The deal is designed to benefit retailers and consumers, driving transactions for new and existing retail partners and offering consumers more choice.
Retailers will get the combination of 's shopping search engine combined with 's extensive consumer reach and broad offer of advertising and branding opportunities.
In addition, retailers will benefit from Kelkoo's price-comparison tools and product-centric programming, which Kelkoo says have been proven to drive increased numbers of qualified leads to retailers.
MSN's existing retail partners will be able to move to the new service at launch, while Kelkoo will market the service to new partners. Consumers will benefit from a choice of around 10,000 retailers and millions of products, as well as price comparison tools and advice.
The new service will be accessible via MSN's home pages in nine markets -- United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Introduction of the new service will be phased in over the coming months, with completion likely by July 1 2003.
Judy Gibbons, vice-president of MSN EMEA, said: "We believe this partnership with Kelkoo is a very positive move, as we will be able to offer our MSN Shopping customers a greater breadth and depth of choice and services. At the same time, we will continue to offer our retailers our extensive reach and digital marketing expertise. We think this is a win-win across the board."
MSN and Kelkoo are launching the service following the positive results of an 11-month test partnership between the two companies in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Pierre Chappaz, Kelkoo CEO, said: "The quality and size of MSN's user base will translate into significant sales growth for our client base of 10,000 retailers."
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