LONDON and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 6, 2006 -- Endeca, a next-generation search and information access company, today announced that two of its European customers -- Bol.com and Wehkamp -- took top honors at the fifth Nationale Thuiswinkel Awards 2006 (Home Shopping Awards), held in Noordwijk aan Zee, the Netherlands on March 23, 2006. Both sites are using Endeca's market-leading online retail solution to deliver a superior customer experience featuring integrated search, navigation and merchandising capabilities.
"Creating a compelling shopping experience -- one that encourages increased sales and repeat business -- requires an approach that meets the unique needs of each and every customer," said Steve Papa, founder and chairman of Endeca. "We are honored to play a role in helping Bol.com and Wehkamp create a superior online shopping experience, and congratulate their teams on this remarkable achievement."
Both Bol.com and Wehkamp were voted by the Dutch public as top home-shopping sites in their respective sectors. In recognition of their leadership, a panel of professionals also honored Bol.com with the Thuiswinkel Professional Prize 2006, based on completeness of site content and functionality, as well as improvements in overall results.
Top line results at Bol.com are up 40% compared to the previous year.
"We are extremely proud of these awards; we strive to provide an inspiring and personalized user experience, and these awards are a recognition that our efforts are in the right direction," said Daniel Ropers, Managing Director at Bol.com. "Using Endeca's technology has -- amongst other things -- helped us to provide this unique experience to our consumers."
For Bol.com, the award is the latest in recent string of accolades for their successful online strategy. Only one month after going live, Bol.com's new telecom site was honored as one of only two finalists for the GSM Express Telecom Retailer award in the Internet retailer category.
Wehkamp also was very enthusiastic about the honor.
"The transformation process of a traditional mail order company into a modern Web department store is highly appreciated by the Dutch customers. It is a big compliment to the whole Wehkamp organization that the Dutch public makes no secret of their appreciation for our efforts,: said Pieter van Diepen, marketing & sales director for Wehkamp. "In the course of this year we intend to introduce a lot more innovations both in our collections and in functionality on our site."
Endeca Solutions for Retail, built on the Endeca Information Access Platform, power high-traffic, business-critical solutions for more than 150 leading global retailers such as Walmart.com, The Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Tesco, Boots, and Dabs.com. These solutions, which include Endeca for Online Retail, Endeca for Customer Service, Endeca for Kiosks and Endeca for Customer Segmentation, are designed to help multi-channel retailers improve sales, marketing and customer service across their organizations.
About Bol.com
Since bol.com was
launched in March 1999, over eight million orders have been
delivered to Dutch speaking customers around the world. Two million
of a total of four million online buyers in the Netherlands are
customers of bol.com. This makes bol.com market leader in online
retailing of books, entertainment, electronics, and mobile phones.
Bol.com is the most popular internet shop of the Netherlands.*
(* Blauw Research: 2005 Online Shopping Monitor; I&P Monitor)
About Wehkamp
Wehkamp,
established in 1952, is the market leader in the Dutch home
shopping market. Wehkamp has 1.4 million regular customers and
completes more than 5 million orders every year. The product range
counts more than 22,000 articles in six categories: Fashion,
Living, Home Appliances, Electronics, Health & Beauty and
Leisure. Wehkamp's Web site has 1 million visitors per week.
About Endeca
Endeca is a next-generation search and information access company.
Combining patented intellectual property, breakthrough science and
a deep focus on user experience, the Endeca Information Access
Platform helps people find, analyze and understand information in
ways never before possible. Leading global organizations like ABN
AMRO, Bank of America, Boeing, Costco, Cox Newspapers, The (US)
Defense Intelligence Agency, The Home Depot, Hyatt, IBM, John
Deere, Lehman Brothers, The Library of Congress, Texas Instruments,
and Walmart.com rely on Endeca to power business-critical
applications that increase revenue, reduce costs and streamline
operations.
Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Endeca is a private company with operations in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information: www.endeca.com or info@endeca.com.