Q Paul Boisvert

It important that we gather feedback from our merchant customers in an ongoing manner so that we know what we doing well and what we can do to better serve their needs. Additionally, it helps us understand current attitudes and concerns that may help us better anticipate upcoming needs. What conclusions can small businesses and customers draw from the results of this survey? PB: Our small business merchants appear to be cautiously optimistic about this year holiday shopping season, and the preliminary data seems to support their positive attitudes: we saw a 6 percent increase in revenue year-over-year for Cyber Monday. Merchants have been seeing some positive trends, such as a shift in the overall percentage of holiday shopping being conducted online. They believe they can capture their share of this shift. I think the results of this survey support what we already know: shopping online can be more convenient and cost-effective than shopping in-person. There no waiting in lines, fighting the crowds, or being limited to store hours. And product and pricing comparisons are easier online. Furthermore, consumers aren limited to gifts they can find at the mall; online they can find truly unique gifts to delight their family and friends. What were some examples of the survey results that you found most intriguing? PB: I was intrigued by the industries most optimistic about this upcoming holiday season: beauty and fragrances; clothing, accessories shoes; and food. In all of those cases, more than 40 percent of our merchants surveyed expect this year to be stronger than most years. I thought it was interesting that merchants from the industries like books and magazines, electronics, and music expect sales this season to be back to normal, after being depressed last year. In most cases (with the exception of electronics), these are industries with lower average ticket prices. Merchants in some of the industries with higher average product prices, such as computers hardware, were a bit more pessimistic (only 5 percent of merchants in this category expect thus year to be stronger than most years, and 64 percent expect sales to be weaker than most years). Perhaps the feeling is that while the economy is starting to recover, the gifts purchased may be a bit more modest in size than they were during stronger economic periods. If so, the preliminary data shows there may not be cause for concern, as it appears that an increase in average order sizes actually drove much of the increase in revenue this Cyber Monday. Why do you think the majority of Yahoo! merchants surveyed expect sales to be the same as most years or even stronger, especially when considering that the recession is showing no definitive signs of ending anytime soon? PB: Small business owners tend to be optimists in nature. By definition, they entrepreneurs who believe they can turn their ideas, skills, and passions into viable businesses, often personally footing the start-up costs and overcoming many challenging obstacles. This is a tough economic climate, but successful entrepreneurs have faced and overcome daunting challenges before. They may have to be increasingly creative in what they do to survive and thrive, but we believe our small business merchants are up to this challenge and whatever other challenges come their way. What kinds of services does Yahoo Small Business offer to help optimize sales for e-commerce stores? PB: We offer a robust, scalable platform with more than 99 percent uptime and the ability to scale with order volume. Our easy-to-use tools are appropriate for merchants just starting out, yet our systems offer the flexibility and integration options that allow some of the largest merchants on the web to thrive on our platform. Unlike most ecommerce offerings out there, we offer an enterprise-class analytics package providing merchants with in-depth information about sales, merchandising, and visitor behavior that they can use to optimize their product offerings and marketing initiatives in real-time. We also have some useful tools to make merchandising recommendations to increase average order volumes, such as our proprietary automated cross-sell recommendation engine which automatically cross-sells product combinations that have been purchased in the past. Our merchants can also take advantage of over 30 approved Yahoo! Merchant Solutions development partners to truly customize their sites or integrate back-office systems to meet the unique challenges ecommerce retailers of any size may have. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, and hosting more Internet Retailer top 500 merchants than any other hosted ecommerce solution, Yahoo! can offer merchants the security, reliability, and features to make their online business a success.