REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 6, 2002 — The 2002 online holiday shopping season kicks off this week on MSN®
, the most popular portal on the Web. The MSN Shopping destination gets the excitement started with
“12 Days of Exclusive Deals,”
one of many value-add features offered by MSN to make holiday shopping easy.
The
“12 Days of Exclusive Deals”
promotion brings online shoppers a new special offer each weekday through Nov. 19. These offers, provided by select brand-name retailers, are not available anywhere else. Examples include 70 percent off premium name-brand watches, $200 off a desktop computer and up to 40 percent off name-brand women’s apparel. Each exclusive deal is available for just one day — and only on MSN Shopping.
“We’re making MSN Shopping the most useful online shopping destination by offering consumers what they want most: great products at great prices from brand names they trust,”
said Parul Shah, product manager at MSN.
“We’ve significantly expanded our product selection, launched new price-comparison tools, and have many great money-saving deals and promotions exclusively for MSN shoppers.”
In case 12 exclusive deals doesn’t get everyone checked off consumers’ shopping list, subscribers to MSN 8, the new version of Microsoft’s Internet service launched last month, have access to the MSN Shopping Warehouse with BoomBuy. This new shopping service, available exclusively to MSN 8 members, provides shoppers with direct access to thousands of brand-name products at prices up to 70 percent off retail.
For this holiday, MSN Shopping also provides a wide product selection — over 4 million products in all popular categories — as well as great gift guides, comparison tools and other shopping services to help holiday shoppers find the right gifts at the right price for everyone on their list.
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Holiday Gift Guides. Shopping experts at MSN have created lists of recommended gifts in all key categories, helping consumers with ideas from a variety of gift types. For instance, Gadgeteria highlights the best in electronic gadgets, while the Kid Gift-o-Matic helps locate the right gift for kids of all ages. The Sexy Santa guide helps heat up the holidays. Or shoppers can find popular brands and prices in every gifting category. MSN Shopping features nine Holiday Gift Guides, including Express Gifts, Procrastination Central and the new Hard-to-Buy-For Gift Finder. MSN Shopping also helps cover shoppers’ Thanksgiving needs, from turkeys and hams to roasters and home decor.
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Gift Concierge. Due to popular demand, MSN Shopping once again offers this time-saving, individualized service. Shoppers can get great real-time suggestions via live online chat with a personal shopping assistant. MSN Shopping assistants are trained to help online shoppers find the perfect gift, compare specific product features and prices, and make smart purchases. MSN Shopping’s Gift Concierge can help with gift suggestions for that hard-to-buy-for person.
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Procrastination Central. MSN Shopping will offer Procrastination Central to help last-minute shoppers round up the last few items on their holiday list. Launching in December, Procrastination Central offers consumers a centralized location where they can find great last-minute gifts from trusted retailers and still have them delivered in time for the holiday.
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Return Center. For shoppers who’ve ordered something that needs to be returned, or who want to learn about merchant return policies before or after they buy, MSN Shopping offers one centralized location to find details. Information on returns, shipping, tax and customer service policies for brand-name retailers helps give MSN shoppers peace of mind during the frantic holiday season.
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Comparison shopping. MSN Shopping offers buyers easy-to-use comparison tools in all popular categories to help them make informed purchase decisions. Shoppers can compare brands, product features and prices across multiple manufacturers and retailers on MSN.
About MSN
MSN has 9 million subscriptions and attracts more than 300 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 34 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and digital marketing solutions to businesses worldwide. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and MSN are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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