Our Story
a brief history of a long history of e-commerce success
The beginning.
What began as the e-commerce division of Global Sports Inc. has grown to become a trusted powerhouse in the world of e-commerce solutions.
In 1999, Global Sports Inc. began focusing exclusively on its e-commerce business. Later that same year, the company launched e-commerce businesses for five sporting goods retailers, including Sports Authority®, one of the largest sporting retailers in the U.S.
To better serve our partners and support the new business, the company received an $80 million equity investment from SOFTBANK Corp.
As our platform found acceptance in the marketplace, Global Sports Inc. began to grow. In 2000, we added more sporting goods retailers to our e-commerce platform. We also received $25 million of additional equity investment from SOFTBANK and Rustic Canyon Ventures, and received an equity investment of $40.8 million from Interactive Technology Holdings, a joint venture of Comcast® and QVCSM Inc.
In 2001, we exceeded $100 million in net revenues, and expanded our sporting goods business. Interactive Technology Holdings invested an additional $30 million in the company. As we do with all of our capital infusions, we leveraged these investments to build and strengthen our growing list of e-commerce capabilities.
The middle.
In 2002, to reflect the company’s expanding reach into e-commerce, Global Sports Inc. changed its name to GSI Commerce Inc. We opened a west coast office to provide e-commerce solutions to media and entertainment brands such as Nickelodeon™ and the Public Broadcasting Service.
Drawing on our e-commerce expertise and our roots in retail, we continued to expand beyond sporting goods into new and exciting categories. We entered the world of beauty and fashion, partnering with Estée Lauder and gloss.com. We also moved into the electronics category through a partnership with Palm®.
By 2003, our list of partners had grown to 40 organisations and we entered the home category, partnering with Ace Hardware® and Linens ‘n Things®. The company posted net revenues of $242 million.
In 2004, we recorded our fifth consecutive year of above industry average growth with net revenues of $335.1 million. By the end of 2004, we provided e-commerce solutions to partners in six categories including sporting goods, home, consumer electronics, apparel, music & video (entertainment), and health & beauty.
No end in sight.
In 2005, GSI Commerce recorded $440.4 million in net revenues, signed 10 new partners and expanded into jewellery & luxury goods, partnering with Zale Corporation.
At the beginning of 2006, we reached beyond U.S. soil to purchase Aspherio, S.L., a Barcelona, Spain-based provider of outsourced e-commerce solutions. The acquisition provided us with a platform for the international e-commerce market.
In Sept 2007, GSI Commerce acquired Accretive Commerce Inc., a leading provider of e-commerce, fulfilment and customer care solutions. The acquisition significantly expanded the scale and scope of our infrastructure, adding two fulfilment centres totaling 865,000 square feet, two customer care centres totaling 600 seats, three IT data centres and 14 partners in categories including apparel, home, health & beauty, and specialty foods.
In Dec 2007, the acquisition of Zendor.com Ltd, a UK-based leading provider of fulfilment, customer care and e-commerce solutions, was announced. With this addition GSI Commerce has further established ourselves as an international end-to-end e-commerce solution provider capable of delivering integrated, multichannel e-commerce solutions to both U.K. and global retailers and brands.
eDialog, the market-leading provider of advanced e-mail marketing services and solutions to more than 100 blue-chip companies in the U.S. and Europe, is the latest acquisition for GSI Commerce in January 2008. The acquisition significantly expands the depth of GSI’s interactive marketing services capabilities, its market reach and its growing European presence.
GSI Commerce currently serves approximately 80 partners in more than a dozen diverse retail categories.
