Endeca to Power eCommerce Site for South Africa's Largest Online Retailer.

Endeca Technologies, Inc., a search and business intelligence (BI) company announced that Endeca technology has been selected by kalahari.net, South Africa's largest online retailer. kalahari.net will take advantage of the solution's Guided Navigation[R] and advanced search engine capabilities to deliver a highly searchable, easy-to-use online shopping experience for its expanded eCommerce website. The site, built on the best-of-breed hybris eCommerce Platform, will be a significant expansion of kalahari.net's eCommerce operations and its consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplace.

Owned by MIH Internet Holdings, a Naspers company that specialises in pay-television and Internet subscriber platforms, kalahari.net is a pioneer in the South African e-commerce industry. As the market leader, it retails millions of books, eBooks, music, DVDs, games, cameras, and electronics online. It also trades in Kenya and Nigeria.

Statistics show that eCommerce is on a sharp upward curve in South Africa. The most recent survey on online shopping habits by MasterCard Worldwide show that 77 percent of connected South Africans are shopping online and have done so in the past three months. 49 percent bought CDs and DVDs online, surpassing the purchase of online airline tickets at 44 percent.

Michael Needham, CTO, MIH Africa & Middle East, confirms that eCommerce is a rapidly growing sector in South Africa. "Our consumers are increasingly drawn to the online experience as access to the Internet expands. Being an early mover that rapidly grew to a market leading position, our platforms needed to match the challenge. We turned to Endeca to enhance the overall engagement with our customers and to ensure that we kept pace with the marketplace's anticipated growth. With Endeca's proven scalability and merchandising functionality, we are well positioned to build a world class offering that will both retain customers and attract new ones." Endeca's technology provides customers with the most relevant and targeted content where it matters most - in the decision making process. It dynamically presents the most relevant and targeted content, based on the customer's actions, at each step of the shopping experience. The patented Endeca MDEX Engine™ technology, a new class of technology optimized for helping shoppers explore content, regardless of its source or format, delivers the user experience and advanced merchandising capabilities that improve traffic, conversion and online sales.

"Online consumers want control over their shopping experience with the best user experience possible, combining search, navigation, and access to content in context," said John Andrews, vice president, marketing and product management, eBusiness at Endeca. "This is why more and more retailers around the world are turning to Endeca to maximize the value of their content and create a customer experience that increases sales and customer loyalty, while reducing site management costs." About kalahari.net A pioneer in the South African e-commerce industry, kalahari.net is the market leader in South African e-commerce. Established in 1999, kalahari.net is SA's largest online retailer of millions of books, eBooks, music, DVDs, games, cameras, and electronics. About Endeca Endeca is a search and business intelligence software company that improves daily decisions for employees and purchase decisions for customers. Endeca's unique innovation, the hybrid search-analytical database, enables IT organizations to deliver solutions with consumer ease-of-use on diverse and changing information. Endeca solutions drive hundreds of millions of dollars in reduced costs and increased revenues in the world's most demanding decision-making environments in organizations like Boeing, the United States Department of Justice, Ford Motor Company, Hyatt, IBM, the Library of Congress, Texas Instruments, and Walmart.com.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Endeca has operations in North America, Europe, and Asia.

For more information: endeca.com, http://eBusinessfacets.com, or info@endeca.com. Endeca, Endeca Latitude, Guided Navigation and MDEX Engine are trademarks or registered trademarks of Endeca Technologies, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

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This article was prepared by Defense & Aerospace Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2011, Defense & Aerospace Week via VerticalNews.com.