WEEHAWKEN, NJ and REDWOOD CITY, CA February 1, 1999 - Hanover Direct, Inc. (AMEX: HNV) and Excite (NASDAQ: XCIT) today announced the debut of a new Catalog Department on Excite's Shopping Channel, bringing the extensive Hanover Direct branded portfolio of specialty catalogs to Excite's online shopping audience. Eight of Hanover Direct's specialty catalogs will be featured, including The Company Store, Silhouettes, Improvements, International Male, Undergear, Gump's By Mail, Domestications and Tweeds. In the future Hanover plans to expand coverage to all of its offerings on Excite's shopping channel. The Company's have also reached agreement by which the Excite programmed portions of Netscape NetCenter will also carry the Catalog Department. The Catalog Department of the Shopping Channel will also give Excite users online access to an array of their other favorite catalogs.

In late 1998 Hanover Direct and Excite announced the creation of their electronic commerce alliance which included the new Catalog Department as well as Excite's selection of Keystone Fulfillment Inc., a Hanover affiliate, as the third party back-end fulfillment vendor to be exclusively promoted by Excite. Immediately following last year's announcement, Hanover catalog product was featured in Excite's Holiday Shoppe promotion, the first of a series of seasonal promotions and targeted merchandise offers to be promoted within the Excite site. Hanover Direct has had on-line catalog presence since March 1997. Currently each of its specialty catalogs has a web site.

"We continue to see exponential growth in the numbers of our e-commerce shoppers. This new initiative will further accelerate that growth," said Hanover Direct, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Rakesh K. Kaul. "Our alliance with Excite allows us to expand our exposure of Hanover merchandise to the 17 million unique users Excite attracts every month, to offer Excite's superior on-line services and utilize Excite's cost effective marketing media program." Kaul added, " "Through Keystone Fulfillment, Excite can now offer proven, reliable fulfillment services to additional retailers who want to harness the power of online retailing. "

About Excite, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Excite, Inc. is a global media company offering consumers a personalized Web start page on www.excite.com and a 'back to basics' Web search service on www.webcrawler.com, and advertisers the best one-to-one marketing services available online. The Excite Network consists of two of the largest brands on the Web, Excite (www.excite.com) and WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com), and its subsidiaries; Classifieds2000, MatchLogic, Inc., Excite Japan Co., Ltd. and Excite UK, Ltd.. Localized versions of Excite are available in France, Germany, the UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and Australia. Based in Redwood City, Calif., Excite, Inc. (NASDAQ: XCIT) has strategic relationships with America Online, Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., CUC Investments Inc., Intuit Inc., Netscape Communications Corp., Prodigy Internet and Tribune Company.

About Hanover Direct, Inc.
Hanover Direct, Inc. (AMEX: HNV) is a leading, specialty direct marketer with a diverse branded portfolio of home fashions, general merchandise, women's and men's apparel and gift catalogs and proprietary products delivered via direct mail and electronic commerce platforms. Its branded portfolio of catalogs includes: Domestications and Colonial Garden Kitchens (Home Fashions - Mid Market brands); The Company Store and Kitchen & Home (Home Fashions - Upscale brands); Improvements and The Safety Zone (General Merchandise brands); Silhouettes and Tweeds (Women's Apparel brands); International Male, Austad's and Undergear (Men's Apparel brands); and Gump's By Mail (Gift brands). The Company owns Gump's, a retail store based in San Francisco and recently launched Keystone Fulfillment Inc., offering third party fulfillment and proprietary electronic commerce services. Information on all of Hanover Direct's retail titles can be accessed on the Internet individually by name.

CONTACT:
AGG International, Public Relations
Paula Zwerdling
Managing Director
(212) 869-8230

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