element 5 platform
Company - History
Outsourced e-commerce
Global Sales Online
Just for software publishers

element 5 technology platform is an integrated part of Digital River's outsourced e-commerce solution.
element 5 develops and manages the most successful e-business solutions for software publishers. The solutions ensure maximum revenue and profitability for your internet sales.
The performance capabilities of our internationally experienced team and element 5's scalable technologies guarantee speed, reliability and investment security in the constantly changing software market.

element 5 was founded in 1998 with a vision to use the Internet as a global sales channel for software products. The experience the team has gained in online software sales since then has strongly influenced the company's development of new e-business solutions. Today thousands of software vendors in more than 150 countries use elements 5's solutions to sell their products via the Internet. element 5 has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV) since April 2004, and in August 2006, element 5 changed its name to Digital River.

For many software publishers, running a dedicated e-store operation and developing an international customer base are time-consuming and costly projects - and yet increasingly important in today's digital economy. To reduce the complexity, risks and costs in managing these tasks, element 5 offers outsourced e-commerce solutions and marketing services designed to help software vendors increase the worldwide sales of their products over the Internet and through online channel partners. Software sales and profitability can be maximized because the e-commerce solutions are efficiently hosted by element 5.

Minimal investments in technology or services are required because element 5 takes a hosting approach that ensures continual upgrades and support. Order handling, payments, delivery, licensing, logistics, customer service, and a wide range of online marketing options are core components of element 5's e-business solutions. element 5 offers small, mid-sized and large software publishers as well as shareware developers immediate access to the global online market - making their products accessible to customers anywhere in the world.

The global sale of electronic goods such as software in particular is becoming increasingly more efficient and economically viable. The solution of element 5 is an outsourced e-commerce solution designed for software publishers that plan to sell their software via the Internet. With minimal technology investment or know-how and element 5's solution, publishers can quickly open online sales channels and new revenue-generating opportunities.

For easy implementation, element 5 integrates its e-commerce system into the publisher's existing Web site, adapting to its look and feel. Available in 11 languages, the solution is tailored to country-based business practices and regulations and supports various international order and payment practices, including standard payment types and currencies. It also offers a choice of fulfillment options. Software can be downloaded electronically, shipped with a license key or ordered as a try-before-you-buy version. element 5's solution also offers physical shipment of shrink-wrapped products as well as a Backup CD service, in which a customized CD-ROM is sent to the customer in addition to the download.

Software publishers looking for an e-commerce solution that fits their needs can add value to their online business by using the key components of the element 5 solution:

Direct and indirect sales channels
Online software sales are stimulated by direct and indirect sales channels. To increase market penetration, software vendors can sell their products from their own Web site as well as indirectly through the element 5 network of resellers, distributors, affiliates and OEM partners. Sales partners can use element 5's solution to purchase the publisher's products at discount rates and within lines of credit previously agreed upon. Several thousands of affiliate partners can also be easily integrated in the indirect sales channels. All they need to do is register on the publisher's Web site, select the products they would like, and link to the products from their Web sites. Partnerships with Toshiba, Medion, Apple, CNET, ZDNet and many other leading resellers can be established to sell trial and full versions and motivate customers to buy. At the same time, OEM partnerships can be entered into, in which trial versions of software are included when hardware is purchased and activated via element 5.

Marketing services
In addition, the element 5 solution offers software publishers a wide range of marketing services that can be tailored for special groups, making their success measurable. These include cross selling and upselling, search engine optimization, Web site analysis, individualized e-mail campaigns, customer loyalty programs, online advertising and marketing promotions in newsletters.

Customer service
As the software vendor, element 5 also takes over customer service for anything to do with the order process, payment processing and delivery. Customer service is available in eleven languages including Chinese, German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. Offering multilingual solutions is part of the company's comprehensive service.

Online reporting
element 5 provides publishers online access to the individual sales data of all transactions, so that they have around-the-clock access to their e-commerce solution.

 

element 5 is a registered trademark of Digital River GmbH. Digital River is a registered trademark of Digital River Inc.