Global Sports Completes Launch of Partner Web Sites
Global Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ: GSPT) an Internet company that develops and operates the online businesses of leading sporting goods retailers, today announced that Media Metrix had measured the company’s combined traffic at 60,000 average daily unique visitors per day for the week ended December 5, 1999. Global Sports was the only sporting goods e-tailer that registered enough traffic during the week ended December 5 to qualify for the latest Media Metrix weekly flash report, which lists all companies that recorded 50,000 or more average daily unique visitors for either the current week or two of the last three weeks. The company’s traffic was measured as increasing from 6,000 average daily unique visitors during the week ended November 14 to 60,000 average daily unique visitors during the week ended December 6, representing a tenfold increase in just three weeks. Global Sports attributed its strong traffic trends to, among other things, the meaningful impact of the integration by its partners into their $100 million of annual advertising that began last month, incremental marketing efforts by Global Sports, including the company’s comprehensive program with Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and its aggressive national print advertising campaign, and the momentum relating to the Holiday 1999 shopping season.
Commenting on this important milestone, Michael Rubin, Global Sports’ Chairman and CEO, noted, “These numbers demonstrate the strength of our breakthrough “clicks-and-mortar” business model. In particular, we believe that our traffic results clearly indicate that consumers are seeking well-known and established retail brands online. We are excited to see our traffic levels exceed those of major competitors within our first few weeks of business, including Fogdog (NASDAQ: FOGD), Dsports, e-Venator (NYSE: Z) and Shopsports, none of whom met the minimum traffic levels required for the latest Media Metrix weekly flash report. Moreover, we are also excited to see our traffic levels for the week ending December 5 reach higher levels than notable and more seasoned e-commerce entities such as gap.com, mothernature.com, macys.com, llbean.com, victoriassecret.com, planetrx.com, valueamerica.com, furniture.com, and 800.com, among others.”
Rubin continued, “The substantial efforts by our brick-and-mortar partners The Sports Authority (NYSE:TSA), The Athletes Foot, Sport Chalet (NASDAQ: SPCH), MC Sports and Dunham’s Sports to completely and prominently integrate their Web site addresses into their land based stores and promotions and their significant offline marketing efforts, including newspaper circulars and other print advertising is clearly having a positive impact on our performance. We are also enthusiastic about the contributions from our innovative alliance with Healtheon/WebMD (NASDAQ: HLTH) and our comprehensive marketing program with Yahoo!, although, the contribution from Healtheon/WebMD is not yet included in Media Metrix data.”
Global Sports, Inc. (http://www.globalsports.com) is an e-Tail company that operates under exclusive long-term agreements the Internet businesses of leading sporting goods retailers and Internet companies, including The Sports Authority (http://www.thesportsauthority.com), The Athlete’s Foot (http://www.theathletesfoot.com), Sport Chalet (http://www.sportchalet.com), MC Sports (http://www.mcsports.com), Dunham’s Sports (http://www.dunhamssports.com) and Healtheon/WebMD (http://store.webmd.com). On July 23, 1999 SOFTBANK Capital Partners LP invested $80 million into Global Sports, Inc. Global Sports, Inc. shares are included in the Russell 2000 index.
Contact:
Media Contact:
Alex Goldsmith
Hill & Knowlton
(212) 885-0467
agoldsmi@hillandknowlton.com
Investor Contact:
Michael R. Conn
Senior Vice President Strategic Development
(610) 768-0900
connm@globalsportsinc.com
