When it comes to trading small cap stocks, you win some and lose some. And in some cases - as with Commerce Planet (CPNE) - you do both. Commerce Planet was one of our biggest winners in 2006. It’s a good thing we suggested taking profits when we did, since CPNE ended up being one of the bigger losers for 2007. Here’s a recent question from a reader… 

What has happened to CPNE? I had my finger on the SELL button at the PEAK but decided to go longer on the stock. Did I miss some nasty news or will it come back in ‘08? I bought in at $0.23

If you bought at 23 cents, then you bought it back in early 2006. That also means (like you said) you rode it all the way up and then all the way back down. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think we’ll both agree this is a good example of why it pays to use protective stops….and raise them every so often.

Be that as it may, I don’t think you missed one single event. Rather, Commerce Planet suffered from a slow trickle of poor investor communications, an increasing number of slow pays and no pays (poor cash flow and charge-offs), and each day that passed, it seemed like the flaws in the business (growth) model became bigger. Amazingly, the company let those issues persist for many, many months.

The company got an overhaul a few weeks ago - complete with new management - that could put the stock on the right path again. It won’t happen overnight though. There’s a lot of burned bridges and bad blood to overcome.

I think it’s possible they can recover, but I wouldn’t make any strong bets at this point.

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I have to admit I had mixed feelings about bringing your attention back to this small cap stock. But, being the Small Cap Network - and knowing our readers are pretty savvy traders - I figured you at least deserved to know that our former small cap stock pick Commerce Planet (CPNE) is starting to talk about a national exchange listing. And based on what we’ve seen so far, the market is fairly pleased about it.

If you were following the newsletter in the early part of last year, then odds are you made a ton of money on Commerce Planet. We started following the stock on March 22nd when shares were priced at 19 cents. The company was doing everything right at the time, so much so that by February 20th of this year the stock peaked at $3.48. It was the kind of trade that reminds you of why you’re interested in small caps in the first place.

Then shortly after that, things changed. The company finally started to face hurdles - as all companies do. But, the constant investor communication completely dried up. You couldn’t get a peep out of these guys about what was going on. The drought lasted for the better part of 2007, as the stock dwindled back to as low as 62 cents. The 50 day moving average line acted as resistance for most of that downtrend.

Well guys, today’s news may be just what the doctor ordered. CPNE shares are up big today, and above the 50 day average for the first time since March, on the news of a potential national listing.

Is this a breakout move? I don’t know. It sure looks like it could be, but maybe it’ll be a one-day wonder. The volume sure looks good, but given this stock’s history, I think I’d wait and see where this really goes…if it goes. Just wanted you to know in case you felt there’s something there.

Are you a subscriber to the Small Cap Network newsletter? If not, you’re missing out on some great trading ideas and exclusive market commentary. To sign up, just go to the top right corner of any page of our website. You’ll be joining thousands of other subscribers who have already benefited from our news and views.

Not quite sure why yet, and not sure it really matters, but something’s going on with Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE). It’s up today nearly 20% so far, and moving like a rocket. The volume is very heavy too. There’s no news behind the move….at least not yet. However, that’s what I like best about it.

My guess is a switch got flipped, and a major player or fund just decided the price wasn’t going to get much better than somewhere around $1.10. Hence, the buying. The thing is, those bursts of accumulation can last for a few days, driving the price higher the whole time. In addition, the huge move is starting to get the attention of the rest of the market. Considering just how unproductive the rest of the market has been of late, I believe the average retail investor could start to put some money on the table as well.

In other words, we may be looking at a breakout move. Not that it’s without the usual risks, but I kind of like the odds versus the potential reward here. This is a really strong move, and if it keeps getting traction, may well be the beginning of the recovery. Take a look and decide for yourself, but I personally may be jumping on this one.

In fact, I know some of the other Small Cap Network staff already have a position……One of the managing members of TGR Group, LLC has purchased 10,000 shares of CPNE in the open market with a average cost basis of $1.47.

I’ll post my own disclosure if I pull the trigger.

We always try to answer all legitimate questions from individual readers, but after thinking about these three specific ones, I wanted to share my answers with all our readers…..so everyone can get a good feel for how we’re seeing things. Just remember they’re opinions unless otherwise noted.

1) The latest on challenger boats–real co. or scam?

Challenger Powerboats (OTCBB: CPWB) isn’t a scam - just a disappointment. The factory and boats are real, and they’re well-respected within the boating world. They just aren’t selling enough of them. I believe that problem can be overcome, but it’s apparently going to take longer than we first thought….maybe until 2008 to really get things rolling. What do investors do in the meantime? Your discretion.

Ideally, I feel the company needs to do $12 million (annually) to prove their mettle. Why $12 million? That’s what the pre-merger combined sales total was between Challenger and IMAR in 2006.  Anything beyond that is growth. Anything less than that is contraction. I still think it’s possible for CPWB to pay off eventually…..just not sure when - perhaps not soon enough. It does concern me that they don’t even seem like they’re even close to being on track to reach $12 million by year’s end.

2) CPNE.OB???I am shocked. You have recommended Commerce Planet (CPNE.OB), I believed in it from September, but I am shocked with price in last three weeks. Any comment?

Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE)….good company - not so good stock. I think the early ‘exponential growth’ phase may be winding down, which is a tough act to follow. Also, I’ve heard consistent whispers that this company can get new customers, but just can’t retain them. There are only so many willing buyers out there, and then you run out of them. Still though, this company can and does put up some nice sales and earnings. I think CPNE may be undervalued, but unless the rest of the market agrees, it doesn’t matter - the stock won’t budge. Momentum is half the battle….a battle that CPNE is losing right now. As far as this stock is concerned, I think a rebound with upside follow through is possible, but watch the chart more than the news. But, I don’t look for the same kind of growth going forward.

3) Dear Editor What’s with WBTO?????? I believe this was one of your prior recommendations. Any idea why the bottom is falling out? Thank You.

I believe the bottom is falling out for Web2 Corporation (OTCBB: WBTO) shares because eventually you have to achieve some sort of monetary success. For months now we’ve heard about how much revenue Web2 could draw, or what kind of money they could make. Yet, we’ve not yet heard how much they’ve actually done, which makes me think they’re not doing much in the way of sales - if anything. They were late on their SEC filing as well, which is a red flag. Maybe the company is prepped to make a fortune, but they really need to go ahead and do it rather than just talk about it. Till then, I’m not surprised the stock is headed lower.

Other thoughts

Yeah, it’s definitely a tough time to be involved in the small cap world right now. These names have not traded well recently, but then again, no small caps have. I think it’s important to distinguish between general market tides and individual stock weakness. The recent overall weakness may be what’s wrong with CPNE. I’m not sure about CPWB. And WBTO? I think it may have been headed lower no matter what was going on in the market.

Be sure to check out Saturday’s edition for more recent small cap perspective.

After we scored big in Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) last year, we were elated - needless to say. Though the stock has officially fallen off of our coverage list since then, we’ve continued to monitor CPNE…..just in case the buyers wanted to make a go of it again. So far though, we really haven’t been inclined to go back to the well.

It’s a point I wanted to (re)make today in light of this question we received via e-mail a few moments ago. Figuring we could all benefit from the discussion, I think it would be best to answer it here in the blog. Mark writes…..

I’d be interested in your take on one of your former picks and highest flyers - Commerce Planet. Quarterly sales & earnings growth were both phenomenal and yet the stock is slumping big-time. I can’t quite understand this one. Any thoughts from your end. Future still appears bright for the company. Very puzzling!

Puzzling indeed, but not surprising. The company is doing well, but the stock isn’t. I think it really is that simple, though perhaps a little incomplete. This scenario is a textbook reason why I wrote one of our recent Market Wise columns ‘Never Confuse a Company With Its Stock’. I’m not going to rehash it here, as the article explains precisely why the stock is not behaving as it should.

In the meantime, here’s my take on the technicals, which may help you figure out when (or if) CPNE shares are going to be able to start moving in tandem with the company’s results.

The purple line is a 50 day moving average. It’s been acting as resistance of late, pushing the stock lower each time it was challenged. The green line is a 200 day moving average. It made an attempt to act as support, salvaging what was left of 2006’s run. But, it finally crumbled a few days ago. This is a simple yet meaningful sign of bearish momentum.

On the other hand, not all hope is lost. The blue lines are Fibonacci lines, one of which may still be hold up as a floor. The 61.8% retracement level at $1.43 is still intact, and in fact appears to have halted the decline - at least for the time being. If it breaks too, it could spark another wave of selling.

(Just FYI, the lower edge of the Fibonacci line range was based on the stock’s multi-year low around 16 cents, hit in late 2005.)

One of the managing members of TGR Group, LLC has purchased 10,000 shares of CPNE in the open market with a average cost basis of $1.47

Pretty much in line with the guidance provided a couple of weeks ago, Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) just reported $8.7 million in profits for their fiscal 2006….a tad higher than the estimated $8.6 million. Revenues came in at $27.5 million (excludes inter-segment transactions), again just a hair higher than the $27.4 million mentioned just a few days ago.

EPS ended up being 20 cents per share, rather than 18 cents….that’s the only big difference between the expected versus the actual - a 10% difference though.

Something of a non-event, as the info was already out. They slightly underestimated their guidance - perhaps intentionally - so I don’t think the market will really think much of it they hadn’t already thought. The only big variance was in earnings per share….that extra 2 cents could go over pretty well.

For more, click here.

Like we predicted yesterday morning, Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) sold  off on good earnings news…..and I couldn’t be any happier about it. Why? Strictly my opinion, but I think this dip is a short-term event, yet will allow a second chance for anybody to new to jump in at a reasonably low level.

Here are the specifics behind the rationale……

First, look what happened at yesterday’s low of $2.68. Or, maybe I should say look what else is parked at $2.68…the 20 day moving average line - one of my ‘biggies’ in the world of short-term technical analysis. The stock kissed it, and started to recover.

Second, look what else is right there at $2.68…the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement line. The ground floor for those retracement levels are based at $1.44, where the stock took a breather in December. I know some of you may have been eyeing $1.77 as a base line for the Fib numbers, but I personally think $1.44 has a little more meaning. Why? It was the last time we were under the 20 day average…a real test of the bullish conviction here. The January lull never really tested the bulls, and as such, never forced them to draw a specific line in the sand. 

Anyway, it’s more art than science, but I like what I’m seeing so far of the post-announcement CPNE.

No surprises here….the results were impressive right up through the end of the year. Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) gave some much-anticipated earnings guidance today. The company expects to report revenues of $27.4 million in 2006, versus 2005’s figure of $7.3 million. As far as earnings go, the Planet is looking for $8.6 million in profit, which is like night and day compared to a loss of $6.3 million a year earlier. That translates into earnings of 18 cents per share. The profit margin works out to be a nice 31.3%.

Prediction: I think the numbers are beautiful, right in line with the company’s growth trend. However, I won’t be surprised to see a little selling on the news (‘Buy the rumor, sell the news‘). I’ve just seen these events play out like that, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense. My only advice is this…don’t over-react, as the selling may well be short lived. Stocks with momentum can and frequently do experience bumps, but the good ones are often quick to recover.

Here’s more.

I’m sure I’ll have more input once we see post-earnings-news action.

We’ve all been following Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) pretty closely over the last few weeks….some of us because we own it, some of us because we wish we owned it. While we’d all love to go back mid-January and scoop it up again at $2.00 (knowing it was on its way to more than $3.00), that ain’t gonna’ happen. However, we think we might be looking at the next best thing - a short-term pullback that may be a window of (entry) opportunity.

Two things caught our eye. First, the bearish gap…..the market hates ‘em, and they act like vacuums. So, today’s could have a ‘pulling up’ effect on the stock.

The second thing….a near-perfect 38.2% Fibonacci retracement from the recent peak at $3.30. We used $1.75 as the base. You could justify other base lines, but that’s the one that has the most meaning in our view.

You can already see a recovery effort was started as soon as the Fib line at $2.70 was - a good sign.

The chart is below. In the meantime, a couple of other key developments….

This morning, Commerce Planet hired not one, but two investment banking firms. On Monday, we learned that 4.8 million shares of unregistered stock were being sold to institutional investors…..at a price of $1.90. While we don’t begrudge these big guys the chance to own a $3.00 stock at $1.90, what about the rest of us? In any case, the institutional involvement speaks volumes - in our opinion, this stock is now getting some serious traction with the big players.

Ask and you shall receive….sort of. Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) announced today they’ll be providing Q4 earnings guidance on February 22nd. The venue is the Roth Capital Partners conference in Dana Point, California.

What do we see coming? Strictly conjecture, but here’s our logic….

The company has continued to hit record enrollments since we last heard from them in early November. So, we can reasonably assume the trend they had in place last quarter is still in place for Q4 of 2006.

In terms of revenue, the ‘Planet’ saw $9.7 million in sales in their Q3, with $3.1 million in profits. (In the same quarter from the prior year, they only posted $1.7 million in sales, and lost $2.1 million. So right off the bat, we’re impressed.) At the end of Q2 of 2006, they reported sales of $7 million, and they posted sales of $4 million at the end of Q1 from last year.

Earnings-wise, over the last three calendar quarters, they saw profits of $0.53 million, $1.4 million, and then $3.1 million in Q3 of 2006.

Rising sales, rising revenues. Need we say more? (Of course, we were going to anyway.)

While we think the rate of quarter-to-quarter growth will have to slow sometime, in our opinion, we’re not there yet. Based on the improvements seen over the last three quarters, we’d put Q4 revenues somewhere around $12 - $14 million. We’d say profits could be between $4 and $5 million.

As we said, it’s strictly a guess, but still an educated one. If we’re right, then Commerce Planet is roughly on track to do $50 million in sales this year, with a market cap of about $145 million. That’s still undervalued in our eyes though, as we see this thing still growing like a weed. We don’t think $4 to $5 for shares is out of the question, if you’re still in the trade we suggested early last year.

Technically, our trade-tracking was finished a few weeks ago when shares hit our suggested target of $1.95, locking in a 926% gain from our original pick price of 19 cents. However, we still think there’s a little upside left to go if there’s anybody who didn’t get enough the first time around.

We hope you were in since the beginning, but if not, we at least hope you got in at any point between March 22nd (2006) and now. During that time, we’ve seen Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) move from our original pick price of 19 cents to our target price of $1.95, hit just a few moments ago. That’s a 926% gain for those lucky folks who took action almost a year ago. Of course, most everybody should have done pretty well no matter when you got in.

While we’re excited to be able to say we highlighted the opportunity to our readers well before the move, we also want to remind everybody we’ve got a couple of other current ideas we feel have the same kind of potential (and perhaps one still in the works).

With that big win in mind, there’s also a lesson to be reviewed…..the 80/20 rule applies to trading as much as it does to any facet of life. CPNE was only one of many ideas we’ve worked through in the last year or so, but that one trade, say at a 10% allocation, would have almost doubled your entire portfolio. Such is the way it works in the small cap world.

We feel to really make our ideas work for you, it’s best to read our comments consistently. Though only you can make any final trading decision, we’ll say this much….in life (and trading) we tend to regret the things we don’t do more than the things we do. If you regret missing the boat on Commerce Planet, don’t worry - we’ve always got ideas with the same kind of potential on the table.

In the meantime, are we letting loose of Commerce Planet? Maybe just long enough to let it cool off. If it looks like there could be more of the same upside in store, we’d have no problem looking at it again. Good traders frequently go back to the same well, if it makes sense to do so.

One of the themes we’ve been discussing lately is the notion of how sometimes company news or announcements have a blatant point, and other times, there’s also a more subtle message being delivered.

Case in point - Clearly Canadian (OTCBB: CCBEF). The beverage producer issued two press releases over a span of two days…one to discuss the new distributor strategy, and the other to provide on overview of 2007 plans. Both were clear, but at the same time, neither were absolutely necessary…nor will either directly increase sales or earnings. No, we suspected there was a bigger motive than just getting a little attention. We think what was really going on could be considered a little groundwork - stirring the pot, if you will. The info was just enough to tease investors and consumers. Now curious, the next batch of publicity is likely to be highly anticipated….and that’s when PR efforts get real traction.

It’s a point worth illustrating again, as it seems Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) is using the same model. Earlier today they announced merger and acquisition council had been retained. No reason was given in the press release - it was just an announcement.

The question we’re asking (and the one we feel astute investors should always ask) is “so what?” The new council is certainly qualified, but nowhere in the press release did it explain how these new lawyers would be able to increase sales or profits.

In a case like this, we think you have to read between the lines (though the underlying message here isn’t as obscured as some we’ve seen). While there was no mention of it yesterday, the very fact that M&A lawyers were hired at all leads us to believe Commerce Planet intends to do one of two things….(1) put itself up for sale, which we’d say is less likely, or (2) look to continue acquiring other entities, which is more likely, in our opinion. Either way, it’s generally a good sign for investors, even if not a direct and immediate boost to share price.

For the full details, click here.

The Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) juggernaut is still on a roll, with the latest installment of good news compliments of their Consumer Loyalty Group - one of the company’s biggest subsidiaries.

And what’s the latest? Just a record enrollment month. The Consumer Loyalty Group processed 71,971 paid memberships in December….and it was a 50% increase over November’s total. In a word, wow!

While that sort of improvement would be huge for most other companies, it’s - to a certain degree - the kind of over-delivery we’ve come to expect from Commerce Planet. Kudos to the company for raising their own bar.

Just an FYI, mark the entire latter half of February as the time frame during which we expect Commerce Planet to announce quarterly as well as annual earnings. And as a reminder, the last few quarters have just been fantastic; we expect no less this time around.

As for shares, current owners are being mildly rewarded for today’s good news….the stock is up about 4%. The rebound offsets a couple of weeks worth of weakness, and puts the chart back above some key technical support levels.

For more details, click here.

While there are dozens of ways to measure the ‘value’ of a stock, we think at the end of the day, there’s one simple bottom-line gauge of ‘undervalued’ or ‘overvalued’. What’s that measure? In simplest terms, it’s just whether or not a company is willing to eat its own cooking…so to speak. That’s just our way of saying a company willing to go out in the open market and buy its own shares must be seeing - or perhaps understands their true potential - more than the rest of the market might. After all, money talks (at least talks more than anything else does).

We weren’t surprised to hear Commerce Planet’s (OTCBB: CPNE) board approved a major stock repurchase plan yesterday. We’ve been following their story for a while, and we tend to agree the stock seems undervalued relative to where the company seems to be going. Now ‘the Planet’, with real dollars, is going to sit side-by-side with all the other retail investors out there. Investors may want to take note, as it’s a surprisingly rare occurrence in the world of equities.

The terms are pretty straight-forward. Commerce Planet’s Board of Directors decided to authorize up to $2 million worth of CPNE share purchases. The window on the approval closes at the end of 2007, so they have more than a full year to take any action they feel is merited.

A little math may be in order to really understand the scope of the plan. The terms don’t specify a certain number of shares or a particular schedule, but rather, a dollar amount. But, we can still do a little extrapolating. Dividing that $2 million by the current price of $1.36 translates into about 1.47 million shares. As of right now, there are roughly 47.5 million outstanding shares, meaning the buy-back at current trading levels would put about 3% of the company’s stock back into the treasury. It may not seem like much mathematically, but trust us - that’s a lot in comparison to many other publicly traded companies.

Of course, that kind of buying could translate into a lopsided ‘demand’ side of the supply/demand equation. We don’t think it will be to a dumb-founding degree, but it could be noticeable. Needless to say, we think this is a good thing for current owners.

Click here for full details.

Well, as we expected, Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) saw a huge earnings increase…..again. Getting a little bit overdue for the announcement, the Planet finally released the news this morning. They saw $9.7 million in sales in their Q3, with $3.1 million in profits. For the same quarter last year, they only posted $1.7 million in sales, and lost $2.1 million.
 
As for the trend, like we mentioned Friday, we’ve seen two improvements over the last two quarters - on both fronts. Quarterly revenues totaled $4 million and $7 million (respectively), while earnings totaled $535K and $1.4 million (respectively). Do we even need to point out that profits doubled between this quarter and the last? Actually, it was a 113% increase!
 
Equally impressive is the increase in margin. Clearing $1.4 million on $7 million in sales last quarter translates into a margin of 20%. The $3.1 million in cleared earnings on 9.7 million in sales this quarter means profit margins went to 32%. Wow! 
 
Who knows where the stock could go today? The last two quarterly earnings announcements sent shares ultimately up by 200% before they settled back in. Could it indeed be a three-peat in every way? Maybe.
 
And just remember, you heard about the idea from the SmallCap Digest! The thing is, we’ve got a couple more similar ideas in our back pocket…more on those later in the week.

For the full details, click here.

Regular readers who may act on our ideas are also probably aware by now that Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE) pulled back by 22.3% yesterday, closing at $1.36 after ending Monday at $1.75. A little painful? Yeah, but take some solace in knowing that since we’ve been covering the stock beginning in mid-March, shares are still up by 615%, even with Tuesday’s selloff.

And that’s the interesting part of the whole thing…it’s difficult to really call Tuesday a selloff - at least not a meaningful one. In fact, there are three reasons we could site that tell us a rebound is likely.

First, volume, for a move of that size, should have been enormous. It wasn’t though. It was a little higher than normal, but it wasn’t enough volume to really make us think the tide has turned to the downside.

Second, for those of you who follow Fibonacci retracement levels like we do, will also recognize how the low of $1.33 yesterday was a near-perfect 61.8% retracement from September’s ‘launch’ level to Monday’s high of $1.80. While Fibonacci numbers may seem a little esoteric to some traders, we’ve just seen them play a role a little too often to chalk up to mere coincidence.

Third, as we’ve seen frequently since June, the 20 day moving average line is acting as support. If history repeats itself - as it often does - a trader may be able to reasonably expect any rebound effort to start forming here, just above the $1.30 area.

Conclusion: While it can be a dangerous mentality to blindly buy any dip, in this case, the odds appear to still favor the bulls. Of course, this would make the 39 cent dip an outstanding ’second chance’ for those who may have missed the opportunity earlier.

And truth be told, a good-sized correction can be a little healthy from time to time. It shakes the Nervous-Nellie’s out of their position, and forces everyone else to make a buy/sell decision when facing a potential crossroads. Now with all that volatility squeezed out, we should be able to look forward to a more stable (i.e. predictable) chart.

Of course, being smart and defensive is still a must. No matter what you decide about CPNE’s recovery odds, you should always be employing defensive measures that reflect your personal risk tolerances.

Don’t forget, SmallCap Digest offers free stock ideas and market commentary through our e-newsletter. Be sure to sign up today using the link in the top right corner…and don’t forget to respond to the confirmation e-mail.

Commerce Planet (OTCBB: CPNE), now with a long list of recently acquired enterprises, announced yet another one today. Formerly paying Interaccurate Inc. to serve as the Planet’s primary software developer, President Charlie Guggliuzza announced today his company would be buying its former vendor. Now Commerce Planet has yet another cost savings, in that the software development effort is now in-house. Why? No more hosting or licensing fees. However, we suspect that the real bottom-line benefit will be the additional revenue generated by Interaccurate once the Planet starts to promote the service. After all, they certainly already have the right customer base. 

And just for the record, it didn’t take long for Commerce Planet’s last outright purchase of OS Imaging to become a new profit center. We blogged the acquisition announcement on June 6th. By July 26th, it had already become a proven venture. So, given Commerce Planet’s magic touch, we’re looking for this to be a real win-win scenario.

Click here to see the full press release.

Regular readers will know we’ve been singing Commerce Planet’s (OTCBB: CPNE) praises for months…the company has done phenomenally well, and the stock price has reflected it. Since we began our coverage in March, CPNE shares have run from 19 cents to the current price of $1.62, for a 750% increase (and still counting).

So then, it really comes as no surprise to us to read today’s news about the Planet - its subsidiary Legacy Media Inc. doubled their July profits in August. The mind-boggling part is that the company is only scratching the surface. With the affiliate infra-structure in place, they now have a vehicle to plug-in an infinite number of other offers. We expect to keep seeing the same kinds of results…and the same kind of growth.

Needless to say, Commerce Planet still presents an enormous - and surprisingly low risk - opportunity, even to today’s buyers.

I don’t know how they do it, and I don’t even care how they do it. All I know is, they’re doing it, and the stock is going higher because of it. What I’m talking about is Commerce Planet’s (OTCBB: CPNE) bevy of upgrades and additions to its web site and customer service offerings. A couple of weeks ago it was an online bill-pay utility. One week ago it was a self-help chat feature. Today’s installment - another customer retention tool - is a comparison shopping web site called SearchDiscount.com. This newest shopping site, powered by PriceGrabber.com, will allow Commerce Planet’s customers to do comparison shopping, and see vendor ratings/reviews.

A big revenue generator? Maybe, but that’s not even all it’s designed to be. All of these seemingly minor details just make the Planet’s library of site(s) ’sticky’…a phrase used to describe a web site that is so feature-rich (much of it for free), it’s hard for a user to navigate anywhere else. Of course, ’sticky’ is a relative term; in Commerce Planet’s case, the appeal is primarily to those doing e-commerce in one fashion or another. However, the appeal does indeed mean eventual revenue. Why do you think the stock has moved from 19 cents to the current price of $1.25 in just a little over six months? That’s a 557% gain so far, and in our opinion, more of the same could be on the way.

For the full release, click here.

Don’t forget, SmallCap Digest offers free stock ideas and market commentary through our e-newsletter. Be sure to sign up today using the link in the top left corner…and don’t forget to respond to the confirmation e-mail.

Just a few days ago we heard about Commerce Planet’s (OTCBB: CPNE) new online bill payment offering. Today, as part of what has become a relatively consistent series of revenue-improving features, the Planet has added a virtual chat feature for its subscribers. The tool is expected to help drive revenue for the third party merchants, who will in turn pay Commerce Planet a nominal acquisition fee.

In other words, Commerce Planet is providing a help-chat service that should allow its current subscribers to create even more sales…an offering that, if effective, would be a no-brainer addition for the folks already using the Planet as the virtual middle-man.

Brilliant? Yeah, but even better is the cost. This isn’t a ‘live’ chat requiring labor-intensive support (i.e. man hours). This is a pretty sophisticated set of algorithms that acts like a live chat from the casual web surfer’s perspective, but is actually automated from Commerce Planet’s end. Pretty slick, huh?

This is yet one more reason why CPNE shares just keep on rising. And yes, in our opinion, we can see the stock continuing to rise - despite the strong run already. While big moves may foster hesitation in some cases (and rightfully so, in some of them), the Planet’s shares have never really reached that white-hot ‘overbought’ stage where the only possibility was an implosion. That relative stability is a nice quality to offer shareholders.