buySAFE, Inc. To Partner with RatePoint, Inc. To Jointly Market Trust Solution with Online Reputation Management and Customer Feedback Platform

October 5, 2007; 02:25 AM
Arlington, Virginia, and Needham, Massachusetts – buySAFE, Inc. (www.buysafe.com), the leading trust and safety company for ecommerce transactions, announced today that it has partnered with RatePoint, Inc. (www.ratepoint.com), a rapidly growing company that provides  businesses with an online reputation management and customer feedback platform. The buySAFE/RatePoint partnership brings consumer confidence and trust to the next level, giving buySAFE merchants the ability manage their online reputation and show consumers that their business is reputable and approved by the people that matter most -- other consumers.  It also gives merchants the opportunity to improve the overall quality of their business by proactively soliciting feedback from online customers.  RatePoint merchants will have the opportunity to display the buySAFE seal and to offer buySAFE bonding to their customers, to ensure those customers risk-free online shopping. 

The buySAFE Seal identifies reputable, trustworthy merchants for online shoppers, and shoppers can guarantee their transactions with a bond backed by leading surety providers Liberty Mutual, Travelers and ACE USA.  To qualify as a buySAFE Merchant, online retailers must pass the buySAFE certification process, which ensures that they are financially sound, reliable, trustworthy and committed to delivering on their terms of the sale.  By enabling RatePoint merchants to have access to the buySAFE seal and bonding services, they will be able to merchandise their significant experience, reputation, and willingness to put their customers first. Shoppers who purchase from buySAFE Merchants can enjoy added peace of mind – even if they are a first-time buyer – resulting in higher sales, larger purchases and more repeat customers for qualified retailers.   This is especially powerful in light of the fact that more than half of all Internet users have yet to complete an ecommerce transaction and a lack of consumer confidence ranks among the primary reasons.

“We're very pleased to partner with an innovator in the online reputation management and customer feedback space,” said Jeff Grass, CEO, buySAFE.  “With the buySAFE Seal and bond guarantee shoppers will have total confidence knowing they are shopping with one of the best businesses on the web.  RatePoint’s unique platform gives internet shoppers a meaningful way to discriminate among all of the online merchants.”

buySAFE has built significant momentum in the ecommerce arena in recent months, announcing the addition of several high profile customers including Home Décor Products, eImprovement.com, BedBathStore.com and DVD Planet, part of Infinity Resources, the third-largest DVD retailer online. ScanAlert, TRUSTe, PriceRunner.com and more than a dozen shopping cart providers have also recently announced partnerships with buySAFE.  As the Internet’s only provider of a regulated third-party guarantee, buySAFE has already guaranteed more than 13,000,000 online transactions.

The new partnership gives buySAFE merchants access to RatePoint’s affordable, interactive customer feedback platform, and allows them to take advantage of the benefits of user generated content, including improved customer retention and loyalty, better communication with customers, and increased sales and conversion rates.  RatePoint provides an easy and efficient method to capture valuable consumer reviews and feedback directly through their website.  RatePoint members receive a dynamically generated seal on their website that gives instant visual feedback to potential buyers, allowing them to see at a glance whether a business is credible, safe and trustworthy, and allows customers to easily submit and view reviews.  Actual consumer ratings are verified using several techniques to validate authenticity, and businesses then have an opportunity to respond to feedback before the reviews are placed online.  The RatePoint platform is particularly valuable since one of the most common pieces of user-generated content on the Web is the customer review.  According to a recent study by Forrester, 71% of online shoppers read reviews before buying, making it the most widely read consumer-generated content. 

“Customer generated reviews and ratings are a proven and effective way to improve consumer confidence and trust, and strengthen customer relationships.  While many businesses are aware of the power of customer feedback, the thought of implementing a platform to collect, manage and publish them can be daunting to an online merchant,” said Neal Creighton, President and CEO, RatePoint.   “The buySAFE/RatePoint partnership makes it easy for merchants to show that they are a trusted, quality business, by bringing together a bonded trust guarantee with consumer-generated reviews and ratings.”

About buySAFE

buySAFE, Inc. is an expert at ensuring safe, reliable and virtually risk-free online shopping.  buySAFE and its surety partners – Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and ACE USA – certify online merchants to ensure that they are trustworthy and reliable, monitor them continuously, and stand behind the certification by guaranteeing a shopper’s purchase with a bond of up to $25,000.  By providing merchants with the world’s only explicit third-party endorsement of their reliability and trustworthiness that is backed by a bond guarantee, buySAFE is able to increase buyer confidence and substantially improve merchant economics.

buySAFE is proven to increase buyer confidence by providing certified merchants with the buySAFE Seal for display on their website and by enabling shoppers to guarantee their purchase with a bond.  With increased buyer confidence, buySAFE Merchants typically enjoy higher website conversion, more repeat buyers and a stronger ROI on all their marketing dollars.  buySAFE is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. More information is available at www.buysafe.com or by calling (888) 9-BONDED.

About RatePoint, Inc.

Founded in 2006, RatePoint, Inc. offers a powerful, quality-assurance certification and customer feedback platform for today’s growing businesses.  Leveraging the latest in Web 2.0 trends, web content authentication and consumer ratings systems, RatePoint, Inc. is revolutionizing the way businesses and consumers define, identify and monitor quality. RatePoint, Inc. was founded by the founders of GeoTrust and is venture backed by Prism VentureWorks and .406 Ventures. For more information about RatePoint, Inc., please visit www.ratepoint.com.