67 WALL STREET, New York - October 20, 2009 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Online And Direct To Consumer Retailing Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This 38-page feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Online Retailer Profit Margins Vs. Bricks-And-Mortar Retailers - Uptick In Internet Commerce - Secular Shift In Market Share To Internet Retailers - Post-Crunch Consumer Confidence - Growing Market Share For Online Travel Agents - Possible Consolidation Of HSN, Inc. - Amazon As The "Wal-Mart Of The Internet" - Online Marketing Vs. In-Store Marketing - Maximized Markdowns - Online Traffic Conversion Rates - Social Networking To Drive Brand Awareness - Online Sales Holiday Outlook - E-Commerce As A Path To International Expansion

Companies include: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF); Amazon (AMZN); Ann Taylor (ANN); Apple (AAPL); Ask.com (IACI); Bebe (BEBE); Best Buy (BBY); Bidz.com (BIDZ); Dell (DELL); Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS); Expedia (EXPE); GSI Commerce (GSIC); GameStop (GME); Gap (GPS); General Motors (GM); Google (GOOG); HSN (HSNI): Hot Topic (HOTT); Interactive Corp. (IAC); Liberty Media Interactive (LINTA); LivePerson (LPSN); MercadoLibre (MELI); Move Inc. (MOVE); Orbitz (OWW); Pacific Sunwear (PSUN); Quiksilver (ZQK); Ralph Lauren (RL); ShopNBC/ValueVision (VVTV); South Korea's Gmarket (EBGMy); Sport Supply Group (RBI); Staples (SPLS); Starbucks (SBUX); Target (TGT); Timberland (TBL); Urban Outfitters (URBN); VeriSign (VRSN); Wal-Mart (WMT); WebMD (WBMD); eBay (EBAY); hhgregg (HGG); priceline.com (PCLN).

In the following brief excerpt from the 38-page report, Robert LoCascio, CEO of LivePerson, Inc., discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors.

TWST: Please tell use briefly about your company's history and provide a summary of where you are right now.

Mr. LoCascio: The company was started about 15 years ago, but we launched our customer service solution in early 1999. What we do now is provide a platform that enables companies to chat with their customers in real time in a sales or support environment. So if you visit, let's say, Home Depot's Web site, you're looking at a product and you need a question answered, you can click, chat and speak to a customer service rep. We provide the technology and the company provides the people behind the chat.

TWST: Explain your different product and service offerings.

Mr. LoCascio: There are three basic products. One product is for customer service and support. Once a customer is a customer and you want to support them, we have a product that offers chat, e-mail management, a self-service knowledge base and voice. Our service solutions allow companies to reduce issue-handling costs, as well as have a full view of the customer and how they interact. So that was our original product. About four years ago, we launched a product for online sales, enabling marketers, who are running Web sites, driving traffic and converting that traffic, to analyze visitor traffic in real time and then proactively invite a visitor to chat to convert the sale. So if we see someone in the shopping cart and they are showing signs they may leave the shopping cart, our system detects such behavior and proactively sends a chat invitation - the conversion rate is about 25% of chatters to buyers. Big companies, like Bank of America, The Home Depot and Verizon, are all using this product today. Our third product, which we acquired two years ago, is a way for independent experts - people who are very small businesses with expertise in something - to feature their expertise online and chat with consumers who want advice. Categories range from homework help to medical or legal advice. Consumers have access to a community of 30,000 experts and pay by the minute through our chat service at the liveperson.com Web site.

TWST: Tell us about some of your significant recent customer wins and the level of revenue growth you expect to see in the rest of 2009 and 2010 from those new customers?

Mr. LoCascio: We recently signed Symantec, Omni Hotels, iStockphoto and one of the leading online financial services companies. We have expanded business with Verizon and National City, and one of the largest big-box retailers just signed up. Last quarter we had a lot of good activity that is continuing into this quarter. For the year we guided a 20% growth rate, and that's what we're shooting for right now. In the past we grew at closer to 40% a year. The first half of this year was a little slow, but it's really picked up in Q3, and Q4 also looks quite good.

TWST: Some of your customers are e-commerce sites that are experiencing lagging consumer demand. How has that affected your business?

Mr. LoCascio: Yes, positively. The pressure retailers are seeing in the offline world is translating online. They want to convert more of those visitors who come to their Web sites and drive cost out of their service business. And that's what LivePerson does - converts visitors to customers and reduces the cost of servicing customers. Lagging consumer demand has forced companies to be more innovative, driving them towards products like ours, and that's why LivePerson is doing so well even in a recession.

TWST: What advantages do you believe you have over your competitors, including potential competition from a customer developing in-house technology?

Mr. LoCascio: We have solidified leadership in this space. Our next direct competitor probably does a couple of million dollars a year and we do over $80 million. That's a big difference. And it would be extremely difficult for our customers to develop the type of engagement and analytics engines inherent to our platform. We've got Microsoft, we've got IBM, we've got HP, we've got Symantec, we've got Intuit, we've got all the big hardware and software guys. One would think they could technically build this, right? Instead, they choose to partner with us.

The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This 38-page special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online .

The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewees nor does it make stock recommendations.

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