ShopLocal.com Experts Offer Important Holiday Shopping Tips

In-store sales and online deals help consumers save time and money

CHICAGO – November 21, 2005 – ShopLocal.com, the leading provider of Web-to-store and e-commerce marketing solutions for retailers, polled its retail experts and announced important shopping tips that will help online and in-store consumers save time and money. Smart buyers and holiday-hardened shoppers are turning to shopping comparison sites like ShopLocal to research what and where to buy gifts for the season. With bargains from 400 national retailers and 20,000 local small businesses that total 3 million products, ShopLocal helps consumers to research hard-to-find toys and obscure electronics. ShopLocal is the authorized provider of online ads for Black Friday.

“Tight holiday budgets mean more and more consumers are turning to price comparison Web sites to plan shopping trips,” said ShopLocal CEO, Brian Hand. “Consumers want to find the best price for a specific product at a retailer in their neighborhood. Whether its Online or in their neighborhood, everyone’s ‘shopping radius’ has diminished significantly this season, so sites like ShopLocal can give consumers confidence that their trip to an online retailer or a nearby store will be worth their time.”

In a recent survey from Prospectiv, 71 percent of consumers said they intend to use the Internet to research products and compare prices before heading out to local department stores. ShopLocal experts offer insight into this holiday season’s hottest toys and gifts ideas on their “Holiday Page.”

Here are some helpful hints to navigate ShopLocal for easy holiday shopping:

• Check out the “Holiday Page” for ideas on the hottest gift ideas.
• Use ShopLocal to learn about “one day” sales at stores that have a lot of your target gifts. In many cases, you can save an extra 10-50%.
• While you’re browsing ShopLocal, keep track of the items you viewed by selecting
  “My List.” Then, when you’re ready to shop, all you need to do is print your list.

In addition to the tips above, ShopLocal offers a few reminders for buying online:

• Buy as much from one online store as possible to avoid multiple shipping charges.
• When ordering online leave plenty of time for shipping since delivery charges and turnaround increases as the holiday grows closer.
• Have items gift-wrapped (additional charges may apply) and shipped directly to the recipient.
• If you are purchasing a toy in-store, call ahead to make sure the item is in stock.
• A new option many retailers (Circuit City, Best Buy, Sears) offer is online ordering and in-store pick-up at the nearest location. This is a great tool for last-minute shoppers!
• Joining a retailer’s email list will plug you in to some last-minute products, sales and shipping deals.

ShopLocal.com is a free consumer resource launched in August 2004 to help shoppers navigate local online sales circulars and store information or compare prices and buy online for products ranging from MP3 players and Xboxes to snow tires and kitchen furniture. And because ShopLocal.com’s content comes directly from retailers, information is always up-to-date and geographically relevant.

About ShopLocal

ShopLocal, LLC is the leading Web shopping company for consumers and retailers. With ShopLocal.com and The ShopLocal Network -- made up of more than 200 affiliate media, search, and shopping sites -- consumers have access to the only place on the Web with information on products from local stores side-by-side with e-commerce options. With ShopLocal’s SmartCircular and Smart Catalog services, retailers can distribute sales and promotional content through The ShopLocal Network as well as their own Web sites.