E-commerce drives book clubs' performance in Easter business/More and more members are making online purchases through DirectGroup Bertelsmann's clubs - BOL con

Gütersloh, Germany 17.04.2002 (PROTEXT/ots) - Thanks to theInternet, DirectGroup Bertelsmann's international book clubs sawa tremendous upsurge in this year's Easter business. During thefirst three months of the year, the online sites operated by thebook clubs, which do business in 19 countries, registered year-on-year sales growth of more than 20 percent.

"This positive performance means that the book clubs'Internet offerings are bucking the adverse trend in bookretail," explains Klaus Eierhoff, head of DirectGroupBertelsmann and a Bertelsmann AG board member. "I am pleased tonote that our strategy of resolutely linking online distributionand traditional business is showing lasting results."

During Q1/2002, the book clubs fulfilled some 2 milliononline orders for media products. Der Club members thusincreased their Internet orders by 29 percent year on year. Theappeal of the book clubs on the Net is also reflected in thenumber of visitors to the websites: together, the Internet pagesof the European club businesses registered an average of 1.2mUnique Visitors per month during the first quarter.

DirectGroup's book clubs are thus among the most populardestinations for books on the European Internet, after sites runby the Amazon group and BOL. The German Club's online sitecontinues to be particularly successful: with an average of417,000 Unique Visitors per month, Der Club was Germany's thirdmost heavily frequented online book vendor during the firstquarter. Der Club's Internet site already operates at a profit.

Not only did the book clubs benefit from their increasedInternet activity in terms of increased Easter business, theonline sites have also proven extremely effective in theacquisition of new members. The Internet has long been aconsiderable contributor to member recruitment in the US; now,the other regions appear to be catching up, with three-digitgrowth rates: compared with the same quarter last year, the bookclubs in Europe were able to recruit 185 percent more membersonline during the first three months of this year. The clubs inChina and Korea, which are still in the start-up phase, were ableto increase the number of members added via the Internet by morethan 200 percent.

Likewise, the BOL Internet media shop's growth in Europe andAsia continues undiminished. Despite stagnating retail sales inthe European book market [in Q1/2002], first-quarter revenueswere up by more than 10 percent compared to the previous year.BOL China is well on its way to becoming the number one in theChinese media e- commerce market.

In Q1, BOL registered an average of 1.4m Unique Visitors toits European Internet pages, making it the second-largest e-commerce provider in Europe for this period. During the firstthree months, BOL.de was the No. 2 online media vendor inGermany, with an average of 872,000 Unique Visitors.

This Easter, the most sought-after German media products atBOL (http://www.bol.de) included the books "Warum Männer nichtzuhören and Frauen schlecht einparken" (German translation of"Why men don't listen and women can't read maps") by Allan andBarbara Pease, "Der Richter" (The Summons?) by John Grisham,"The Buick" by Stephen King, and German author Günther Grass'latest work "Im Krebsgang." Top seller in the music sector wasthe CD "Hinter Gittern" by the Jailbabes, ahead of Shakira's"Laundry Service" and "Under Rug Swept" by Alanis Morrisette."Lara Croft" was the top-selling DVD.

DirectGroup Bertelsmann:

DirectGroup Bertelsmann has been in charge of BertelsmannAG's direct-to- customer businesses since July 2000. DirectGroupcomprises the worldwide book and music clubs as well as theglobal e-commerce businesses, and represents a total of roughly60 million customers and members all over the world. Bertelsmannis the global market leader among media clubs and, with BOL,CDNow and BN.com, is the worldwide No.2 in media e-commerceactivity. DirectGroup is one of the three supporting pillars inBertelsmann's overall strategy, alongside Content and Services.Dr. Klaus Eierhoff heads the Group, whose revenues for fiscalyear 2000/01 totaled EUR 3.8bn. The division does business in 21countries, has 15,000 employees, and thus contributes a greatdeal to the internationality of the Bertelsmann Group.

Enquiries:

Rocco Thiede, DirectGroup Bertelsmann, Spokesman Tel.: +495241- 80 -42402, rocco.thiede@bertelsmann.de

Source of visitor numbers: Jupiter MMXI, average value ofUnduplicated Unique Visitors during the months of Januarythrough March 2002. All local (country- specific) sites operatedby the Amazon Group are counted as a single vendor.

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