Symantec and Adgregate Bring Internet’s No. 1 Trust Mark to Social Commerce Sites on Facebook

For Merchants Who Use Adgregate’s ShopFans to Build Stores on Facebook,VeriSign SSL and VeriSign Trust Seal Can Improve Efforts to Convert Conversations into Commerce

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- eTail West, Booth #42 – Every month, more than 500 million online consumers collectively spend 700 billion minutes on Facebook. As those Facebook members display a growing willingness to spend money as well as time, Adgregate Markets, a leading provider of secure social commerce, is joining with Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) to significantly broaden the trusted shopping experiences available on the popular social networking site.


Adgregate now is offering Symantec’s VeriSign® Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates and the VeriSign® Trust Seal to customers of ShopFans, a native Facebook Platform application for creating stores. With the enhanced security of VeriSign SSL and VeriSign Trust Seal protection, stores created with ShopFans can enable commercial transactions directly in Facebook without compromising security and privacy. In addition, those merchants can display Symantec’s “VeriSign Trusted” seal, the most recognized trust mark on the Internet.

Adgregate’s ShopFans customers, a who’s who of leading top 500 retailers and fast growing brands, can now leverage the globally trusted Symantec brand to further harness the social commerce explosion:

* Ninety two percent of chief marketing officers at leading retailers are focusing their marketing efforts on Facebook. (Source: eMarketer)
* Facebook is by far the most effective way to turn conversations into conversions. In a recent report, 71 percent of users said they are more likely to buy after “liking” the brand, 68 percent feel more loyal to the brand, and 63 percent recommend others to join. (Source: Universal McCann)
* Morepace, a leading retail market research firm, reported that 41 percent of those who follow brands through Facebook recommend products they support, and 37 percent want to hear about deals.

VeriSign SSL and the VeriSign Trust Seal enable sites to display the “VeriSign Trusted” seal, which communicates that a site operator’s identity has been independently authenticated by Symantec. VeriSign Trusted sites are also scanned daily for malware by Symantec, and participating search engines display the seal next to their name within search results. VeriSign SSL and VeriSign Trust Seal protection has been shown to help sites of all kinds establish the level of trust necessary to drive traffic to online stores, convert shoppers into buyers, and build loyal, lasting customer relationships.

“Retailers and their Facebook fans deserve the most secure solution available — and that’s what they get from Symantec and Adgregate, two leaders in social commerce security,” said Henry Wong, CEO Adgregate.

“The attraction to Facebook as a platform for commerce is irresistible, but retailers must ensure that their Facebook presence is one that establishes the levels of trust necessary to convert fans into customers – and to keep them coming back,” said Fran Rosch, vice president of Trust Services at Symantec. “We’re delighted to work with an innovator like Adgregate, whose vision for social commerce is helping to take the Facebook experience in an entirely new direction. By displaying the VeriSign Trust seal, Facebook stores created with ShopFans will transform more browsers into buyers.”

Adgregate Markets’ ShopFans power the social commerce storefronts for retailers with combined total online annual sales of over $8.5 billion, and to their collective 20 million plus network of fans on Facebook. Unlike many existing social commerce solutions deployed on Facebook, ShopFans utilizes the world’s most secure social commerce technology. Moreover, ShopFans was built entirely as a native Facebook Platform application, instead of a ‘store in a widget,’ which allows brands for the first time to tie directly into all of the social plumbing of Facebook, including News Feed stories promoting “Wish lists,” “Likes,” “Shares,” gift registries, private and flash sales, loyalty rewards, social badging, and more.

More than 100,000 websites display Symantec’s VeriSign seal by deploying VeriSign SSL or VeriSign Trust Seal solutions. As the most popular security mark in the world, the VeriSign seal is viewed by Internet users more than half a billion times in a single day.

At eTail West 2011 in Palm Desert, Symantec and Adgregate Markets will host a roundtable networking event titled, “What You Need to Know about Secure Social Commerce.” This invitation-only, private lunch workshop is exclusively for heads of Marketing and e-commerce from retail organizations, and will take place on Wednesday, February 23rd at 1:20 p.m.

About Adgregate Markets

Adgregate Markets is the leading provider of secure advertising and social commerce solutions. ShopFans™ securely turns social shopping on Facebook from conversations into conversions. ShopAds™ guide prospective customers from the point of discovery to the point of purchase entirely within innovative online and mobile ads. SecureAds™ are the world’s most secure ads for customer engagement. Adgregate is a privately held company based in the San Francisco Bay Area and is venture-backed by leading investors. Adgregate has received numerous industry awards for its innovative advertising technology, including ad:tech’s White Hot Company, Techcrunch50 Finalist, and AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 Winner, recognizing the top private companies in digital media and advertising.


About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.