Abacus Direct Launches Syndicated Market Research 09/08/00 Abacus Direct, a division of DoubleClick Inc, is launching a series of syndicated market research products. This has been developed in response to client requests for detailed information regarding consumer purchasing behaviour and the need to obtain reliable data on the Internet as a distribution channel. Traditionally, Abacus Direct has focused on delivering products and services in two key areas - proprietary modelling of transactional data and Marketing Insight Reports(TM). The division manages the Abacus Alliance, the largest proprietary database of online and offline consumer, retail, publishing, and business-to-business transactions. Abacus combines the power of this data with proprietary modelling techniques to help clients with customer acquisition and retention strategies. The new research products will be vertically aligned to target Abacus' core market segments - catalogue, retail, business-to-business, publishing, and online areas. The project is entitled "Developing Effective Customer Contact Strategies in an Electronic Commerce Future". The research findings will explain why and how customers visit specific websites, the customers' perception of the sites and the product offerings, customers' perspective of the online ordering and purchasing experience, etc. In addition to providing information specific to participants in the study, the research will also compare and contrast individual participant results with the entire syndicate for benchmarking purposes. According to Riad Shalaby, Vice President of Market Research, "This initiative is in response to our clients' requests. The Internet has opened up a new and powerful distribution channel and it's our responsibility to provide clients with information that allows them to take full advantage of the channel and extend their business opportunities." To complete the market research project, Abacus has formed a partnership with Dr. Dipankar Chakravarti and the University of Colorado.