Press Release: High End Furniture and Lighting Retailer Upgrades to the D.M.insite Mercury Platform

Cincinnati, Ohio, November 17, 2010—D.M.insite, a company that specializes in developing and
delivering ecommerce Software as a Service (SaaS) for online retailers, today announced that
Carolina Rustica, a growing retailing powerhouse of high‐end furniture and lighting, has successfully converted its ecommerce website to the D.M.insite Mercury Platform (Mercury Platform). The website upgrade sets a solid foundation for Carolina Rustica to drive their customers’ shopping experience forward while meeting the company’s forecasted growth over the next few years.

Richard Sexton, founder of Carolina Rustica, shares his reasons for the upgrade, “Retail sales of furniture and lighting have certainly seen some challenges over the last three years. We made a conscious decision to invest in our future knowing that many other companies are cutting back. I think our 25 percent growth this year is a result of our continued commitment to create a better customer experience on our website.

“D.M.insite has responded to our complex website needs since we first launched our site with them in 2007,” Sexton continued. “Our ongoing dialogue on improving the user experience has resulted in our industry leading website, and we’re even more optimistic on how our website will evolve over the next few years as we continue to work with the D.M.insite team.”

Moving to the new platform helps Carolina Rustica leapfrog over their competition with a well-integrated, feature‐rich ecommerce solution. At first glance, http://www.carolinarustica.com/ shares much of the same appearances as its forerunner. Behind the scenes, though, there are many enhancements that significantly improve Carolina Rustica’s ability to manage all aspects of their website and customers’ online shopping experience. Following are a few examples.

* An optimized and enhanced checkout flow through integration and implementation of PayPal best practices giving customers a significantly improved buying experience and increasing conversion and reducing abandonment on the site.
* Seamless integration with Google Checkout that makes online shopping even faster, safer and more convenient for Carolina Rustica customers.
* High‐performing system integration with a site search solution built on patented advanced search technology from SLI Systems that delivers the exact results shoppers are looking for on the site.
* Improved category and product page layouts enriching the customers’ ability to access important product information, ratings and reviews, FAQs and more.
* An ability to manage their product catalog directly in the Mercury Platform’s Site Manager,which affords Carolina Rustica the greatest ease and efficiencies for managing data on their large furniture and lighting inventories.

“It’s critical that our site gives us access to manage products, categories and navigation on a variety of levels as we bring on new furniture and lighting partners every week. The new Mercury Platform allows us to do just that, and we’re excited about the freedom and new opportunities this presents,” comments Sexton.

Strong search engine optimization (SEO) execution on the site that increases Carolina Rustica’s online visibility and boosts revenue by making sure the site and products show up in relevant searches.

Access to create personalized offers, online programs and promotions in ways that meet Carolina’s unique needs, creating the greatest impact on their ecommerce marketing within their local markets. The new platform upgrade provides Carolina Rustica with a robust, full‐feature ecommerce SaaS solution that positions them well to meet their competition head on. They have unprecedented access to design, customize, manage data and define even the most granular aspects of the customers’ shopping experience on their site.

Carolina Rustica stands ready to take advantage of many new tools and resources available to them on their new ecommerce platform in the months ahead. Some future plans include product and category data‐driven microsites and site navigation to give shoppers the ability to locate exactly what they're looking for within seconds.

“We are proud to call Carolina Rustica a partner and look forward to working closely with them to increase their online sales with our leading ecommerce SaaS solution,” said Larry Kavanagh, D.M.insite founder and CEO. “The transition to the new platform was very successful, and I’m confident that our SaaS solution will empower Richard and his team to drive their online channel at an industry leading pace.”

About D.M.insite
D.M.insite develops and delivers its ecommerce Software as a Service to retail and mail order catalog companies across the nation. The D.M.insite Mercury Platform™ is the company’s flagship ecommerce software that gives clients unprecedented freedom to manage their own sites and grow their online business at a rate that’s more than double the industry’s average. The platform gives merchants the flexibility to design and manage their ecommerce websites in a way that was previously only to them in custom code. In addition, merchants enjoy a high performing, stable platform to which D.M.insite adds new selling features each month. The company also offers D.M.insite Mercury Mail™, its email marketing software that has the best
built in practices for segmentation, email automation and email deliverability. Mercury Mail operates seamlessly within the Mercury Platform and as a standalone email‐marketing tool. D.M.insite is located in the greater Cincinnati area and has a technology office in Cupertino, California. To learn more, visit http://www.dminsite.com/ or call 859.261.8700.

About Carolina Rustica
After a yearlong trip around the world to celebrate his voluntary departure from the corporate life,
Richard Sexton founded the company that operates today as Carolina Rustica. The company’s
roots began as a successful retail furniture and gift gallery specializing in imported Tibetan
handicrafts. Today, still family owned and operated since its inception15 years ago, Carolina
Rustica is a growing retailing powerhouse of high‐end furniture and lighting. Customers can choose from a selection of over 100,000 quality high‐end brand name furniture and lighting products, representing over 75 manufacturers, in its 5,000 square feet retail showroom and on the company’s thriving online store. Carolina Rustica fully embraces the latest technologies and trends to grow its customer base and remains steadfast in its commitment to grow its business through an expansion of leading brand names, comprehensive customer service, national advertising campaigns and ongoing development and offerings on its user‐friendly, customer-focused website.