Carson Wrapped Hershey’s Chocolate, www.wrappedhersheys.com, has had a record sales year in 2007, including website conversions and total online revenue.

Cincinnati, Ohio January 16, 2008 — Carson Wrapped Hershey’s Chocolate, www.wrappedhersheys.com, has completed a record sales year in 2007, including both overall website conversions and total online revenue. Several enhancements to the website platform during the year, increased catalog mailings and aggressive online search marketing are responsible, says Carson’s President of Marketing, Sharon Frederick.

“Our website is a constant work in progress, and we seek and receive customer feedback on a daily basis about how we can improve their online shopping experience with us. We view the site as an evolution, just as we view our business overall. You must change to grow, and we will continue to evaluate and invest in our website platform for our customers.” Frederick said.

Of the over 40,000 orders Carson wrappedhersheys.com fulfilled in 2007, over 76% of the total order volume came from their ecommerce site. This is pretty significant considering just 4 years ago, Carson handled less than 30% of their total order volume online. The channel shift from phone center to web channel has proved to be a significant path to overall growth and cost savings. Continued web platform changes in 2008 are planned, including many new web applications.

Not only has our website allowed us to save money in operations that we can now redeploy in marketing and product development, it has allowed us to better focus on our customers and enhance their overall experience with us. We still pride ourselves on the utmost in customer service, but can now communicate with our customers more effectively about our products and services, and they can also easily communicate with us, which is extremely important, Frederick added.

Carson wrappedhersheys.com sold roughly 5 million custom wrapped Hershey’s chocolate bars in 2007.

Carson Wrapped Hershey’s® was established in 1993, when Edward Carson was looking for a creative way to celebrate the birth of his granddaughter, Elise. Instead of passing out cigars, he created pink candy wrappers to put around Hershey’s chocolate bars. It proclaimed, “HERESHEIS®,” in large type. Elise’s name and weight appeared in small print on the front, and other vital statistics, including the date and time of her arrival and her parents’ names, were on the back. This simple birth announcement launched the personalized Hershey’s bar industry.

The product line has continued to expand, including its signature personalized candy bars and favors for all occasions birth, wedding, birthdays, anniversaries, religious events, corporate promotions, etc. Carson has its own graphic design team that can help customers create unique wrappers, limited only by their own imagination.

Carson wrappedhersheys.com is licensed by Hershey® Chocolate and Confectionary Corporation, and is a member of the Direct Marketing Association. Carson employs 25 full time team members and several part time members, just north of Cincinnati, Ohio.

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