ORDERTRUST CLOSES $33+ MILLION 
ROUND OF FINANCING
Fingerhut Leads Round of Investment As Part of Initiative to Create Industry Standard for E-Commerce Order Management

LOWELL, Mass., September 29, 1999 – OrderTrust, Inc., provider of integrated order management services for e-commerce, today announced it has closed back-to-back rounds of equity financing for over $33 million. Fingerhut Companies, Inc., one of the nation’s largest direct marketing and online retailers and wholly owned subsidiary of Federated Department Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FD), led the round of financing with investment of an undisclosed sum. Fingerhut’s non-exclusive investment also includes a provision for a Fingerhut representative to join OrderTrust’s board of directors. The round of financing was completed with additional investments from Far West Capital Management, a venture capital firm that invests in aggressive-growth micro-cap and small-cap companies, as well as from the company’s private backers, including Tim Litle, Bill Melton, and others. This round of financing helps solidify OrderTrust’s ability to rapidly establish its position as the industry standard for e-commerce order management.

"Merchants are quickly discovering that successful commerce depends in large part on managing the complexity inherent in operating multiple sales channels with multiple sources of supply," said Jim Daniell, CEO of OrderTrust. "As a result, more online merchants and ‘click and mortar’ retailers will need to rely on our proven, scalable commerce network for accurate order processing and efficient exception handling. This investment by Fingerhut, Far West, and others demonstrates their confidence in OrderTrust’s business model and our potential for rapidly becoming the industry standard for order management. Furthermore, it demonstrates our common vision for the types of services merchants need in order to engage in non-face-to-face commerce quickly, cost-effectively and with high levels of customer satisfaction."

Will Lansing, CEO of Fingerhut Companies, Inc., added, "OrderTrust represents an investment in enabling technology and network infrastructure. The services enabled by OrderTrust’s scalable, high-performance network are critical to fueling the widespread implementation of online commerce and are a perfect complement to Fingerhut’s online retail and fulfillment service offerings. We believe that OrderTrust is positioned to become the industry standard for order management, and we want to play a key role in shaping and accelerating the establishment of that standard." (See related announcement, "OrderTrust and Fingerhut Align Forces to Establish Industry Standard for E-Commerce Order Management," September 29, 1999)

OrderTrust offers both large and small merchants a robust, scalable back-end infrastructure for managing orders generated via the Web and other sales channels. This secure, nationwide order processing network integrates merchants with their points of product fulfillment, managing information throughout the lifecycle of an order for superior exception handling and customer service. There are over 600 merchants, suppliers and fulfillers on the OrderTrust network today, and the company processed more than 100 million transactions in 1998.

"OrderTrust is the first company to gain significant traction in the transaction processing segment of the supply chain," commented Cato Carpenter, senior analyst at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "With this round of financing, OrderTrust will be able to invest in its people, processes and infrastructure to extend its leadership position and become the de facto order processing network for online merchants."

Privately held and based in Lowell, Mass., OrderTrust provides integrated order management services for e-commerce. Through its fully redundant and highly scalable 24x7 order processing network, OrderTrust securely and reliably manages information throughout the lifecycle of an order, ensuring 100 percent monitoring and auditing of all transactions. Services include order capture, routing of separate fulfillment requests to multiple suppliers, real-time credit card authorization and inventory availability checking, financial settlement and order status notification to consumers via e-mail. By taking advantage of the OrderTrust network, which has established connections to over 600 trading partners, including fulfillers, suppliers, drop shippers and manufacturers, merchants are free to focus on building brand identity and driving site traffic, while gaining access to critical order information required for superior customer service. OrderTrust clients include 1-800-FLOWERS, SkyMall, VerticalNet, Foofoo.com, Espanol.com, Shop2u.com and Signature Shop At Home. For more information, visit our Web site at www.ordertrust.net.

Fingerhut Companies, Inc. is a leading database marketing company selling a broad range of products and services through catalogs, direct marketing, and the Internet. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Federated Department Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FD). Fingerhut also owns Popular Club, a membership-based cataloger of general merchandise, Arizona Mail Order and Bedford Fair, catalog apparel companies, and Figi's, a food and gift catalog company. In addition, the company owns equity positions in PC Flowers &Gifts, Inc., The Zone Network, FreeShop, Roxy Systems, Hand Technologies and ibirthday.com, leading Internet retailers. Based in Minnetonka, Minn., the company and its subsidiaries employ approximately 12,000 people. Fingerhut can be found on the Internet at www.fingerhut.com, www.andysgarage.com, www.andysauction.com, www.thehut.com, www.figis.com, www.myjewelry.com, www.pcflowers.com, www.mountainzone.com, www.skiresorts.com, www.freeshop.com, www.roxy.com, www.pcscentral.com, www.satellite.com, www.handtech.com, and www.ibirthday.com.

Editor’s Note: OrderTrust is a trademark of OrderTrust Inc. All other names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Contacts:

Don Jennings
Lois Paul & Partners
(781) 238-5756
[email protected]

Margie Ferro
OrderTrust, Inc.
(978) 551-5077
[email protected]