ORDERTRUST AND FINGERHUT ALIGN FORCES TO ESTABLISH INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR E-COMMERCE ORDER MANAGEMENT
FBSI to Resell OrderTrust Order Management Services; 
Online Merchants Gain Turnkey Access to Industry-Leading 
Order Processing and Fulfillment

LOWELL, Mass., and MINNETONKA, Minn., 
September 29, 1999 – OrderTrust, Inc., provider of integrated order management services for e-commerce, today announced that Fingerhut Business Services, Inc. (FBSI), a division of Fingerhut Companies, Inc., one of the nation’s largest direct marketers and online retailers, will resell OrderTrust’s order management services as a complement to its industry-leading fulfillment services. As part of the same agreement, FBSI and OrderTrust will perform joint development to integrate FBSI’s fulfillment systems with OrderTrust’s scalable nationwide network, which provides intelligent order management services by tightly integrating a merchant’s points of order entry with its points of supply. The order volume generated by Fingerhut companies and clients will help establish OrderTrust as the industry standard for e-commerce order management, making this strategic alliance an important milestone for both companies. In related news today, it was announced that Fingerhut Companies, Inc., parent company of FBSI and a wholly owned subsidiary of Federated Department Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FD), was a major investor in an equity round of financing in OrderTrust. (See related announcement, "OrderTrust Closes $33+ Million Round of Financing," September 29, 1999).

"By agreeing to resell OrderTrust services, Fingerhut is endorsing our vision to become the industry standard order management network, with a goal of processing the majority of non-face-to-face transactions in the United States by the end of 2001," said Jim Daniell, CEO of OrderTrust. "As the nation’s second largest direct marketer, a major online retailer and a leading US fulfiller, Fingerhut will rapidly accelerate the adoption of our network services and drive up our order volumes. Online retail success into the 21^st century will be determined not only through great branding, but also through flawless execution of back-end order management and fulfillment. We’re excited about working with Fingerhut to create a more fluid and active market for back-end e-commerce services and to help online merchants compete more effectively."

This strategic alliance brings together two leading players in the e-commerce services market. Through its FBSI division, Fingerhut provides comprehensive fulfillment services to many leading online retailers, including eToys, WalMart, and Levis. In addition, Fingerhut’s parent company, Federated Department Stores, owns and operates well-known e-tailers such as Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com. OrderTrust operates the industry’s leading order processing network, which boasts established connections to over 600 merchants, suppliers, fulfillers and distributors; a total transaction processing volume of approximately 100 million in 1998; and a robust infrastructure that can scale to meet the growing order volumes and complex fulfillment models characteristic of e-commerce today.

"This newly formed alliance between Fingerhut and OrderTrust is a win-win relationship for both companies and for the online retail market as a whole," said John Buck, president of Fingerhut Business Services, Inc. "By combining Fingerhut’s recognized physical package management skills with OrderTrust’s nationwide order management network, we can offer online merchants a turnkey solution for the e-commerce back-end and service a larger addressable market. We chose to partner with OrderTrust because it was already recognized as a best-of-breed solution provider. Now we can help establish OrderTrust as an industry standard by making its order management services available to Fingerhut companies and by reselling them to our growing base of world-class fulfillment clients."

"This alliance is really going to open a lot of eyes in the industry," said Judith Hurwitz, president, The Hurwitz Group. "It makes total sense. As merchants face the E2K issue -- the need to engage successfully in e-commerce as a matter of survival -- they will need to blend the efficiency model of the brick-and-mortar world with the effectiveness model of the dot.coms. Relationships like this one that drive open standards will make that possible."

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 Business Services, Inc., provides infrastructure and information services to retailers, manufacturers and e-commerce companies that sell direct to consumers. It is a division of Fingerhut Companies, Inc. a leading database marketing company selling a broad range of products and services through catalogs, direct marketing, and the Internet. Fingerhut 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.