Social Shopping Networks: Ciao Connects With ePages - Announcing Technology Partnership


LONDON, HAMBURG and MUNICH, Germany, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --     Ciao GmbH, one of Europe's leading consumer review and price
comparison websites, and ePages, a leading provider of e-business solutions,
announced a technology partnership today. Ciao's comparison shopping service,
driven by its multi-million member online community that produces
user-generated content by reviewing millions of products and services, is now
integrated as an additional feature in ePages. E-shops based on ePages can
seamlessly connect to http://www.ciao.co.uk. The shop itself as well as the
products offered can be rated with one simple click.

By cooperating with Ciao, ePages extends its software with
comprehensive consumer advice services - offering online merchants an
opportunity to participate in the social networks of consumer rated and
reviewed products. Social commerce illustrates a groundbreaking change in
e-commerce towards interactive and recommendation-based shopping. These
trends, of course, need to be put into practice. ePages and Ciao now enable
small and medium-sized businesses to benefit from this online shopping
revolution.

Ciao offers detailed opinions from consumers, price and
product information and direct shopping links to individual retail websites.
Online merchants using ePages benefit from highly effective online sales
solutions for large merchants along with the new integration for products
into Ciao listings. Ciao is an extremely versatile advertising platform
offering effective marketing opportunities and a targeted way of addressing
customers and attracting extra visitors to a web shop. With the ePages - Ciao
integration, the distribution channel of online merchants is further
extended, creating more business for the merchant.

"As Ciao offers the possibility to read reviews of over 3.4
million products, consumers are able to make a well informed purchase
decision. We believe that for online stores this will result in better
conversion rates. In ePages we have found a strategic partner whose
e-commerce technology ideally fits our service. This partnership brings
together two innovative e-commerce companies that combine each other's
strengths for the benefit of the consumer", says Stephan Musikant, Managing
Director of Ciao GmbH.

"The expectations in online shopping are constantly increasing
and social commerce is a trend that users are adopting rapidly. By enabling
merchants to use the Ciao consumer recommendation portal and providing direct
connections to price comparisons, we're giving our 40,000 online merchants
another competitive edge in a fast growing market", adds Wilfried Beeck, CEO
of ePages.

About Ciao GmbH

Ciao GmbH is one of the leading online comparison shopping and
opinion portals in Europe, present in seven European countries
(http://www.ciao.de, http://www.ciao.co.uk, http://www.ciao.fr,
http://www.ciao.it, http://www.ciao.es, http://www.ciao-shopping.nl,
http://www.ciao.se). Ciao offers users over 3.4 million products and 4.3
million consumer reviews for more than 20 product categories such as cars,
computers, digital cameras, mobile phones, travelling, electronics or
household appliances. The websites in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the
UK have been ranked amongst the most popular e-shopping portals of each
country (Source: Nielson NetRatings 04/2007). Ciao GmbH was founded in 1999
in Munich. In April 2005 Ciao GmbH became a subsidiary of Greenfield Online
Inc. (NASDAQ: SRVY). Ciao GmbH has its headquarters in Munich and regional
offices in London, Paris, Timisoara and Wroclaw.

About ePages

ePages Software powers more than 40,000 online shops, making it a leading
provider of e-commerce solutions worldwide. Based on ePages Hosting Edition,
a scalable shop hosting platform, numerous hosting providers and
telecommunications companies offer powerful hosted web shops. These include
British Telecom, Lycos, Pipex, Host Europe, T-Online, Amen and Strato.

A worldwide network of ePages partners tailors e-commerce solutions for
small and medium-sized companies, customised precisely to their requirements.
Companies like Leonardo, Lindt, Skoda or Encyclopaedia Britannica run their
e-commerce activities on ePages Merchant Edition. ePages is based in Hamburg
and has offices in San Francisco, London, Barcelona and Jena.

Press contact

    Ciao GmbH, 
    Ulrike Piesch, 
    Tel: +49-89-25-551-796,
    ulrike.piesch@ciao-group.com

    ePages, 
    Jörn Wachsmann-Wurr, 
    Tel: +49-40-3501-88-261,
    pr@epages.de, 
    http://www.epages.co.uk 

    kulow kommunikation, 
    Tina Kulow/Cindy Ulitzsch, 
    Tel: +49-40-4327-7005/2351-7776, 
    tk@kulow-kommunikation.com



© PR Newswire Association LLC.

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