"We believe that Hastings Entertainment is the first fully integrated, multimedia entertainment retailer that will be offering books, music, software, videotapes and video games through the Internet on a single Web site," said John H. Marmaduke, chairman and chief executive officer. "This new e-commerce site will enhance the entertainment experience for our current customers and provide the opportunity for potential customers worldwide to experience Hastings’ total commitment to satisfying our customers’ entertainment needs.

"For the past 30 years Hastings has been a community-oriented, customer-driven retailer that focused on small to medium-sized markets that are many times ignored by other major chains," added Marmaduke. "This new e-commerce capability on our award-winning Web site now enables us to offer the global electronic community the level of product selection, competitive prices and high degree of customer service for which Hastings is known in the markets where we currently operate 123 superstores.

"We believe that our extensive retail experiences provide significant advantages that position us to succeed in electronic commerce on the Internet," Marmaduke noted. "These include our strong name recognition in our markets, our unique range and assortment of multimedia products, our advanced information systems and fulfillment capabilities, and our well-established entertainment retailing experience and ability to respond rapidly to our customers’ evolving entertainment needs."

Hastings’ e-commerce site opened for operation on an experimental basis on June 17. The company’s site now provides full commerce functionality and currently offers extensive book, music, software and video product lists, including hundreds of thousands of titles. Retail prices will offer everyday savings of up to 50%, and overall, will be competitive with other major on-line sellers.

The new www.hastingsentertainment.com site will include the following features:

• The catalog of entertainment merchandise available for review or purchase will be comparable to any other online retailer, but with in-stock selections available in five entertainment categories: books, music, video, software and video games.
• Product lookup will utilize extensive search capabilities of the Hastings’ databases, including search by department, category, first/last name, artist/author and barcode, as well as a departmental quick search capability by artist/author, title or barcode.
• Secure Web-based credit-card purchases and fast direct shipping to customers.
• Special databases will be available for search by Hastings’ customers, including:

1. Hot and new titles featured by category;
2. An endcap database of products featured on each department’s home page;
3. A magazine database of those publications available in Hastings stores, with multiple available links;
4. Album and book cover art.

• Real Audio 30-second sound clips will be available for approximately 200,000 songs from 30,000 albums.
• Best Sellers queries by categories and/or departments.
• Community Events database available by city, artist or event type, with the ability to purchase items for upcoming book/music signings.
• New Releases queries by date, categories, departments and rental dates (for videos), with the ability to purchase new releases.
• Customer reviews and rankings of individual releases, including graphic displays of average rankings.
• Online chat ability for customers to discuss the entertainment issues concerning them.
• Store locations information, including a list of open and soon-to-be-open stores, street maps and operating hours by store.
• Hastings corporate information, including news releases and stock quote information on the Company.