Fandango Looks for Some Synergy

Movie ticketing company Fandango, which sells theater tickets online and by phone, is expanding its reach via a marketing deal with retail operation Buy.com and e-commerce outsourcer United Commerce Service (UCS).

UCS, which created the technology that runs Buy.com, said it will develop a co-branded Buy.com-Fandango online store. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based UCS will manage Buy.com’s inventory, fulfillment, site content, customer service, Web site hosting and e-mail marketing for the co-branded site.

Privately held Fandango, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is testing print-at-home ticketing and has expanded the service to 40 cities nationwide, selling advance tickets for 7,300 screens at more than 600 theaters across the country. And with this deal, movie-oriented visitors to the site will have easy access to DVDs, videos, movie music, etc., as well as the remainder of Buy.com’s merchandise.

“Out of the 1.3 million SKUs of Buy.com’s entertainment product offerings, 300,000 are in the music, DVD and video categories, giving our moviegoers a tremendous variety of movie-related products …” said Art Levitt, president and CEO of Fandango.