May Company and Liz Claiborne Discuss Industry Best Practices at NRF

New York, NY - January 17, 2005 - 7thOnline, Inc., the leading provider of merchandise and assortment planning solutions to the apparel, footwear, and accessories industry, was featured today in a session at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention & EXPO. The session, titled "Industry Best Practices for Collaborative Merchandising and Assortment Planning," was presented by Cheryl Huckabee, SVP at May Company, and Anne Cosini, VP at Liz Claiborne.

During the event, May Company and Liz Claiborne discussed the evolution of their collaborative merchandising and assortment planning processes, and how these practices are beneficial to the industry at large. Benefits they cited included the following:

Retailer Results:

• Improved planning, better product assortments on the selling floor, and ultimately higher sales
• More efficient buyer/seller collaboration
  • Trade real-time product catalog and assortment information instantaneously
• Streamlined tool to micro-merchandise - Style/Color/Size by door
  • Empowers buyers to focus on product during market
• Sophisticated management reporting & summary tools
  • Single access point for company-wide information allows for more informed decision making
  • Multitude of reports can be generated instantaneously
• One-button ordering, electronic order integration

Vendor Results:

• Proactive, efficient sales tool leads to higher sales
  • Higher out of the box shippable
  • Margin improvement at retail
• Streamlined, accurate assortment planning and automated order placement
  • Hosted real-time product catalog information and images
  • Less excess inventory liquidation
  • Improved fill rates
• Aggregation of and visibility into demand data
  • Instantaneous summary and report generation
  • Production can be reconciled to demand 2-3 weeks earlier
• Management decision-making reporting tools provide single view of the truth

About 7thOnline -- 7thOnline provides comprehensive inventory and assortment planning solutions specifically targeted to the unique planning, buying and ordering processes of the global apparel, footwear, and accessories community. 7thOnline's web-centric solution suite encompasses visual and quantitative merchandising and assortment planning tools, powerful analytical and optimization engines, and automatic order transmission capabilities in multiple formats. 7thOnline's collaborative capabilities enable real-time sharing of key business information, both internally between colleagues and externally with trading partners, resulting in better-matched supply and demand. Customer results include higher sell-thru and lower markdowns through better assortments at the door level, better inventory matching due to earlier supply/demand visibility, shorter cycle times due to the streamlined process, and reduced operational costs resulting from significantly reduced administrative tasks and error rates.