Rare Medium and Competition Accessories Launch Highly Personalized Motorcycle Parts and Accessories E-Commerce Site
14 September 2000
Rare Medium and Competition Accessories Launch Highly Personalized Motorcycle Parts and Accessories E-Commerce Site
Business EditorsNEW YORK--Sept. 14, 2000--Rare Medium and Competition Accessories today announced the launch of the new www.competitionaccessories.com, a high-performance, e-commerce Web site that sells one of the country's largest arrays of motorcycle and motorsports parts and accessories.
Rare Medium worked with Competition Accessories to translate its reputation for personalization and hands-on service directly to the Web. The Web site allows users to select individual riding style preferences during registration, such as dirtbike, sportbike, ATV, touring and cruiser, affording them easy and customized navigation throughout the site and access to instant updates on specials from the online store. Upon selecting an individual riding style, custom themes or "skins" depicting each style are automatically generated to offer the user an additional touch of personalization. Watercraft and snowmobile riding style "skins" will be added to the site in the near future.
"Our association with Rare Medium has proven to be a very important step in moving our e-commerce effort forward," said Dan Conetta, president and chief executive officer of Competition Accessories. "We now have an incredibly versatile platform to build our next generation Web sites on, which will allow a high degree of personalization and customized content delivery."
Further enhancing the site's dedication to motorcycle enthusiasts is the addition of a calendar of events that is searchable by date, type of event, style, region, and affiliation. Available to both registered and non-registered users, the calendar highlights motorcycle and motorcross events across the country and allows registered users to post their events for inclusion, creating the opportunity for the most complete and inclusive motorsports event list on the Web.
Rare Medium enhancements in the e-commerce portion of competitionaccessories.com offer registered users the ability to select merchandise via four different search functions -- text, catalog item number, category dropdown, and an "all categories" browse -- in the online store. Once in the online store, registered customers benefit from pre-populated forms creating a true one-click online shopping experience.
The e-commerce and personalization backbones of the site were developed with the leading-edge ATG Dynamo software package.
For the www.competitionaccessories.com site, Rare Medium employed a multi-disciplinary team of Web development professionals and an efficient, proven methodology to develop a new design and interactive architecture for the site. The result is a Web site that incorporates Competition Accessories' intimate knowledge of its customer base into an innovative, optimized Web-customer experience.
About Competition Accessories
Founded more than 40 years ago, Competition Accessories is one of the most recognized and respected names in the motorcycle direct marketing business. Operating from its 64,000-square-foot retail headquarters in Springfield, Ohio, Competition Accessories has grown to become one of the largest direct marketers of motorcycle parts and accessories in the United States. Its products are marketed through the distribution of over three million catalogs per year, as well as through competitionaccessories.com, and the company's retail operation.
Competition Accessories is proud to sponsor two-time AMA national champion Mike LaRocco, as well as 2000 Daytona 200 front row starter Larry Pegram, a mainstay in the AMA Superbike Series top ten. In addition to professional riders, Competition Accessories continues to support the sport at a local and amateur level.
Founded in 1996, Active Leisure, Inc., is the parent company of Competition Accessories, Cycle Emporium, Tire Express, and ATV Supply.
About Rare Medium Group, Inc.
Rare Medium invests in next generation Internet companies and provides end-to-end Internet Services. Rare Medium incubates, finances and manages private companies and also makes strategic investments in independently managed companies that it believes possess superior Internet-focused business models. Rare Medium's Internet Services include development and authoring of business plans and strategies; strategic, creative and technological consulting for Web initiatives; on-line brand development and management; development of content for broadband and wireless applications; and launch of on-line commerce trading exchanges. Rare Medium leverages its Internet Services expertise to increase the overall success of the companies in its investment portfolio.
Rare Medium employs over 1100 people in more than 20 locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.raremedium.com.
Except for historical matters contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect Rare Medium Group Inc., and its subsidiaries' business and prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ are Rare Medium's limited operating history; competition; low barriers to entry; reliance on strategic relationships; rapid technological changes; inability to complete transactions on favorable terms and those risks discussed in the company's filings with the SEC.