GSI Commerce, Inc. - Order Fulfillment - Category Directory

(610) 265-3229

1075 First Ave

King of Prussia, PA 19406

www.gsicommerce.com.

Sales

$242 million

Business Description
We provide an e-commerce platform that enables retailers, branded manufacturers, entertainment companies and professional sports organizations to operate e-commerce businesses. Our e-commerce platform includes order management, order fulfillment, web site design, e-commerce technology, managed hosting,  customer service, online merchandising, customer relationship management, content development and online marketing. We currently operate or have agreements to operate either all or a portion of the e-commerce businesses for over 40 partners.  

Our Solution

Scalable and Cost Effective Solution.    We believe that our business model allows us to provide a cost effective and flexible solution to many of the challenges facing retailers, branded manufacturers, entertainment companies and professional sports organizations that desire to maximize their e-commerce businesses. Our e-commerce platform enables our partners to remain focused on their core businesses, drive incremental e-commerce revenue and build and operate their e-commerce businesses for less than they would be able to on their own. We also believe that we can generate attractive economic returns by operating multiple e-commerce businesses on our e-commerce platform under the established brands of our partners.

Comprehensive E-Commerce Solution.    We can develop and implement all aspects of an e-commerce business on our platform including:

Modular and Flexible E-Commerce Solution.    We have created a core technology infrastructure that we call The Common Engine^™ that operates and manages the applications and functionality across our e-commerce platform. This system allows us to efficiently add new partners on a common infrastructure while allowing each store to be personalized to fit the brand equity and identity of our individual partners. Some of our partners choose to have us operate all aspects of their e-commerce business while others select only some of the services we offer. For example, some of our partners choose us to provide e-commerce technology, managed hosting and order processing but fulfill e-commerce orders from their own fulfillment centers and provide their own customer service.

Partner-Centric E-Commerce Solution.    We customize the design and operation of partners’ e-commerce businesses with a broad range of characteristics that include differentiated user interfaces on partners’ Web sites, partner-specific content pages and partner specific customer service and fulfillment. In addition, we can custom develop features and functionality requested by our partners, as illustrated by the following capabilities that we have developed for some of our partners:

E-Commerce Expertise.    We believe we have achieved a “critical mass” of e-commerce expertise. Furthermore, we believe that our degree of expertise is accelerating fast and positions us favorably relative to in-house solutions and our competitors. We believe that three primary factors are contributing to this trend. First, as our partner base grows across many categories, we benefit from a heightened level of collaboration and constructive feedback, which allows for improvements and capability enhancements. Second, as our employee base grows, we are gaining deeper knowledge across a broader set of direct-to-consumer sales competencies. Lastly, we continue to emphasize a cross-functional entrepreneurial approach and view ourselves as a hybrid service provider and extension of our partners’ businesses, combining a technology, consulting and retailer-based mindset.

Our Platform

Order Fulfillment. We offer a full range of order fulfillment services from our 470,000 square foot Company-owned fulfillment center located in Louisville, Kentucky and through integration with over 300 third-party “drop shippers” using a proprietary application. Fulfillment activities include inbound receipt and profiling of merchandise, storage, picking, packing and shipping and returns processing. We also offer a variety of value-added fulfillment services including customized package branding, gift wrapping, gift messaging, product bundling, promotional inserts, bulk orders and product customization. We maintain relationships with major carriers and seek to achieve cost efficiencies through rate shopping opportunities. We offer multiple forms of shipping methods to customers including standard and expedited options, with pricing based on order value, dimensional characteristics or shipping promotions.

Web Site Design. We collaborate with our partners to create an online shopping experience that reinforces their brand, maximizes conversion and encourages repeat buying. We provide our partners with a number of capabilities — significant experience and an understanding of on-line customers, an online brand that marries customer expectations to their corporate vision and a user experience that realizes that vision on our e-commerce platform. Our cross-functional team is comprised of art directors, graphic designers, information architects, technical writers, usability engineers, technical designers, project managers, quality assurance specialists and HTML and JSP developers. These professionals develop user interfaces including the overall imagery and tone, home page presentation, page flow and navigation, the structure of the category and product pages, effective messaging and consistent communication, an intuitive purchasing process and a full archive of online customer service information.

E-Commerce Technology. We use a combination of proprietary and third-party applications that form the basis of The Common Engine™. Our core shopping features, functionality, search, data gathering and checkout processes reside on The Common Engine™. These applications are upgraded periodically by our engineering and information services teams in the form of new releases designed to encourage and promote product research, increase purchases and convey a positive and intuitive user-friendly shopping experience.

Managed Hosting. Partner sites are hosted in two separately located third-party data centers. This configuration enhances Web site uptime performance and fail-over reliability We own substantially all of the hardware and software used by us at these data centers and actively manage and monitor the operations and infrastructure including communications, bandwidth, network, systems administration, load balancing, production support, security and data and storage requirements.

Merchandising and Order Management. We manage all traditional retail-based applications through a centralized ERP and supply chain system in connection with merchandise assortment classification and maintenance. These applications also govern the primary information sources and data flow with respect to style and SKU merchandising management and pricing and inventory management. Order processing is also managed through the ERP application and interacts with proprietary and third-party payment processing, warehouse management, customer service and data warehousing systems. We accept multiple forms of tender including credit cards, checks and gift certificates/cards and maintain an internal team focused on order review and fraud prevention, claims processing and sales recovery functions.

Online Merchandising. The display of our partners’ online product catalogs is administered by use of a proprietary content and catalog management tool. The tool allows for, among other things, the ability to:

• create and edit Web site navigation, categorization and product categories;

• create and edit product display characteristics including placement of images and descriptive copy as well as product and category sequencing;


• present special merchandising features such as featured products, related products, collections, promotional ad spots and promotional offers;

• support numerous types of promotional campaigns which can be customized based on customer purchasing data;

• establish up-sell and cross-sell relationships, manage pre-sell and backordering and optimize search term mapping; and

• activate and deactivate products based on inventory, sell-through, and other criteria. 

Customer Contact Center. We operate an 82,000 square foot leased facility in Melbourne, Florida. This facility is operated 24 hours per day, seven days per week and has 500 agent workstations. Our primary activities include inbound contact management via phone and email. Our contact center workstations contain a variety of applications and informational tools that provide agents with access to customer profile information including service history, previous purchases and personal preferences. Service agents also have visibility into product information, inventory availability and order status. The agent tools are integrated with our order management and fulfillment operations to provide a consistent experience across all customer touch points including our partners’ web sites, direct mail circulars, catalogs, promotional events and direct response television campaigns. In addition to partner level training, we utilize a variety of contact center practices and systems to improve quality and efficiency including skills-based call routing, interactive voice response, call monitoring, work flow planning, data tracking and forecasting.

Reporting, Analytics and Business Intelligence. We offer our partners access to a secure, Web-based reporting portal which provides customer, demand, fulfillment and behavioral information. These applications and tools provide partners with insightful business intelligence metrics and visibility into their e-commerce business. We also offer customized reporting tailored to a partner’s specific needs.

Customer Relationship Management. We use a suite of CRM applications. Within our contact center, call agents have access to all relevant customer account, product, promotional and inventory information as well as the ability to present personalized selling recommendations in an effort to convert customer interactions into sales opportunities. Our e-mail marketing teams develop customized and targeted email campaigns based upon demographic, purchase and preference data gathered and segmented within our data warehouse. We also offer personalized shopping experiences through the use of real-time analytics to present product recommendations and associations based upon behavioral profiles and product affinity models.
 
Content Development. We operate and make available to partners an in-house professional photography studio to create digital product images and color swatches, as well as a copywriting staff focused on developing product descriptions and related value-added content such as buyers guides, sizing charts, products tours and comparison shopping tools.

Online Marketing Services. We generally make available to partners the services of our in-house online marketing team. This team is dedicated to developing and managing programs for partners to increase online exposure, generate incremental revenue and drive new customer acquisition. The services of this team include the conceptualization, creation and management of advertising through highly trafficked portal relationships, affiliate programs and search engine and comparison-shopping related sites.

The following table lists as of January 3, 2004 partners for which we operated all or a portion of their e-commerce businesses or with which we have publicly-announced agreements:

Ticker

GSIC

SIC Code

5961 - Retail-Catalog & Mail-Order Houses

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