Yahoo! Shopping Makes Merchants Merrier

More Than 3,000 Merchants Are Ringing Up the Holidays with Yahoo! Shopping

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Dec. 17, 1998 -- With just eight days left until Christmas, consumers and merchants alike are finding that there is no place like the Web this holiday season. One month after opening Yahoo!® Shopping, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced that more than 3,000 merchants are participating with its new shopping service, making it easy and fun to help consumers fill their cyber-stockings and spend time decking the halls instead of packing the malls.

"We are encouraged by consumer and merchant response to Yahoo! Shopping as a shopping hub this holiday season," said Tim Brady, vice president of production and executive producer, Yahoo! Inc. "Among consumers, we are seeing increased confidence and comfort levels in making purchases online. Our growing number of valued merchants continue to recognize the importance of the Web as a place to merchandise and to reach consumers with their products though Yahoo!'s powerful distribution platform."

Through Yahoo! Shopping, consumers have an integrated shopping experience where they can find products and services they want, connect with thousands of merchants -- from the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to name-brand catalog companies to small boutiques and specialty designers -- and easily make their purchases day or night even in their pajamas. Yahoo! Shopping features a universal shopping cart and offers streamlined check-out and shipping features to help make finding and giving the perfect gift more convenient.

Shopping in a Web Wonderland

While the weather outside, traffic, parking and crowds may be frightful, Web shopping helps make the holidays delightful, and Yahoo! Shopping offers consumers the opportunity to visit and shop across thousands of virtual stores. Yahoo! Shopping offers consumers an enjoyable and integrated shopping experience, and sends consumers to the doors of participating merchants.

"In a very short time, Yahoo! Shopping has become an integral part of the FAO Schwarz online strategy," said Shane Igoe, new media manager, FAO Schwarz. "Yahoo! Shopping has been a tremendous showcase for our unique product line - greatly extending awareness of our online offerings with consumers. Our sales and revenue growth this season has undoubtedly been enhanced by our involvement with Yahoo! Shopping."

"While we have implemented small online shopping efforts in the past, we have never seen sales take off as they have since we joined forces with Yahoo! Shopping," said Kathy Tierney, CEO of Smith and Hawken. According to Tierney, the new relationship with Yahoo! Shopping is a venture that adds value to the consumer's shopping experience. "Because customer service has always been a cornerstone of Smith & Hawken's mission, we are especially pleased with our relationship with Yahoo!, as it offers our valued customers a safe and secure shopping environment. We are also impressed with many of the enhanced features that make the online experience quick, easy and fun."

Helio Fialho, CEO of Sports Superstore Online said, "Yahoo! Shopping has provided us with tremendous exposure this holiday season. Not only have we seen an increase in traffic, but an increase in sales. Yahoo! Shopping has provided Sports Superstore an unprecedented number of qualified online shoppers. We look forward to continuing this prosperous relationship in 1999."

According to Jonathan Morris, executive vice president of Bluefly, Inc. (NASDAQ SmallCap: BFLY, BFLYW), "Yahoo! Shopping has played a significant role in Bluefly's holiday success. Since the beginning of December, our co-branded store in Yahoo! Shopping has accounted for approximately 12 percent of Bluefly's sales. Yahoo! has created a safe, fun and easy environment in which to shop, and Yahoo!'s users are responding favorably."

Going! Going! Gone Shopping Online

Yahoo! Shopping is part of the Yahoo! network of properties and also offers consumers convenient access to Yahoo!'s expansive and popular array of commerce services to help them find, connect, and buy what they are looking for, whether available at online retail stores or in the aftermarket. Through Yahoo! Auctions (http://auctions.yahoo.com), a virtual person-to-person marketplace, people have a comfortable place to conduct personalized transactions to find unique, antique, one-of-a-kind, special, or collectible items which they can purchase online for themselves, friends of family members in time for the holidays. Other commerce-related services include Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Classifieds, Yahoo! Yellow Pages, and Yahoo! Travel, and more.

Yahoo! Shopping opened on Nov. 17, 1998, and is being promoted nationally on television and in a variety of publications by both Yahoo! and Visa. Today, there are more than 3,000 participating merchants in Yahoo! Shopping including: Bluefly.com, Ben & Jerry's, Big Dog Sportswear, Bugleboy, Cambridge SoundWorks, Crabtree & Evelyn, Copeland's Sports, Dean & DeLuca, Digital Chef, Domestications, Egghead.com, FAO Schwarz, FTD Flowers, Fragrance Counter, Frederick's of Hollywood, GreatFood.com, Gourmet Market, International Male, RoadRunner Sports, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Service Merchandise, Smith & Hawken, The Company Store, Tower Records, Tweeds, Vermont Teddy Bear, Yahoo! Gear, and many more. (See related video available at http://www.videonewswire.com/play?video=1998111201.)

About Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet media company that offers a branded network of comprehensive information, communication and shopping services to millions of users daily. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com is a leading guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household and business user reach, and is one of the most recognized brands associated with the Internet. The company has 15 international Web properties outside the United States. Yahoo! has offices in Europe, the Asia Pacific and Canada and is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif.