ProfitPoint and Wireless Zone Announce Strategic Payment Processing Alliance
FRANKLIN, TENN. (Oct. 4, 2007) - Rapidly growing ProfitPoint Inc. has strengthened its position as a leader in the gift and loyalty card services industry with its addition of Wireless Zone, the nation's largest exclusive carrier and retailer of Verizon Wireless products and services. The agreement not only extends ProfitPoint's market presence to approximately 20,000 locations, but underscores the Tennessee-based company's appeal to a wide range of small and medium-sized businesses nationwide.
Wireless Zone is a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Automotive Technologies, Inc. The rapidly growing cell phone retailer joins the family of the many thousand small to medium sized businesses, which has become ProfitPoint's specialty in the rapidly expanding gift card industry.
As more than 250 Wireless Zone locations prepare to launch their new gift and loyalty card program, ProfitPoint executives pointed out that the implementation involves far more than simply printing and inventorying plastic cards.
Wireless Zone will also employ ProfitPoint's stored value technology, which processes transactions quickly and efficiently, and permits clients to track, monitor and report on customer and cardholder activity. These functions are available by way of ProfitPoint's exclusive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool called "Web Allegiance," which allows the end user to load, activate or redeem a gift card using the internet instead of making significant investments in other external point-of-sale hardware and/or software.
"Just click on the web site from your PC and you're ready to roll," explained Dan Battista, Vice President of Sales for ProfitPoint.
"Transactions are seamless and are instantly tracked at any location, simplifying the implementation, training and on-going support of each customer site, Battista added."
Wireless Zone selected ProfitPoint as its stored value partner after engaging in a search for a gift and loyalty card provider whose services were scalable as Wireless Zone expects to grow to 400 locations in the near future.
The cards will be offered for sale, and are redeemable, at any of the company's existing 258 stores, as well as any location that is added to the chain in the future.
About ProfitPoint, Inc.
ProfitPoint Inc. is a leading provider of gift and loyalty card services to the small to medium sized merchant community. Headquartered near Nashville, Tennessee, ProfitPoint supports its gift and loyalty cards with point-of-purchase accessories, real-time electronic transaction processing and customizable reports for each merchant. ProfitPoint specializes in the design and production of custom gift and loyalty cards, software capability and merchant education to meet each individual client's needs. Now serving approximately 20,000 merchant locations nationwide, ProfitPoint produces in excess of five million cards per year and does more than 10 million stored value transactions on its gift and loyalty card platform. ProfitPoint has experienced annualized growth of more than 100 percent each year since its inception in 2003.
About Wireless Zone
Wireless Zone is the largest independent, carrier-exclusive, wireless franchise retailer in the country, with more than 260 Wireless Zone stores throughout the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions, as well as Florida. In addition to all the latest cellular/wireless phones, Wireless Zone sells GPS navigation, wireless accessories, Verizon FIOS, High Speed Fiber Optic Network, Wireless Data Devises and pre-paid cellular services. In 2006, Wireless Zone was named one of the top 10 franchises based in New England by Franchise Times. Wireless Zone is a division of Automotive Technologies, Inc., which generated $142 million in revenue in 2006. The company is headquartered in Middletown, CT. For more information, go to www.WirelessZone.com.
