DELRAY BEACH, FL, and SEATTLE—September 6, 2002—Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP), the world's largest seller of office products, and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASD: AMZN) announced an e-commerce strategic alliance with today's launch of the Office Products store at Amazon.com (www.amazon.com/office). Office Depot will offer more than 50,000 products, including technology products and home office furniture at www.amazon.com/officedepot.
Office Depot now offers Amazon.com customers classic office supplies—including pens; ink and toner; paper; technology products such as computers, printers, monitors and all-in-one machines; and stylish office furniture such as desks, chairs and bookcases—which are all competitively priced and offer online customers a comprehensive selection to meet all of their office supply needs.
The Office Depot selection is tailored to the personal office products user. Customers can access their favorite Amazon.com features like customer reviews, search and personalization. The Office Products store offers Office Depot products in addition to the office-related products already available at Amazon.com. Amazon.com and Office Depot products are now included in one store with the convenience of a shared checkout for all merchandise whether purchased from Amazon.com or Office Depot.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Amazon.com will process the transaction for the customer while Office Depot will manage inventory and product fulfillment of their merchandise through their extensive national network of 24 distribution centers. In addition, Office Depot will provide all product-related customer service associated with Office Depot product orders placed on Amazon.com. Amazon.com will provide customer service related to Web site functionality and credit card transactions.
Commenting on the relationship, Bruce Nelson, chairman and CEO of Office Depot, said, “Office Depot and Amazon.com both have significant brand leadership positions in e-commerce. Our alliance with Amazon.com provides us the ability to effectively reach a vitally important and large customer segment of online personal-use shoppers. We believe this large and rapidly growing market segment of customers that do not traditionally purchase their office product needs from office supply superstores exceeds $90 billion in annual office product purchases. We are excited to be able to reach this important customer segment by leveraging Amazon.com's great shopping experience and brand awareness coupled with Office Depot's nationwide logistics network that will provide customers immediate access to more than 50,000 products.”
“We're always looking to expand selection for our customers, and this strategic alliance with a top-drawer retailer like Office Depot is a win for our customers,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Now you can find a complete selection of office and office-related products at Amazon.com—whether you need an office chair, a filing cabinet, a three-ring binder, business software, a copier machine or a sponge and a mop.”
Today's announcement and video interviews with both Bruce Nelson, chairman and CEO of Office Depot, and Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, can be viewed by clicking on http://www.visualmax.com/ac/urlprocess_oa.html?name=wgoa0001vps.
Launching just in time for the holidays, customers will also be able to order the most popular Office Depot products online at Amazon.com for pickup at Office Depot's more than 820 retail stores in the U.S.
Office Depot's award-winning public Web site at www.officedepot.com and the Company's newest Web site at www.school.com will continue to operate independently.
About Office Depot
No one sells more office products to more customers in more countries through more channels than Office Depot. As the largest seller of office products around the world, the Company operates under the Office Depot®, Viking Office Products®, Viking Direct® and 4Sure.com® brand names. As of June 29, 2002, Office Depot operated 853 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 24 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. Furthermore, the Company sells products and services in 19 countries outside of the United States and Canada, including 32 office supply stores in France and 12 in Japan that are owned and operated by the Company; and 110 additional office supply stores under joint venture and licensing agreements operating under the Office Depot name in five foreign countries.
The Company operates an award-winning U.S. Office Depot brand Web site at www.officedepot.com, where customers can access Office Depot's low competitive prices seven days a week, 24 hours a day, as well as a new Web site that targets the school supply market at www.school.com The Company also operates 18 additional Web sites, under the Office Depot and Viking Office Products names, in the U.S. and 11 countries, including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Office Depot's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements, including without limitation all of the projections and anticipated levels of future performance, involve risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time by Office Depot in its filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including without limitation its most recent filing on Form 10-K, filed on March 19, 2002. You are strongly urged to review all such filings for a more detailed discussion of such risks and uncertainties. The Company's SEC filings are readily obtainable at no charge at www.sec.gov and at http://www.freeedgar.com/, as well as on a number of other commercial Web sites.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.com and sellers list millions of unique new and used items in categories such as electronics, computers, kitchenware and housewares, books, music, DVDs, videos, cameras and photo items, toys, baby items and baby registry, software, computer and video games, cell phones and service, tools and hardware, travel services, magazine subscriptions and outdoor living items. Through Amazon Marketplace, zShops and Auctions, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's millions of customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, sellers can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments.
Amazon.com operates five international Web sites: www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr and www.amazon.co.jp. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 300,000 movies and entertainment titles and 1 million cast and crew members dating from the birth of film.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to potential future losses, significant amount of indebtedness, competition, strategic alliances and business combinations, seasonality, potential fluctuations in operating results and rate of growth, foreign-currency exchange rates, management of potential growth, system interruption, international expansion, consumer trends, fulfillment center optimization, inventory, limited operating history, government regulation and taxation, fraud and Amazon.com Payments, and new business areas. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001, and all subsequent filings.
# # #