Campmor Inc. Jumpstarts Business Performance With Innovative On Demand Solution From IBM and Tachyon Solutions

IBM and Tachyon Solutions Join Forces Making Online Sales the Largest Source of Revenue for Outdoor Equipment Retailer

Campmor Inc., one of the largest outdoor specialty equipment retailers offering outdoor clothing, camping and backpacking equipment today announced that it has transformed the online shopping experience for Campmor.com customers, making it easier to search and discover the precise information they are looking for while shopping.

Leveraging innovative product search and information discovery capabilities from IBM and Tachyon Solutions Campmor is enabling customers to access merchandise faster, place orders and fulfill transactions with sub-second response times while helping guide them in navigating Campmor.com with greater ease. As a result, Campmor has experienced 35 percent increase in online sales, accounting for more than 70 percent of the company's revenue.

In addition to enabling customers to find precisely what they are looking for more effectively, the new search and discovery tools also gave Campmor the ability to cross-sell related items and customize the shopping experience. For instance, a customer searching for tents may also be directed to information on products such as sleeping bags, lanterns and other camping equipment.

Prior to the implementation of the solution, customers visited the Campmor site and frequently abandoned carts before making a purchase indicating difficulty in locating appropriate products. Campmor.com now provides more precise information and guides their shopping experience allowing customers to find exactly what they are looking for while providing an enhanced shopping experience.

IBM business partner Taychon Solutions worked with Campmor to implement an e-commerce solution powered by IBM WebSphere Commerce and IBM DB2 Universal Database. The innovative search capabilities of the solution makes it possible to index specific products in the database and allows customers to search both keyword and concept. The solution also includes apparel ontology with synonyms and acronyms for various terms a customer might enter, as well as likely misspellings that are automatically corrected. Campmor customers can now perform detailed searches and find exactly what they are looking for in sub-second response times. As a result the number of orders placed from searches has increased 10 percent and the average size of a search order has increased 15 percent within a year

The US Census Bureau of Department of Commerce estimated that retail e-commerce sales continue to gain momentum -- total sales for second quarter 2005 were estimated at $940.8 billion, a 26% percent increase from the second quarter of 2004. Increasingly, retailers are looking for innovative ways to make online shopping for customers easier and more engaging to grab a share of this highly competitive market.

"With the combination of IBM's feature-rich information search and discovery technology and Tachyon's implementation services, powered by secure and scalable IBM middleware, we have been able to create a highly-personalized experience for our shoppers enabling us to maximize new business opportunities for revenue growth -- our online sales grew 35 percent," said Daniel Jarashow, president and CEO, Campmor. "We knew that we wanted to build Campmor.com on open technology systems that allowed our business to scale and offer customers on demand access to product information."

"When we launched Campmor.com, we knew we would eventually need to expand its features and functionality to accommodate the rapid growth of its customer base and online sales," said Marion Lewis, CEO Tachyon Solutions. "As an IBM Business Partner, we have access to open, secure, leading edge technology along with marketing and sales resources and a network of peers within a vast partner ecosystem. All this enabled us to respond quickly to Campmor's requests and position them to achieve their business goals."

About Tachyon Solutions

Tachyon Solutions designs and develops custom technology solutions that help companies address their most strategic business challenges and drive results. From Business Intelligence and Customer Relationship Management to Web Development, e-Commerce, Search and Navigation, and Portal, their offerings combine business expertise, technology and support services to help lower costs, increase revenues and stay ahead of the competition. To learn more about these offerings, please visit their website at www.tachyonsolutions.com.

About IBM

With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is a leading provider of e-business solutions and is dedicated to helping companies, business partners and developers leverage the potential of the Internet and network computing across a wide range of businesses and industries. The company offers a host of cross-industry and industry-specific solutions designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. For more information on partnering with IBM, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld.

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