BEDFORD, Mass.-April 14, 2008- Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading provider of application infrastructure software to develop, deploy, integrate and manage applications, today announced that Textbooks.com, an online textbook retailer dedicated to helping students quickly and easily find books at the right price, has selected Progress® EasyAsk® software to decrease site abandonment¹ and increase conversion rates ² .
EasyAsk software features site-level product search and navigation capabilities that adapt to learned search results. Additionally, a merchandising toolkit feature allows the Textbooks.com marketing department to manage their merchandising and promotions easily without a dependency on IT support.
EasyAsk software includes a powerful search tool that allows Textbooks.com site visitors to search by title and keyword rather than a 10 or 13-digit ISBN number. Moreover, EasyAsk software eliminates the need to manually wade through more than 7 million titles that exist in the Textbooks.com inventory, and instead provides a superior set of search results and a more satisfying purchase experience.
"Because students have a myriad of options when purchasing textbooks online, it is vital for online retailers to provide accurate results through convenient search methods to retain customers and minimize site abandonment," says Susan Thompson, general manager Textbooks.com. "Before deploying the Progress EasyAsk software, we were forced to rely on an in-house system that did not provide the flexibility required to support our business. The capabilities within EasyAsk software not only present our customers with the exact titles they are searching for, but also display additional options such as used textbooks, thus offering our customers the opportunity to save money. To us, this adds up to satisfied customers who will return."
"In highly competitive markets, creating a superior consumer experience through increased website convenience and efficiency can make the difference between site abandonment and increased conversion rates," said Larry Harris vice president and general manager, EasyAsk Division, Progress Software. "Textbooks.com wanted to create a positive consumer experience for their customers by delivering accurate search results and providing customers with options they may not have known exist. By using Progress EasyAsk software, Textbooks.com is helping their customers locate the items they need quickly and easily, therefore creating a more pleasant experience for both the consumer and their wallets."
About Progress Software Corporation
Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) provides application infrastructure software for the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications. Our goal is to maximize the benefits of information technology while minimizing its complexity and total cost of ownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or +1-781-280-4000.Progress and OpenEdge are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation. Any other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
¹Site abandonment is common when consumers are unable to quickly find what they are looking for online. Traditionally, customers shopping for textbooks online enter the corresponding International Standard Book Number (ISBN) in search of a specific textbook. However, often times, students do not know the ISBN number of the textbook they are searching for. Unlike consumers of other book genres, consumers searching for textbooks do not have the luxury of purchasing their own titles or topics, and are thus forced to purchase an exact title and edition of an assigned book. When the title they are searching for is not easily found, these consumers can not purchase a similar item and instead abandon the website to search for their textbook elsewhere.
² Conversion rates represent the percentage of people who buy something at an online retail site compared with the total number of people who visit that site. Conversion rates are a critical success factor for online retailers since any change upwards or downwards in these rates has an immediate and dramatic impact on their revenue.