ROXY.com Posts 900 Percent Holiday Sales Increase In Breakthrough Year For Consumer Electronics Retailer
ROXY.com today laid claim to the title ""fastest growing online consumer electronics retailer,"" as it announced that holiday sales were up 900 percent over the same period last year. ROXY capped what already had been a breakthrough year with a first-of-its-kind money-back delivery guarantee that had last-minute online shoppers flocking to its Web site even as Internet retailers as a group reportedly experienced a final-week downturn amid reports of holiday delivery problems. ROXY.comís sales for the week ending December 19 (Sunday) doubled over the previous week, while Nielsen/Net Ratings reported an overall 3.8 percent drop in traffic at Internet retail sites for that week versus the previous one. ROXY still was being flooded with orders right up to its 5 p.m. Tuesday (December 21) delivery guarantee deadline. ""Consumers, many of them shopping for the first time online this holiday season, were understandably nervous about whether Internet retailers could handle the holiday delivery crunch, particularly as the media - and some retailers themselves - began raising red flags,"" said ROXY.com President/CEO Michael D. Jeans. ""I think consumers were appreciative, and relieved, that at least one Internet retailer, ROXY.com, was willing to put its money where its mouth was. Our phenomenal holiday sales, even up to the eleventh hour, clearly show that consumers voted with their computer mouse - and their credit cards."" Earlier in December, ROXY.com announced publicly and posted on it Web site a groundbreaking guarantee for Internet retailers: shoppers who placed holiday orders with ROXY were promised they would receive their product before Christmas or be refunded the purchase price, up to $100. ""Even before the holiday season, ROXY.com was having a record-breaking year,"" ROXYís Jeans said. ""Topped with our performance during the critical holiday sales period, 1999 has proven a break-through year that consolidates ROXY.comís position among the leaders in online consumer electronics retailing."" In November, ROXY.com was ranked #107 on the ""Internet 500,"" the first-ever list of the top revenue-producing Internet companies compiled by Inter@ctive Week magazine, Ernst & Young and MIT. ROXY.comís sales for the 1999 holiday period beginning December 1 were 10 times those of the same period a year ago, both in terms of orders logged and revenue. Holiday sales topped even ROXYís most optimistic projections by 25 percent. ROXYís sales momentum continued to build through the 1999 holiday season, as November sales topped those in October by 50 percent, and December sales jumped 80 percent over Novemberís. ROXYís figures include all sales made through its flagship www.roxy.com Web site, as well those through the Web site of its wireless product group, www.everythingwireless.com. Major factors in ROXY.comís 1999 breakthrough include its expanded but select line of home entertainment electronics and personal communications products; its first-ever national TV, print and radio advertising campaign; and its winning online retail strategy, which includes knowledge-rich and highly interactive Web sites, innovative marketing partnerships with leading Internet content and gateway sites, exceptional one-to-one sales and customer service; and a world-class fulfillment system fully integrated with that of its investment partner Fingerhut Companies/Federated Department Stores. ROXY.com offers a wide range of home entertainment electronics, including the latest in DVD and CD players, DirecTV home satellite systems, personal digital video recorders, home theater systems, component and portable audio and video products, and cutting-edge digital camcorders. Through EverythingWireless.com, the company also offers the Internetís largest selection of personal communications products, including wireless phones and calling packages from top-name service providers, pagers, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and thousands of accessories for the home, office or the road. About ROXY.com Privately held ROXY.com, founded in April 1996, is a leading Internet marketer of digital home entertainment and personal communications products and services. The company was voted ""Satellite Retailer of the Year"" by the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA) two years running; is ranked #107 on Inter@ctive Week magazineís ""Internet 500"" list of the top online companies; and was named one of 25 online retailers to watch by leading consumer electronics magazine TWICE. ROXY.com's marketing messages reach more than half of all visitors to the Web through more than one dozen channels of its Internet content and gateway partners; as well as ROXY's www.roxy.com and www.everythingwireless.com sites, and those affiliated with equity partner Fingerhut Companies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Federated Department Stores (NYSE: FD).