Vicinity Signs Carclub.com for SiteMaker, Business Finder E-Retail Services
13 September 1999
Vicinity Signs Carclub.com for SiteMaker, Business Finder E-Retail Services
PALO ALTO, Calif.--Sept. 13, 1999--Carclub.com Users, Drives Web Traffic to Neighborhood
Auto Retail Outlets
Vicinity Corp. (www.vicinity.com), the leader in e-retail Internet marketing solutions, Monday announced that carclub.com (www.carclub.com), a provider of comprehensive automotive information, products and services, is implementing Vicinity's SiteMaker(SM) and Business Finder(SM) products to give carclub's preferred automotive retailers their own professional-looking Web sites within minutes.
"By using Vicinity's SiteMaker, carclub.com's preferred retailers are able to create a multi-page Web site that would ordinarily cost them thousands of dollars to produce using an external design firm," said Risa Dimacali, vice president of e-commerce for carclub.com. "Vicinity's SiteMaker offers our retailers their own private label, template-driven Web site without requiring them to have any knowledge of HTML programming."
Vicinity's SiteMaker enables carclub.com retailers to create timely and compelling content for the Web that gives carclub.com an advantage over other automotive Web portals. Using one of SiteMaker's 20 Web-creation templates, carclub.com retailers can instantly post in-store promotions, coupons, event calendars, product catalogues, discussion groups and other information to the Web to help draw online customers into their store.
Carclub.com will also use Vicinity's Business Finder to provide online users with advanced, Web-based locator services for multi-proximity search, map and direction capabilities. Vicinity's Business Finder ensures carclub.com visitors are directed to the nearest carclub preferred retailer based on their actual location.
"Carclub.com wanted to offer their preferred retailers a top-notch Web site that could easily be updated by virtually anyone with only minimal computer knowledge," said Emerick Woods, CEO of Vicinity. "Vicinity's SiteMaker and Business Finder products provide carclub.com users with timely and local Web-based information about the retailers, products and services nearest them. This ensures that customers will quickly find the answers they need from an automotive expert that is close at hand and accessible both online and offline."
How Does Vicinity SiteMaker Work?
Vicinity will work with carclub.com to design custom templates that can be used by carclub.com preferred retailers in creating their own Web sites. Once a basic site has been created, it will be hosted on a secure, ultra-reliable Vicinity server with 99.995 percent uptime. Carclub.com retailers can easily post information about their store and manage the site in "real time" using a simple text editor to keep content updated. SiteMaker can be used by anyone and does not require any specialized training.
Vicinity's SiteMaker integrates with Vicinity's Business Finder to provide carclub.com users with a full-featured business search and locator engine that allows them to search for local automotive retailers by proximity, keyword, attribute, and/or geographical location. Users are then presented with a list of the retailers nearest them, with one-click access to that SiteMaker Web site.
About Carclub.com
Carclub.com is one of the most comprehensive and trusted sources of automotive information, products and services on or off the Internet. Unlike other automotive services that focus on new car dealer referrals, carclub.com also assists consumers whether they are purchasing, financing, insuring, maintaining or selling their vehicles. Carclub.com is the only automotive destination to offer consumers the opportunity to use its full range of services both online and over the phone. Consumers can access carclub.com via its top-rated Web site (www.carclub.com) or by speaking with a customer service representative at 800/CARCLUB. Carclub.com's investors include Ford Motor Company , First Union Corp. , Point West Capital Corp. , GE Financial Assurance, a division of General Electric and Advanta Corp. .
About Vicinity
Vicinity (www.vicinity.com) is the leading provider of Internet-based e-retail solutions for brand name Fortune 1000 companies. Using Vicinity's e-retail marketing solutions, corporate customers possess the most robust search and geo-enabled technology for their content and service sites, providing their end-users with practical and timely geographic and retail information. Vicinity's customers gain a competitive advantage by bringing Web users to physical locations to buy products and services. Vicinity's suite of private-label products and services includes SiteMaker, Business Finder, the Wireless Locator Service, Maps, Driving Directions, and Business Directory. Some of Vicinity's more than 280 customers include, Fed Ex, Ford, GM, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton, Levi Strauss, Marriott, McDonald's, NEC, Nike, Pizza Hut, Preview Travel, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Toyota and UPS. The company was established in 1995 and has headquarters in Palo Alto.
Vicinity SiteMaker and Business Finder are registered service marks of Vicinity Corp. All other company or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.