Sprint Takes the Shopping Experience to the Next Level with Roll Out of New Online Store

Shopping for wireless devices and plans has “never been easier”

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), May 25, 2011 – Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) customers can now “add to their carts” a new, more robust shopping experience when they visit Sprint.com. Sprint’s new online store, which can be accessed at www.sprint.com/phones, has new features and functionality that make it easier for customers to pick the right phone, scan and compare service plans, and change plans and add-ons right in the online store.

“Shopping online at Sprint.com for wireless devices and plans has never been easier,” said Mike Cooley, Sprint vice president for Online Channels. “We spent months testing the new Sprint online shopping experience directly with our customers and getting their candid feedback. We wanted to ensure that what we launched includes the tools and functionality they need and to help them make the most informed purchasing decisions when shopping on our website.”

Because the vast majority of Sprint shoppers in a brick and mortar store first go to Sprint.com to investigate their purchase, the website is a critical initial touch point in the shopping process. Visitors to Sprint.com will experience these new and improved features while shopping online:

Phones: Customers wanting to learn anything and everything about a device will visit the phone section where they can use the comparison tool to compare their existing devices’ features with that of other devices. Phones can now be filtered by over 45 different features, including style, price, operating system, and special deals.

Wondering what things a given device can and can’t do? Icons for each phone clearly spell this out. Customers can also see a gallery of phone images, size comparisons, and descriptive videos. The site also offers customer and expert ratings and reviews, which a 2011 Forrester Research report on website user experience noted “allowed users to make the most-informed choice possible.”¹

Plans: While researching service plans, shoppers can see a side-by-side display to compare the benefits and value of different plans. Visual cues and clean styling will also better communicate the value of Sprint’s worry-free all-inclusive plans. Sprint’s Simply Everything®, Everything Data and Any Mobile, Anytime^SM, make it easier for customers to use all of the features of their phones. Customers have no need to get out a calculator to tally up prices for each feature or guess how much data they’ll use in a month.

Shopping online is growing and in 2010 Sprint.com saw record-setting demand for online transactions. According to the 2011 Forrester report which evaluated the website user experience of wireless carriers, Sprint’s plan and phone content added value beyond that of other wireless carriers. Sprint also differentiated itself from the other wireless carriers with very simple plan offerings, most of which included unlimited talk time, texting, and/or data.¹

Purchasing Tool: The purchasing tool provides a step-by-step guide of the sales process. It helps customers pick the right purchase path – whether it be upgrading or adding a new line – and keep track of where they are in the process. It qualifies a customer’s intent to purchase, confirms what the customer has done, what they are doing and what they will do next. The tool also enables customers to change their selections at anytime during the purchase process.

Simpler Checkout: The new streamlined checkout process will make the final steps of purchasing a snap.

“With tens of millions of visits per month, Sprint.com has evolved into a destination site with the integration of our popular social networking community, more than 60,000 expert and customer reviews of our products, the launch of new self-service features in My Sprint, and the inclusion of a variety of tutorials, videos and support services for customer devices,” Cooley said.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 51 million customers at the end of 1Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 6 in its 2010 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

¹Forrester Research, Inc. report, “Best And Worst Of Website User Experience, 2010,” February 2011