C I Host’s “e-Business in a Box” can enable retailers to make the most of Holiday shopping

Shorter peak buying season, uncertainty about e in 2002 puts pressure on e-retailers

HostReview.com
Tuesday, November 12, 2002; 12:00 AM

BEDFORD, TX (November 11, 2002) - With only 27 days during the peak shopping time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, e-retailers can waste no time in getting their online stores in shape and marketing their wares.

C I Host's turnkey product - "e-Business in a Box" - can have a company's online store up and running within 7 to 10 days, with all the tools necessary to make the most of major shopping season of the year.

"With the holiday season fast approaching, ‘e-Business in a Box' will
greatly facilitate the process of moving a business online," said
Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host. "‘E-Business in a Box' can play a critical role in positioning SMBs to capture their share of billions of dollars in online sales this season."

Making the most of Holiday shopping is essential this year because online shopping, mirroring overall consumer spending, actually decreased in the third quarter to $17 billion from $20 billion during the first two quarters of 2002.

Many retailers took a hit in that third quarter, but can recoup some of their losses with an aggressive sales program now. Fourth quarter online spending is expected to go back to the $20 billion levels, according to Forrester Research, Inc.

Holiday shopping is projected by Forrester to make up at least $9.5 billion of that, up slightly from $8.3 billion in 2001 holiday online spending. Despite the increase, competition will be fierce for the online dollars.

"While more consumers will shop online this year, they are pinching pennies more than ever," said Carrie A. Johnson, senior analyst at Forrester. "Due to lingering economic concerns, consumers will spend less (per person) this season." Forrester estimates each online holiday spending to be $433 per capita, down from $463 in 2001.

Some retailers are finding they must mark down their products this year to lure shoppers, according to market research by NPD. That makes ‘e-Business in a Box' or other C I Host services even more attractive, since they can save companies money by being more cost-effective than creating an online presence in-house.

"We provide a higher quality Web hosting program at a lower cost than companies can develop on their own - saving average companies more than $100,000 a year," Faulkner said. "In these uncertain economic times, that's important."

C I Host's ‘e-Business in a Box' includes a custom-designed web site
complete with an online shopping system designed around each client's specific products and business. It comes with 12 months of Web hosting, a merchant account to take credit cards, ten stock photos and domain registration. In addition, C I Host registers the site with more than 2,500 search engines, thus maximizing the company's exposure.

E-Business in a Box is available online at www.cihost.com, in retail stores and at C I Host's new Technology Store at the Dallas Galleria.

About C I Host

C I Host (www.cihost.com), is a Web hosting and Internet solutions provider, domain name registrar (DNR) and application service provider (ASP) serving 175,000 individual consumers and businesses in 179 countries worldwide.

C I Host creates business-class hosting solutions for the small- and
medium-enterprise (SME) market, with the broadest portfolio of managed hosting and value-added services in the industry. C I Host is accredited by ICANN to register domain names.

C I Host is a member of the Better Business Bureau's On-Line Reliability Program.

C I Host is consistently ranked among the Top 5 Web hosting companies out of 16,000 around the globe by c|net's Ultimate Web Host List, HostIndex.com, and Web Host Directory. C I Host offers turnkey services ranging from initial domain name registration to custom dedicated servers for e-commerce on today's Web. The company offers innovative packages and services to the Internet community.

C I Host operates three diverse data centers across the United States, with its main facility and Network Operations Center in Bedford, Texas. C I Host also has offices in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and London.

All telco-grade, tier-1 data centers are wholly-owned and operated by C I Host and consist of redundant diesel generator backups and a temperature-controlled secure environment with fully redundant UPS capability. All server hardware is fully tested and configured for optimal performance. Daily Web server backups and full fire protection guard against any data loss. To deliver speed and reliability, C I Host's servers are connected to two OC-12 fiber connections, five DS-3 and two OC-3 lines from five diverse Internet backbones for a total of more than 2,000 Megabits of available bandwidth.

For more info: http://www.cihost.com