GSI Commerce slam dunks NBA into its sports client line-up

GSI Commerce Inc. has signed a long-term agreement with the National Basketball Association to provide the NBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association and the NBA Development League with e-commerce operations for their online stores. GSI will supply the league’s web stores with online merchandising, e-commerce technology, order processing, logistics, customer care and online retail marketing services.

With the NBA deal, GSI now operates the online stores for the major professional sports leagues in the United States including Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and NASCAR auto racing.

NBA.com previously used Amazon Services Inc. for online retail services.

A redesigned online store with an expanded merchandise line is scheduled to launch on the GSI platform this fall, ahead of the 2007-08 NBA season tip-off. The new web store will feature enhanced customer shopping features such as mini-cart, express shop, parametric search, advanced product reviews and ratings, and multiple payment options.

In addition to operating on GSI’s e-commerce platform and integrating the online store with the NBA’s content site, the NBA will use GSI for online marketing, which will include search, affiliate marketing, and marketing with comparison shopping engines.