Holiday Season Generating Increased Volumes for PFSweb`s B2C Clients
Total Customer Contacts and Shipments Expected to Exceed 1.3 Million in 60-Day Period
PLANO, Texas--Dec. 13, 2002--PFSweb, Inc., (Nasdaq:PFSW), a leading provider of business process solutions, including third party logistics and e-commerce services, reports an increase in its order management and fulfillment activities applicable to most of its business-to-consumer (B2C) clients due to holiday season sales arriving by e-mail, phone, fax and Internet (online).
"As we expected, the 2002 holiday shopping season is sparking strong volume growth for our B2C clients using both catalog and e-commerce business initiatives," said Mark Layton, Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer of PFSweb, which marked its third year as a public company on Dec. 2. "Throughout the holiday season, PFSweb anticipates volume growth in both individual customer contacts and package shipments for most of our B2C clients handled by our state-of-the-art call and fulfillment centers in Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Toronto, Canada; and Liege, Belgium. PFSweb expects to process a total of 1.3 million customer contacts and package shipments during the 60-day holiday period."
Forbes.com reported in mid-October that "Buried under the rubble of dead dot-com business plans is the fact that online sales have, on the whole, grown over the past five years. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of online shopping households in the United States grew from 5 million to more than 36 million, and online sales jumped from $2.4 billion to $72.1 billion, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. The research firm expects sales to increase to $217.8 billion in five years."
In a November survey of 13,000 U.S. residents, the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche reported that 49 percent of the respondents expect to shop online this holiday season, and that good customer service would play a significant role in determining which e-tailers get their money. Additionally, research by Harris Interactive and Blue Martini Software, Inc., indicated 30 percent of consumers plan to use the Internet for at least part of their holiday shopping. Those who shop online seek variety to complement their in-store purchases, with more than half expecting to buy gifts at three or more Web sites, the research revealed.
PFSweb`s list of Fortune 500 and Global 1,000 clients includes Avaya Communications, Dupont Fluoroproducts, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lancome, a cosmetics division of L`Oreal International; Mobility Electronics; NokiaUSA.com, Roots, Inc., Smithsonian Institution, Thomason multimedia, Pharmacia&Upjohn, the U.S. Mint, Xerox and other brand name firms.
"One hundred percent of the orders received for in-stock products during last weekend`s heavy shopping volume have already been shipped," Layton noted. "The tens of thousands of customers reaching PFSweb`s customer contact centers by phone are experiencing agent response times generally averaging less then 20 seconds. Additional orders arrive by fax and e-mail."
According to the Shop.org/BizRate.com 2002 Online Holiday Mood Study -- based on data provided by 59 leading Internet and multichannel retailers for the second two-week buying period of November -- 71 percent of those online retailers were feeling optimistic about the holiday season, an 8 percent increase over the first two-week study period. About one-third of the retailers, all Shop.org members, posted revenue increases of 50 percent or more compared to the same year-ago period, and 58 percent posted increases of 25 percent, stated the survey released Dec. 9.
"Retailers selling online have good reason to be optimistic," said Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org. "Online retailers have been consistently improving the customer experience, and consumers are rewarding them by doing more holiday shopping on their sites."
"PFSweb`s people, infrastructure and technology are focused on ensuring there`s no Grinch to steal Christmas from our clients` customers," emphasized Steve Graham, Senior Partner and Chief Technology Officer at PFSweb. "As `the brand behind the brand` for our clients, our focus continues to be on providing infrastructure and technology solutions that will result in the highest possible level of customer experience and satisfaction. This is what consumers expect and desire from both their traditional and e-commerce purchases."
"During previous holiday seasons, some U.S. companies were simply unable to handle the volume of customer contacts and shipments, leaving many consumers with wrapping paper and bow in hand but no present to wrap," Graham recalled. "PFSweb, on the other hand, will take holiday orders on behalf of our clients until Dec. 23 and deliver merchandise to customers right up through Christmas Eve," he said.
"Our planning contemplated volume increases this holiday season. Four key factors contribute to our ability to meet or exceed our client expectations this season: Our Entente(SM) Technology Suite of real-time information services, our Web-enabled customer contact centers, our ability to scale up with the holiday volumes within our current physical capacity, and the speed and efficiency in our highly automated distribution facilities," Graham said.
PFSweb has a number of tools in place to ensure complete customer satisfaction, including real-time inventory, order and shipment tracking, same-day product shipments, receipt and replenishment of inventory within 24 hours, risk management and fraud protection for online payments, multiple shipping options, billing and collection services, reverse logistics and critical value-added services such as gift wrapping.
About PFSweb, Inc.
When the world`s brand names need proven, fast and secure business infrastructure and technology to enable traditional and e-commerce strategies, they choose PFSweb for comprehensive outsourcing solutions. The PFSweb team of experts designs diverse solutions for clients around a flexible core business infrastructure. PFSweb provides solutions that include: professional consulting services, order management, Web-enabled customer contact centers, customer lifecycle management, kitting and assembly services, international distribution services, billing and collection services, and ERP information interfacing utilizing the Entente Suite(SM).
The matters discussed in this news release (except for historical information) and, in particular, information regarding future revenue, earnings and business plans and goals, consist of forward-looking information under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to and involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability to retain and expand relationships with existing clients and attract new clients; our reliance on the fees generated by the transaction volume or product sales of our clients; our reliance on our clients` projections or transaction volume or product sales; our client mix and the seasonality of their business; our ability to finalize pending contracts; the impact of strategic alliances and acquisitions; trends in the market for our services; trends in e-commerce; whether we can continue and manage growth; changes in the trend toward outsourcing; increased competition; our ability to generate more revenue and achieve sustainable profitability; effects of changes in profit margins; the customer concentration of our business; the unknown effects of possible system failures and rapid changes in technology; trends in government regulation both foreign and domestic; foreign currency risks and other risks of operating in foreign countries; potential litigation involving our e-commerce intellectual property rights; our dependency on key personnel; our ability to raise additional capital; our guarantees of the working capital indebtedness of our affiliate, Supplies Distributors; the continued listing of our common stock on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market; and our relationship with and separation from Daisytek, our former parent corporation. A description of these factors, as well as other factors, which could affect the Company`s business, is set forth in the Company`s Prospectus dated December 2, 1999 and Form 10-K for the nine-month transition period ended December 31, 2001. To find out more about PFSweb, Inc. (Nasdaq:PFSW), visit its Web site at www.pfsweb.com. PFSweb is a registered trademark. Entente Suite is a service mark of PFSweb. All rights reserved.
CONTACT:
PFSweb, Inc.
Mark Layton, 888/330-5504, Ext. 2180
mlayton@pfsweb.com
Michael Burns & Associates
Preston F. Kirk, 830/693-4447
kirk@281.com
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