Zoovy Press Releases & Announcements

2010-09-14 00:00:00 -- San Diego --

CARLSBAD, CA--(Marketwire - September 14, 2010) - Selling goods online is a standard practice and has become a respected and widely accepted business model as well as a vital part of our economy. From t-shirts and light sabers to tractors, the ability to sell goods online has opened many doors for retailers of all sizes.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, online retail sales have grown every year since 2000 and in the past four years, online retail sales have gained $28.3 billion. The barrier to entry for the uninitiated is fairly low: determine what you're going to sell, set up a website with shopping cart capabilities and you're in business. For the giants of online retail, such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart, the solution is much more complex and legions of experts are engaged to ensure business over the Internet continues to churn substantial profits.

Yet, like a middle child, mid-sized retailers find themselves caught in the middle with eCommerce solutions that are either too light to handle the load or have features so expensive and complicated that growth is routinely sacrificed to avoid the complexity and associated costs. This class of retailer is underserved in the market but presents tremendous potential.

According to Brian Horakh, eCommerce platform pioneer, founder and CTO of Carlsbad, Calif.-based Zoovy, "Online retailers have fallen into two primary camps: small retailers and large retailers. Both ends of the spectrum are targeted and addressed by a wide range of eCommerce vendors, but that leaves mid-sized retailers with technology solutions that do not meet their needs. What mid-sized retailers need is a single point solution that takes care of the technology and also offers counseling and marketing services to fill in the gaps that these growing companies have."

In 2000, Horakh founded Zoovy as an answer to this problem and has taken the complexity out of selling online. Zoovy's focus is on mid-sized retailers between $1 and $20 million in annual revenues. This class of retailer is typically large enough to have sales volumes that, without the right eCommerce platform, can cripple their ability to service their customers. Yet, these retailers are not large enough to afford expensive IT resources to extend their deficient eCommerce platform and keep up with the needs of their growing business.

When Horakh launched Zoovy, he set out to change the destiny of mid-sized retailers with an eCommerce platform that offers cross channel integration, cutting-edge features and a unique approach to problem solving that is unparalleled in the industry -- all at a fraction of the cost of alternative solutions. Today, Zoovy's platform does everything from managing multiple websites on a single database and support for multiple marketplaces like Amazon.com, eBay and Buy.com, to order management and back office services that include website design, loyalty programs and search engine optimization.

"We offer many of the same things that other eCommerce vendors offer," said Horakh. "The difference is how we do it. Other vendors provide basic data import/export abilities and require customers to choose from a huge playing field of bolt-on solutions to address the deficiencies in their platforms. However, mid-sized companies typically lack the resources and expertise to properly anticipate their needs and evaluate the playing field. The end result is lost time and missed revenue -- and frequently the needs of the retailer will have changed before the ROI has been realized. This can steal an amazing amount of momentum during what often could have been a high growth period."

The key to Zoovy's success is in how Horakh has approached the design of the platform. Available as a SaaS hosted solution, the company's flagship product, Zoovy Complete, has more than 800 distinct features and over 80 built-in integrations with all of the most popular industry players. All of Zoovy's features and integrations are built-in, which means they become part of the design of the product and not a bolt-on feature that is incompatible across systems. The benefit is that rich data transfer and data silo issues prevalent in other platforms are avoided and all information is reusable. With this model, companies are able to leverage their expertise and data from one area of the application into other areas without losing momentum.

With 750 merchant accounts and 5,000 stores using its platform over the past 10 years, Zoovy has quietly built a loyal following of customers that rely on its single platform solution to keep their business thriving. Zoovy Complete features Amazon.com/eBay marketplaces, mobile commerce, Variance (A/B testing), order management, comparison shopping integration, multiple stores from one account, wholesale/supply chain functionality, marketing and graphic design services, and live U.S.-based support and training.

"Our job is to help our customers generate more sales," said Horakh. "We have always had a 'let us do what you can't, but let's get it done together' approach and our customers rely on us to maintain that position. I feel safe in saying that no other eCommerce vendor in the industry offers the same approach to problem solving with the depth of integrations that we do and at our price point."

Zoovy works closely with its customers to identify new features and functionality that will help them to build their business and exceed sales goals. According to Horakh, if one customer identifies a new feature and it's relevant for Zoovy's customer base, then it gets prioritized, added to the roadmap and ultimately designed-in to the product free of charge.

"We have set a goal to maintain 100 percent customer satisfaction while continuing to provide the industry's most cost-effective, truly comprehensive eCommerce platform."

Zoovy is profitable, and has been since 2007. In 2010, Zoovy plans to introduce new features such as Amazon.com repricing, Fedex Smartpost for Small Business and a powerful returns module, to name just a few. To learn more about Zoovy, please visit www.zoovy.com.