mercado Helps Avenue Shop At Home Customers Buy Hot Fashions They "Just Have to Have"

Easy Creation and Real Time Delivery of Customized Sale and Promotional Banners Maximize Sales and Conversions

PLEASANTON, CA, December 19, 2007 - Mercado Software, the leading provider of eCommerce search & merchandising solutions, today announced that Avenue, a leading retailer of fashion apparel, recently deployed Mercado On-Demand on their online store (www.avenue.com).

"We are selling clothing to women; they certainly don't need any more clothes – we market our fashions and accessories, attempting to invoke that small catch of breath at the back of the throat, indicative of the emotional response that says "I just have to have" that outfit," said Julie Daly, President of the Shop At Home Division. "We found that Mercado On-Demand is the best solution for us and are very impressed with its flexibility, power, functionality and ease of use."

Battling in a highly competitive market, Avenue decided to upgrade their site search to improve sales conversions. After a year of looking at various leading vendors, they decided to go with Mercado because they wanted a hosted solution with superior search results, navigation, and merchandising usability.

Daly reports that, as a result of switching to Mercado, Avenue has seen a marked increase in sales conversions. "We monitor the search terms used by our customers and then generate special promotions to fulfill those needs. For example, our Web analytics indicated that a large number of customers were searching for bras, so we used Mercado to quickly develop and present campaigns to meet these customer interests."

"I really love Mercado's real-time flexibility and power. I can design a new banner or sales promotion and have it up within minutes," said Kristen St. Peter, site manager at Avenue. "We wanted to increase our subscribers to our opt-in email newsletter so we used Mercado to create and present special banners promoting the newsletter. Within weeks, we doubled the number of subscribers signing up every day."

About Mercado Software
Mercado is the leading eCommerce search & merchandising solution provider for SMB, multi-channel retail and B2B organizations. By enabling a superior buying experience and equipping business managers with a powerful platform on which to execute merchandising strategies, online businesses can aggressively grow revenue and foster customer loyalty. Sears Holdings Corp., GUESS?, Inc., Williams-Sonoma Inc., OfficeMax, Macy's, Overstock.com, REI, Delightful Deliveries, and Organize.com are some of the companies benefiting from Mercado's solutions. For more information about Mercado Software, please visit www.mercado.com or call (888) 376-1400.

About Avenue and United Retail
Founded in 1989, United Retail Group, Inc. is a specialty retailer of large-size women's fashion apparel, footwear and accessories featuring AVENUE® brand merchandise. The Company operates 487 AVENUE® stores as well as the AVENUE.COM® website at www.avenue.com. United Retail was recently acquired by REDCATS USA, a PPR Company.

Avenue caters to plus-size women ages 25 to 55 in sizes 14 and up. The Company's targeted customer is fashion-minded, style and taste conscious, informed, aspirational, independent, confident and leads a busy lifestyle that requires the full fashion spectrum. For an Avenue customer, it's not about size, it's about attitude.

With over $460 million in annual sales, Avenue is the second largest pure play retailer for plus size women's fashions and has over 487 retail outlets in 39 states across the United States. Their online store Avenue.com initially launched in October 2000 and now generates over 5% of total sales.

Media Contact:
Mark Shapiro
858-573-0736
mshapiro@davismarrin.com

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