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Worcester, Massachusetts - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - June 16, 2006 - Celebrity web hosting and services provider, Paid, Inc., has introduced new features and enhancements to its AuctionInc brand ShopCart ecommerce solution for online retailers, the addition of an application protocol interface (API) for existing web sites and applications, and a shipping calculation plug-in tool for third party E-commerce solution vendors.

Paid’s ShopCart solutions for e-tailers are designed to provide functionality for calculating accurate shipping charges, including applicable carrier fees, insurance, and special packaging and handling based on the origin, final destination, size and weight of the merchandise. Paid recently received verbal notification of allowance from the USPTO for its patent-pending online shipping calculation technology.

Online retail sales in the U.S. alone — excluding travel and auctions — were expected to top $110 billion in 2005 and hit $210 billion by 2010, according to Forrester Research. Despite tremendous improvements in the online shopping experience, one of online shoppers’ most common complaints is that information about total cost is frequently not available until checkout. Surveys by Keystone Systems, a consulting group that improves online business performance, found that on most retail sites, entering the checkout process is the only way to receive accurate pricing information, including tax, shipping and other charges. Analysts estimate that anywhere from one third to one half of abandoned shopping carts are related to shipping and handling costs.

Doug Sherman, Product Manager for Paid’s AuctionInc. commented, ”E-commerce vendors are beginning to appreciate how crucial it is to the success of their business to provide their customers accurate, up-front shipping quotes. Our products are unique in that, beyond providing comparative base rates from all the major carriers, we have developed the features that allow vendors to tailor their rates to meet their specific business needs. Our single-minded effort to provide the most accurate, versatile and comprehensive management of shipping rates available anywhere has been rewarded with a loyal and rapidly expanding customer base. While our forthcoming patent makes official our distinctiveness, this is nothing new for Paid — our customers tell us this every day.”

Paid’s Shipping API is designed to allow web site and e-commerce venues the ability to integrate a shipping rate, comparison, and packaging engine into an existing web site or application. Paid provides developers access to its shipping engine using a well-defined data structure and subroutine calls. As shoppers add items to their orders, Paid’s web service aims to provide instant shipping calculations based upon the vendor’s business rules and shipping preferences. The API commonly is used by online e-tailers, mail-order call centers that need to provide quick shipping quotes via phone and hosting companies adding or enhancing shipping calculations for existing shopping carts.

Paid has also developed a shipping calculation plug-in for Mal’s e-Commerce Limited, a developer of shopping cart software. Paid’s plug-in overcomes the limited shipping options available in Mal’s shopping carts by providing real-time comparisons of multiple carriers’ shipping rates. Since launching ShopCart just over one year ago, Paid has responded to customer feedback to develop an even more configurable, accurate and user-friendly product with enhanced functionality. New features and enhancements include:

• Ability to customize the design and layout of the cart to match the vendor’s web site
• Three-tiered promotional discounting based on order total
• Support for USPS Priority Mail flat rate shipping
• DHL rates based on customer personal account discounts
• Drop shipping support
• Support for FedEx Home Delivery and International Ground
• Handling fee and fixed fee ”codes” definable based on carrier service and/or destination
• A variety of ”under-the-hood” enhancements to improve speed and accuracy of the system’s shipping rate quotes

Paid’s recently introduced a Discounted Shipping feature that enables online retailers to offer their customers discounted or free shipping based on various situations, such as a special free shipping promotion or discounted shipping rates based on certain thresholds for the value of the order.

Ken Cassar, a veteran retail analyst, notes in an article in ”Microsoft Small Business” that ”reductions in shipping fees are among the most effective promotions out there. Retailers can see greater returns from $1 off shipping costs than $1 off product costs.”

Paid’s ShopCart utilizes proprietary technology that enables the calculation of accurate shipping costs for multiple carriers’ different shipping options throughout the entire shopping process so there are no surprises at checkout time. The intelligent technology automatically recalculates shipping charges in real time as each item is added to the shipping cart, enabling customers to see how much or little shipping costs increase with additional purchases. The feature-rich ShopCart allows for the addition of charges for special packaging, oversize items, shipping insurance, bundling of items and other criteria, at the seller’s discretion. In addition, it calculates sales tax when appropriate and launches seamlessly to PayPal, the world’s largest payment gateway. An added advantage is that its easy-to-use wizards simplify the creation of buttons needed for ordering; including buttons complex merchandise attributes, such as color and size, for each item. In addition to e-tailers using Paid’s shipping calculation technology in ShopCart, it also is used by hundreds of online auction sellers via Paid’s aiShip(TM) software.

Rich Rotman, CFO and COO for Paid, Inc. added, ”Paid’s ShipCalc and ShopCart solutions are the most robust in the market and resolve the major problem plaguing most online retailers and auction platforms of how to deliver total cost information that includes shipping, taxes, shipping insurance and handling. We have sustained and accepted ecommerce solutions that are superior to existing competitor’s solutions which generally lack important capabilities such as delivering real-time total shipping and handling costs as items are added to the cart or as increasing auction prices affect insurance costs; and calculations for the weight of special packing materials and handling and the bundling of multiple items.”

Mr. Rotman concluded, ”With the large part of development of our software behind us, our focus - and our largest opportunity - is to integrate the ShipCalc and ShopCart API into existing Internet storefronts, applications and auction platforms to help them enhance customer service and the online shopping experience.”

Paid, Inc.’s celebrity services provides famous people with official web sites and fan club services that include e-commerce storefronts, ticketing and fan experience packages, and web site content. The Company also sponsors autograph signing events and other sports marketing services for sports clientele. Using proprietary patent-pending technology, Paid’s patent-pending AuctionInc brand shipping calculation and auction management software and services are utilized to streamline online auctions, ecommerce and web site development and hosting.

To learn more about the AuctionInc product, please visit: www.auctioninc.com/info/page/ecommerce_tools.

For more information about Paid, please visit: www.paid.com.

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