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Online Chat Popular with Valentine's Day Shoppers
Feb 6, 2007
Live Chat in Demand at E-Commerce Sites Offering Everything from Flowers to Honeymoons
PRNewswire

This Valentine's Day, people looking to take the next step in a romance may begin with a live online chat.

NEW YORK, NY - February 6, 2007 - LivePerson, Inc., (NASDAQ: LPSN) a provider of online conversion solutions, today announced that live Internet chat has grown increasingly popular with companies offering products and services related to dating, courtship, weddings and relationships. Live chat is a hosted application that enables website visitors to conduct a live, text-based conversation with service or sales representatives during an online session.

"People invest a great deal of emotion when shopping for Valentine's Day gifts, engagement rings or planning a wedding or honeymoon - and prefer to interact with a real person before making a purchasing decision," said LivePerson CEO Robert LoCascio. "Live chat responds to this need and has been adopted by companies serving the entire lifecycle of a relationship."

Small business owners are looking forward to a brisk online shopping season this February. According to a survey conducted by Constant Contact, 64 percent of small business owners anticipate stronger online sales this Valentine's Day - with flowers once again expected to be the most popular gift(1). To maximize the value of this increased traffic, small businesses are also leveraging chat to increase the percentage of visitors on their sites that make a purchase. According to Shop.org, e-tailers typically convert 2.4 percent(2) of their browsers to buyers - while visitors who engage in a live chat convert at rates exceeding 20 percent.

LivePerson provides live online chat to more than 5,000 companies worldwide, including the following examples:

  * People looking to start a relationship can chat about their ideal match
    on sites such as Indian dating service Bharat Matrimony
    (www.bharatmatrimony.com) and Frumster (www.frumster.com), a Jewish
    matching service.

  * Couples planning a romantic vacation or honeymoon can chat about their
    plans on a number of travel-related sites, including Orbitz
    (www.orbitz.com).

  * You can chat about the most romantic flower arrangement to be delivered
    by Falcon Farms (www.falconfarms.com) or arrange for gourmet chocolates
    to be sent by online confectioners Vosges (www.vosgeschocolate.com) or
    Chocolate Covered Company (www.chocolatecoveredcompany.com).

  * For couples planning a quiet dinner at home, they can chat about which
    chef-prepared meal to be delivered to their door by DineWise
    (www.dinewise.com).

  * Prospective grooms can chat with diamond experts about engagement rings
    at Chicago's Dimend Scaasi (www.dimendscaasi.com); discuss wedding bands
    at e-Weddingbands.com (www.eweddingbands.com) and rent a tuxedo at
    Sarasota Tuxedo (www.sarasotatuxedo.com).

  * Wedding favors, decorations, gifts and planning services can be
    discussed at several companies offering live chat, including Wedding
    Charms (www.weddingcharms.com) and Wedding Things
    (www.weddingthings.com).

"Being readily accessible to your customers is critical, especially when they are going through the emotional experience of planning a wedding," said Edward Sturm, CEO of Wedding Charms. "LivePerson's solution has helped us grow our business by allowing us to connect directly with our customers while they're online, responding quickly to their questions and building lasting relationships."

Of course, should relationships not work out as well as planned, couples can always chat about their options at Divorce Papers.com (www.divorcepapers.com).

About LivePerson

LivePerson is a provider of online conversion solutions. Our hosted software enables companies to identify and proactively engage online visitors- increasing sales, satisfaction and loyalty while reducing service costs. Combining web-interaction technology (chat, email and a self-service knowledgebase) with a deep understanding of consumer behavior and industry best practices, LivePerson's Timpani™ platform engages the right customer, at the right time, with the right communications channel. This Engagement Marketing platform creates more relevant, compelling and personalized experiences-converting traffic into revenues, and facilitating real-time sales and customer service. More than 5,000 companies including EarthLink, Hewlett- Packard, Microsoft, Qwest and Verizon, rely on LivePerson to help maximize the return on their marketing and e-commerce investments. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City.

  (1) Source: Constant Contact, "2nd Annual Small Business Valentine's Day
      Outlook," January 2007.

  (2) Source: The State of Retailing Online 2006, a Shop.org survey
      conducted by Forrester Research, Inc.

SOURCE: LivePerson, Inc.

CONTACT: Younjee Kim, +1-212-609-4222, ykim@liveperson.com

Web site: http://www.liveperson.com/

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