Bluefly Inks E-Commerce Deal with Excite

Bluefly, Inc. (Nasdaq SmallCap: BFLY), an Internet clothing retailer announced today that it has signed a comprehensive marketing agreement with Excite, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Bluefly’s online store will be integrated throughout Excite.com, WebCrawler.com, and the Excite co-branded channels of Netscape’s Netcenter sites. The agreement includes a combination of e-commerce, advertising, and promotional programs.

For the past several months, Bluefly placed text and graphical links in the ‘Clothes & Beauty’ area of Excite’s shopping channel. The successful generation of traffic to the Bluefly site from those links led to this agreement, which considerably expands Bluefly’s presence throughout the Excite network. Financial terms of the new deal were not disclosed.

Benefits for Bluefly

Under the new agreement, Bluefly will receive prominent sponsorship positioning in the ‘Clothes & Beauty’ area and the ‘Department Stores & Malls’ area of Excite.com, WebCrawler.com and the Excite co-branded Netscape Netcenter. In addition, Bluefly will be featured throughout the Excite Network in a variety of promotional and advertising placements.

“This deal is a significant step forward for Bluefly,” said Ken Seiff, chief executive officer of Bluefly, Inc. “By giving us access to the more than 16 million unique monthly users of Excite and WebCrawler as well as the millions of unique users from the Excite co-branded channels on Netscape’s Netcenter, this agreement, which extends beyond the 1999 holiday season, should not only help establish our brand but also grow our sales,” Seiff added.

According to Joe Kraus, senior vice president and co-founder of Excite, the deal with Bluefly “offers further proof that the retail community sees the reach of a portal as important to building business.”

Related News and Future Plans

The deal with Excite comes on the heels of Bluefly’s agreement with GO Network, which was announced on February 24, 1999. In addition to its marketing efforts with many of the major portal companies, Bluefly is also planning to implement an affiliate program with key Web sites, as well as a national print and radio advertising campaign, which may begin as early as the second quarter of 1999.

Bluefly, Inc. is a NASDAQ SmallCap public company, headquartered in New York City’s fashion district. The company’s e-commerce strategy includes offering online shoppers name brand apparel and accessories at a reported savings of up to 75 percent off retail prices.