ProfitPoint Provides Stored Value Solution In the Nick of Time for Fleet Feet

FRANKLIN, TENN. (November 13, 2007) - Here's a small-business success story that can encourage others who must grow, but can ill afford the growing pains.

For three years, Fleet Feet Inc. suffered while seeking a gift and loyalty card provider that could keep up with Fleet Feet's rapidly expanding franchise network of specialty footwear, apparel, and accessory stores. Fleet Feet needed to replace its archaic and under-achieving paper gift certificates.

"Customers expect it, and demand it," Fleet Feet Director of Operations Joey Pointer said. Prospective franchise owners expect it, too.

But in the process of expanding to more than 75 stores nationwide, Fleet Feet saw its franchise owners employ up to a dozen different software programs to track gift-certificate sales. The process of redeeming another store's certificate had become a wasteful bureaucracy of writing and waiting.

Seeking to create order out of chaos, Fleet Feet's corporate leaders rejected half a dozen potential suitors who could provide gift cards, but not the sales-tracking software and the customized service required to end the inefficiency and frustration.

Then Fleet Feet partnered with ProfitPoint Inc., which has made its reputation among small and medium-sized businesses by offering customized cards, service and electronic transaction tracking.

Ever since then, Pointer said, it's been nothing but pleasant surprises:

• Pointer expected initial buy-in from perhaps 60 percent of the company's franchise owners. But when ProfitPoint's Todd Santa Maria demonstrated the software in one-on-one training at Fleet Feet's annual meeting, 96 percent of the Fleet Feet franchises signed on to use it.
• Pointer had wanted to make sure there was plenty of time for everyone to get up to speed before holiday gift card sales. It turns out that the ProfitPoint process was so smooth and its system so easy to use that it took only 45 days to deliver 60,000 customized gift cards, install the software everywhere and train all of the users.
• So sales started in September instead of months later - plenty of time to work out any new-system bugs prior to Christmas. However, there weren't any worrisome bugs - only one issue came up and ProfitPoint swiftly resolved it.
• As a result, gift card sales to date are double what the company settled for a year ago with its paper gift certificates.

"It's been more successful than I could have imagined," Pointer declared.

He ticked off the advantages.

Unlike some providers, ProfitPoint custom designs each client's cards. The logo-imprinted cards are more professional, and more inviting than the old paper gift certificates.

ProfitPoint's point-of-sale accessories help sell the gift cards. Previously, customers had to know they wanted a gift certificate, ask for it, and then wait for the cumbersome process of getting one.

Franchise owners can make more sales, make them more swiftly and track their cumulative sales success in real-time. The days of waiting weeks for reimbursement after redeeming another store's certificate are over. Now there's no wait and "the reimbursement process is seamless," Pointer said.

For the first time, Fleet Feet's corporate headquarters in Carrboro, N.C. can track those sales in real-time, too. It now has one more way to appeal to prospective franchise owners.

ProfitPoint's Santa Maria said Fleet Feet's success underscores the "plug-and-play" ease of use of ProfitPoint's gift and loyalty card system. And it underscores how ProfitPoint, which has earned its own rapid growth of more than 100 percent per year since 2003, has streamlined its process on behalf of clients.

"Because there is so much that goes into opening stores," Santa Maria acknowledged, "the owners appreciate anything that is simplified."

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 individual client 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 Fleet Feet Inc.

Fleet Feet, Inc. is the industry leader in franchising successful, community-oriented, specialty footwear, apparel, and accessory stores serving runners, walkers and lifetime fitness enthusiasts. Currently there are 78 Fleet Feet Sports locations nationwide. Fleet Feet, Inc. offers support for existing and potential franchises out of its corporate headquarters in Carrboro, North Carolina.