PETALUMA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 05/02/12 -- MarketLive, Inc., the leader in eCommerce software and solutions, today announced the winners of the fourth annual MarketLive Merchant Awards, which honor the best performing eCommerce sites across three categories: MarketLive Performance Index Top Performer Awards; Intelligent Selling Awards; The Ken Burke Award of Excellence. The awards highlight merchants and eCommerce sites that deliver the best selling environments and achieved the highest performance according to the MarketLive Performance Index. The Intelligent Selling Award honors those sites which show the best overall strategic execution of conversion, loyalty, innovations or best practices.

The winners were honored at an educational awards ceremony held on May 2, 2012 at MarketLive Summit in Sonoma, CA. The ceremony showcased the recipients' winning strategies and tactics. Summit attendees, which included more than 100 leading retailers, received actionable insights into the winning companies' best practices for achieving better performance and greater customer satisfaction. Awards and recipients follow.

The MarketLive Performance Index Top Performer Awards
Highest Conversion recognizes the site that achieved the highest conversion rate above their Performance Index benchmark average for the 2011 calendar year.
Winner: French Toast (www.frenchtoast.com) -- the leading provider of school uniforms

Highest Engagement recognizes the top site that achieved the highest engagement rate above their Performance Index benchmark average for the 2011 calendar year. The engagement rate tracks the ratio of visits to carts -- indicating the strength of the sites merchandising and content.
Winner: Neutrogena (www.neutrogena.com) -- a member of the Johnson & Johnson family, offers the world's most loved beauty and skin care lines, and manufactures and markets products in over 70 countries

Intelligent Selling Awards
Best Overall Conversion Strategy recognizes the site that best combines rich content and alluring promotions to motivate the purchase.
Winner: Title Nine (www.titlenine.com) -- a leading multichannel apparel retailer for active women

Best Overall Loyalty Strategy recognizes the site whose consistent brand strategy, email marketing and community support encourage return visits and repeat sales.
Winner: H2O Plus (www.h2oplus.com) -- the global leader in sea-derived skincare

Best Overall Acquisition Strategy recognizes the site with the most cohesive and effective brand building strategy via search engines and social media as well as direct and referral links.
Winner: Ulla Popken (www.ullapopken.com) -- offers stylish, fine quality apparel to plus-size women

Best Site on the Rise recognizes the best up-and-coming site with a brand that is maximizing its presences in the online channel and growing sales.
Winner: Francesca's Collections (www.francescascollections.com) -- offers a one-of-a-kind shopping experience for eclectic apparel, jewelry, accessories, and gifts

Most Innovative Strategy recognizes the site with the most innovative approach to engaging shoppers via one or more of the following: social computing, mobile platforms, site merchandising, rich content, or multimedia.
Winner: Armani Exchange (www.armaniexchange.com) -- the youthful label created by Italian designer, Giorgio Armani

The Ken Burke Award of Excellence
MarketLive's general excellence award honors the single site whose strong performance and deployment of best practices set it apart for all the rest.
Winner: Totes > > ISOTONER (www.totes-isotoner.com) -- the world's largest marketer of umbrellas, gloves, slippers, and other weather-related accessories

"Congratulations to this year's award recipients. They all demonstrate exceptional eCommerce savvy and have achieved remarkable success by leveraging Intelligent Selling Best Practices," said Ken Burke, founder and chairman of MarketLive. "These sites have set the bar for excellence and we were thrilled to share their best practices and winning strategies at this year's MarketLive Summit."

About MarketLive
Since 1995, MarketLive, Inc. has been the leading provider of enterprise-class eCommerce retail technology and services that help fast-growing companies successfully sell goods and services online. Designed to meet the unique requirements of catalogers, retailers, direct marketers, and manufacturers, the extensible MarketLive® eCommerce Suite and MarketLive's best practices-based Intelligent Selling® methodology enable merchants to enhance their customers' experience online while dramatically improving acquisition, conversion, and retention rates. The MarketLive platform is the most retail-targeted, fully featured, customizable eCommerce solution on the market today. MarketLive powers many successful retail eCommerce sites, including Armani, Neutrogena, Party City, Perricone MD, Sports Chalet, Sundance, Helzberg, John Deere, Beach Body, Title Nine, Intermix and others. For more information, visit MarketLive at www.marketlive.com.