Imagine always knowing about the best sales at your favorite stores - without ever having to waste time tracking them down.

That's the idea behind a new shopping e-bulletin, which will debut on June 15 at Beverly Center shopping center.

The free e-bulletin, which arrives every Thursday, contains a concise roundup of sales, special promotions, just-arrived, hot new merchandise and special events from the customer's choice of stores.

Beverly Center's web site also offers wireless applications that allow people to access what's-on-sale information via handheld cell phones and PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants), such as Palm Pilots.

Precision shopping "This is all about saving time and money," says Barbara Bach, Beverly Center Marketing Director. "We provide the information about sales and promotions up front, so you can decide what you want and where you want to go before you get to the mall."

"Our research has shown that more than two-thirds of shoppers are on mission trips when they come to Beverly Center," she adds. "This new service allows you to precision shop and save money while you do. If you know before you go, you can be in and out much more quickly."

Beverly Center has a fulltime Internet Coordinator who regularly visits each of the mall's retailers and continually posts new information for the web site and the weekly e-mail bulletins.

"We built this site specifically to make on-going updates possible, so the information is always fresh, comprehensive and useful for the shopper," says Bach. "We take current information, continually updated at Beverly Center, and instantly personalize it to each individual shopper's requests."

The e-bulletin service is consistent with recent findings by Jupiter Communications, a leading international Internet research firm. More than two-thirds of consumers studied said promotions and special offers are what they would most like to receive via e-mail from companies they're familiar with. Forty-seven percent said they wanted product information updates.

Wireless applications Cell phone and PDA users can seamlessly access up-to-date sales and special offers for participating stores directly from the web site. That means they can streamline their shopping efforts by checking their favorite stores while en route to Beverly Center. The shopping center, however, will never send unsolicited communications to them through their wireless devices.

"We're launching wireless applications along with our web sites to provide our customers with the most flexible and convenient access to shopping information," says Carol Gies, Vice President Center Planning and Marketing for Taubman Centers Inc., which manages Beverly Center. "Industry projections tell us that, over the next few years, wireless access to the Web will grow exponentially and surpass connected Web access."

The Web site's wireless component, developed specifically for Taubman by DragonFly Wireless, is available on any wireless application protocol (WAP) cell phone with Phone.com and Nokia.com browser, on the Palm VII with Web browser and on the Palm V with OmniSky modem and Web browser.

More Web site features? Shoppers who want to know more about Beverly Center's retailers, other than what's in their e-bulletins, can go to Beverly Center's web site, where they'll find sales, featured brands and products, special events, discounts and other store-specific information for every retailer at the shopping center.

The new site features many other useful services too. Shoppers can browse for gift ideas in a pictorial gift guide keyed to specific ages, interests and seasons -- and check employment opportunities in the stores. When friends and family visit, they can click on "Out-of-Town Visitors" to view package deals and special offers geared just to them.

Those who prefer cyber shopping will find links to the web sites of every Beverly Center retailer who maintains a presence on the Internet.

Gifts are no problem The site's convenient gift-reminder service means never forgetting another special occasion. Anyone can registration/index.html"The notices arrive whenever you designate, from a month to a week before the event, so you never again have to say, 'I forgot!'" says Bach.

Those who have no time to go to the mall or don't know what to buy can order gift certificates on the site and have them sent directly to the recipient. People can also cut down on having to return unwanted gifts by creating their own personal gift wish list on the sites and then e-mailing it to friends and family with one mouse click.

The research Before creating the e-bulletin service, Taubman tracked Internet usage and shopping patterns among more than 18,000 customers in its shopping center markets and conducted a series of 36 focus groups nationwide.

"We literally asked our customers to design their ideal Web site features," explains Taubman's Gies. Taubman worked with Commerce One (formerly AppNet), a national Web strategy and development firm, to produce the new Beverly Center site and e-bulletin.

"E-mail is a tremendously effective communications tool," she adds. "The customer can personalize the information he or she wants and then give us permission to send it. The system ensures that no customer receives any extraneous information."

The same URLs that access the web sites from computers will also work for most wireless devices. In some cases, depending on the wireless devices and systems, users may need to add the prefix "wap" in place of the "www" to the URL (wap. beverlycenter.com). There's no registration for the wireless access, and the service is free.

As Southern California's premier trendsetting marketplace, Beverly Center features 160 distinctive specialty boutiques and restaurants reflecting the diverse styles and tastes of Los Angeles. Located at the edge of Beverly Hills and Hollywood between La Cienega and San Vicente Boulevards, Beverly Center is anchored by Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Macy's Men's Store, a 13-screen movie theater, California's only Grand Lux Cafe and Los Angeles' only California Welcome Center. The Rooftop Terrace, Beverly Center's most recent addition, showcases panoramic views stretching from downtown Los Angeles to the legendary Hollywood sign and is available for private parties. To know what's hot before it's cool, visit beverlycenter.com

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Media Contact: John Giurini +1 323 650 5125 jgiurini@earthlink.net