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Boston Herald - November 27, 2006
Lexington Co. Aims to Keep Web Retailers’ Fans Loyal
Lexington’s Mall Networks Inc. is playing the role of a behind-the-scenes elf today as merchants brace for what the online retail industry is now calling “Cyber Monday” - the Internet’s version of Black Friday.
Mall Networks, which develops and manages the sites of retailers who use “loyalty” reward programs to keep consumers coming back for more, has helped Shop.org to build its Cybermonday.com “mall” that features the products of hundreds of major retailers, ranging from Barnes & Noble Inc. to J.C. Penney Co.
The idea is to offer up a variety of discounts, promotions, free shipping and other holiday deals - all at one site for the convenience of online shoppers.
Shop.org, the association of online retailers, will donate some of the sale proceeds from the site to a scholarship fund.
“We do all the back-end stuff,” said Dave Andre, chief executive of the 18-month-old Mall Networks. “We also put all the (design) skin on the sites that you see.”
Mall Networks, with the backing of a number of angel and venture capital investors, is building its business model on the notion that it can help retailers build their sites - but with a twist: offering customers rewards for shopping with them.
Sort of like frequent-flier miles or credit-card reward programs, Mall Networks’ emphasis on online “loyalty” shopping is a bet that customers are going to increasingly demand such perks - and Mall Networks will be able to help retailers develop and track the purchases of those loyal consumers, Andre said.
Mall Networks has hundreds of retailers signed up to participate in projects such as CyberMonday.com. Mall Networks provides the software, accounting, advertising and everything else it takes to launch and promote a rewards program, in which customers often get freebie merchandise or services in return for doing business with specific retailers.
“We have a flexible platform,” said Andre, the former founding chief technology officer of Upromise.com that helps people save money for college.
This is Mall Networks’ second holiday season - last year getting off to a solid start with the company working with NASCAR RacePoints to create its own loyalty program.
Other customers include the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Good Sam Club.
“But this is our first big year,” said Andre of Mall Networks’ second holiday season. “We have a lot more clients and sponsors.”
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