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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 


 

FORM 10-K

 

(Mark One)

  x   ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the fiscal year ended January 1, 2005 or

 

  ¨   TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the transition period from                                    to                                   .

Commission file number 0-16611

 


 

GSI COMMERCE, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

DELAWARE   04-2958132
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
  (I.R.S. employer identification no.)

 

935 FIRST AVENUE, KING OF PRUSSIA, PA    19406
(Address of principal executive offices)    (Zip Code)

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (610) 265-3229

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

 

Common Stock, par value $.01 per share


(Title of Class)

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes x No ¨

 

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of the close of business on July 2, 2004, was approximately $124,261,892 based on a per share price of $9.31, the closing price of the registrant’s common stock on such date, as reported on the Nasdaq National Market.(1)

 

There were 41,731,458 shares of the registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of the close of business on March 15, 2005.

 


 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

(Specific sections incorporated are identified under applicable items herein)

 

Certain information required for Part III of this Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference to the Proxy Statement for the 2005 Annual Meeting of stockholders.


(1)   This amount equals the number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s common stock reduced by the number of shares that may be deemed held by the registrant’s executive officers, directors and stockholders owning in excess of 10% of the registrant’s common stock, multiplied by the last reported sale price for the registrant’s common stock on July 2, 2004. This information is provided solely for record keeping purposes of the Securities and Exchange Commission and shall not be construed as an admission that any executive officer, director or 10% stockholder of the registrant is an affiliate of the registrant or is the beneficial owner of any such shares. Any such inference is hereby disclaimed.

 



Table of Contents

GSI COMMERCE, INC.

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JANUARY 1, 2005

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

    

PART I

   Page

ITEM 1:

   BUSINESS    1

ITEM 2:

   PROPERTIES    23

ITEM 3:

   LEGAL PROCEEDINGS    24

ITEM 4:

   SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS    25

ITEM 4.1:

   EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT    25
    

PART II

    

ITEM 5:

   MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES    27

ITEM 6:

   SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA    27

ITEM 7:

   MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATION    29

ITEM 7A:

   QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK    46

ITEM 8:

   FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA    46

ITEM 9:

   CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE    46

ITEM 9A:

   CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES    46

ITEM 9B:

   OTHER INFORMATION    47
    

PART III

    

ITEM 10:

   DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT    48

ITEM 11:

   EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION    52

ITEM 12:

   SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS    57

ITEM 13:

   CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS    59

ITEM 14:

   PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES    60
    

PART IV

    

ITEM 15:

   EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES    62

 

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest the last day of December. Accordingly, references to fiscal 2000, fiscal 2001, fiscal 2002, fiscal 2003 and fiscal 2004 refer to the years ended December 30, 2000, December 29, 2001, December 28, 2002, January 3, 2004 and January 1, 2005.

 

Although we refer to the retailers, branded manufacturers, entertainment companies and professional sports organizations for which we develop and operate e-commerce businesses as our “partners,” we do not act as an agent or legal representative for any of our partners. We do not have the power or authority to legally bind any of our partners. Similarly, our partners do not have the power or authority to legally bind us. In addition, we do not have the types of liabilities for our partners that a general partner of a partnership would have.


Table of Contents

PART I

 

ITEM 1: BUSINESS.

 

Overview

 

We are a leading provider of e-commerce solutions that enable retailers, branded manufacturers, entertainment companies and professional sports organizations to operate e-commerce businesses. We began our e-commerce business in 1999 and initially targeted the sporting goods category. Since fiscal 2001, we have expanded into five additional categories: apparel, beauty, consumer electronics, entertainment and home. We either operate, or have agreements to operate, all or portions of the e-commerce businesses for approximately 50 partners, including Dick’s Sporting Goods®, Estee Lauder/Gloss.com®, Linens-n-Things®, Major League Baseball®, NASCAR®, palmOne®, Public Broadcasting System (PBS)®, Polo.comSM, RadioShack®, and The Sports Authority®. We provide solutions for our partners through our integrated e-commerce platform, which is comprised of three components: core technology, supporting infrastructure and partner services.

 

Industry Overview

 

Market Size and Opportunity

 

We believe consumer use of the Internet to make purchases will continue to increase. According to Forrester Research, online general merchandise sales (which excludes automobiles, groceries and travel) in the United States were estimated to be $79.0 billion and accounted for approximately 8.0 percent of total general merchandise sales in 2004. Forrester Research estimates that online general merchandise sales will grow at a 14.3 percent compounded annual growth rate to reach $176.1 billion and account for approximately 15.2 percent of total general merchandise sales in 2010.

 

Forrester Research also estimates that online general merchandise sales in the categories in which we currently operate were approximately $43.9 billion in 2004 and will grow at a 16.6 percent compounded annual growth rate to reach approximately $110.1 billion in 2010.

 

We believe the growing use of the Internet by consumers to purchase merchandise is driven by many factors including:

 

    increased acceptance of e-commerce as a convenient means to shop, as illustrated by Jupiter Research’s estimate that 90.5 million consumers bought online in 2004, compared to 72.8 million consumers in 2003;

 

    decreased concerns about the security and reliability of e-commerce;

 

    technology innovations, such as broadband Internet access, that have enhanced the e-commerce shopping experience; and

 

    increased recognition and support by retailers and manufacturers of the Internet as an important sales channel.

 

Need for “Partnered” E-Commerce Solutions

 

According to Forrester Research, it is strategically important for retailers to participate in multi-channel retailing (which includes e-commerce) to remain competitive. While retailers recognize the importance of e-commerce to their overall strategy, online sales were estimated to account for only 7.0 percent of total retail sales in 2004. Because online sales generally represent a small part of retailers’ businesses, we believe that the ability to operate an e-commerce business is not part of their core competency. We also believe that, as a result, many retailers struggle to justify making the level of investment in technology, infrastructure and expertise to support a high-quality e-commerce business. Our belief is supported by Forrester Research, which has stated that there has been a surge in interest in hosted or partnered e-commerce solutions. By partnering, retailers can gain access to higher quality technology, infrastructure and expertise than many of them could justify investing in on their own.

 

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Our Solution

 

We believe our solutions enable our partners to grow their e-commerce businesses more rapidly and more cost-effectively than they could on their own. We provide solutions for our partners through our integrated e-commerce platform, which is a comprehensive and integrated suite of core technology, supporting infrastructure and partner services. Our solutions focus on the needs of our partners, including promoting their brand identity and enabling them to remain focused on their core offline businesses. Because we operate multiple partners on the same integrated platform, we believe that we can provide our partners with a broader range of high quality e-commerce capabilities, expertise and infrastructure than our partners could justify building and maintaining on their own. We continually seek to enhance our capabilities to grow our partners’ e-commerce businesses and provide a high-quality customer experience. We structure our partner relationships to align our incentives with those of our partners, primarily by tying the financial benefit that we derive from our relationships to the performance of our partners’ e-commerce businesses.

 

The majority of our partners use all of the components of our e-commerce platform. While all of our partners’ e-commerce businesses, with the exception of our business-to-business partners, operate on the core technology component of our platform, each partner may select the specific elements of our supporting infrastructure and partner services that best fit their needs. We customize the design and operation of our partners’ e-commerce businesses, as well as develop features and functions requested by partners. We are able to offer features and functions developed for one partner across our entire partner base.

 

Our E-Commerce Platform

 

Our integrated e-commerce platform consists of three main components — core technology, supporting infrastructure and partner services. Using these components, we can develop, implement and support all aspects of a partner’s e-commerce business. These components include:

 

Core Technology


 

Supporting Infrastructure


 

Partner Services


•   Web site administration

 

•   Fulfillment

 

•   Creative design, Web site usability, testing and enhancements

•   Web infrastructure and hosting

 

•   Drop shipping

 

•   Channel integration

•   Business intelligence

 

•   Customer service

 

•   Business-to-business (B-to-B) services

•   E-commerce engine

 

•   Buying

 

•   Content development and imaging

•   Order management

     

•   E-commerce strategy

 

•   Online marketing

 

•   Customer relationship management (CRM)

 

Core Technology

 

Web Site Administration.    The display of our partners’ online product catalogs is administered through 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;

 

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    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.

 

Web Infrastructure and Hosting.    The Web sites we operate are hosted in two separately located data centers. This configuration enhances Web site uptime performance and fail-over reliability. We own the hardware and software that we use at these data centers, although the data centers are physically located at Tier I data center facilities of a leading third party telecommunications company. We actively manage and monitor the operations and infrastructure of our data centers including communications, bandwidth, network, systems administration, load balancing, production support, security and data and storage requirements.

 

Business Intelligence.    We offer partners access to a 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 businesses. We also offer customized reporting tailored to a partner’s specific needs.

 

E-Commerce Engine.    Our e-commerce engine is a combination of proprietary and third-party applications. The platform’s core shopping features and functions, including search, data gathering and checkout processes, are part of the engine. We regularly upgrade these applications to provide our partners with updated technology.

 

Order Management.    We manage customer orders through an application that 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.

 

Supporting Infrastructure

 

Fulfillment and Drop Shipping.    We offer a full range of order fulfillment services out of two locations — our 470,000 square foot company-owned fulfillment center located in Louisville, Kentucky, and our 400,000 square-foot leased fulfillment center located in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. We also integrate with approximately 400 third-party, drop-ship vendors as well as with certain partners who perform their own fulfillment. Fulfillment activities include inbound receiving 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, promotional inserts, and product customization such as monogramming and engraving. 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 and periodic shipping promotions.

 

Customer Service.    We operate an 82,000 square-foot leased customer service center in Melbourne, Florida. This facility is operated 24 hours per day, seven days per week and has 500 agent workstations. Our primary customer service activities include inbound contact management via phone and email. Our customer service workstations contain a variety of proprietary and third-party applications and informational tools that provide agents with access to customer information including service history, previous purchases and personal preferences. Service agents also have visibility into product information, inventory availability and order status. These service 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 use a variety of customer service 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.

 

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Buying.    We have a team of buyers that procure products to be sold on certain of our partners e-commerce businesses in the sporting goods, consumer electronics and licensed entertainment categories. Our buyers identify general category trends and themes, select suppliers of merchandise, pick specific products to be purchased, forecast quantities to purchase based on expected demand and negotiate terms with suppliers.

 

Partner Services

 

Creative Design, Web Site Usability, Testing and Enhancements.    We collaborate with our partners to create an online shopping experience that reinforces their brand, maximizes conversion and encourages repeat buying. To develop an e-commerce site, we deploy a cross-functional team of art directors, graphic designers, information architects, technical writers, usability engineers, technical designers, project managers, quality assurance specialists and Web developers. These professionals develop user interfaces including the overall imagery and tone, home page presentation, page flow and navigation, the structure of category and product pages, effective messaging and consistent communication, an intuitive purchasing process and a full archive of online customer service information.

 

Channel Integration.    As consumer adoption of multi-channel shopping grows, consumer expectations rise and retailers look for cost-effective methods to integrate their selling and distribution channels. We provide custom development efforts that create tools and functions which enable our partners to integrate their e-commerce businesses into their multi-channel retail offerings. Examples of our development efforts in multi-channel e-commerce include allowing a customer to purchase an item online and pick it up in store, accepting the private-label credit cards of our partners, integrating with our partners loyalty programs, integrating online and offline gift registries, in-store ordering systems, universal gift cards, interactive circulars and print advertising and catalog support.

 

Business-to-Business Services.    We seek to use our leadership in sporting goods to establish B-to-B e-commerce relationships with companies wanting to sell sporting goods on their Web stores. In our B-to-B relationships, we typically provide our partners with a data feed of product information, including elements such as images, descriptions and availability, and fulfill customer orders taken by our partners through their Web stores.

 

Content Development and Imaging.    We operate, and make available to our partners, an in-house, professional photography studio to create digital product images and color swatches. In addition, we employ a copywriting staff focused on developing product descriptions and related content such as buyers’ guides, sizing charts, product tours and comparison shopping tools.

 

E-Commerce Strategy.    We use the e-commerce expertise that we have developed in operating multiple e-commerce businesses since 1999 to create strategies and initiatives designed to grow our partners’ e-commerce businesses. Each partner relationship is led by an online business manager who is responsible to help grow the partner’s online sales.

 

Online Marketing Services.    Our online marketing team develops and manages 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, search engines and comparison-shopping sites.

 

CRM (Customer Relationship Management).    We use a suite of CRM applications. Within our customer service center, service agents have access to 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 email 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.

 

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Growth Strategy

 

Our objective is to grow our business by expanding the e-commerce businesses of our existing partners and by adding new partners. Key elements of our growth strategy include:

 

Grow Our Existing Partners’ Businesses

 

The financial benefit that we derive from our relationships with our partners is primarily tied to the performance of our partners’ e-commerce businesses. Accordingly, it is our strategy to grow our business by growing our partners’ e-commerce businesses. We implement this strategy by working closely with our partners to identify initiatives designed to grow their e-commerce businesses, which may include online and email marketing campaigns, shipping products to customers outside of the United States, multi-channel integration efforts and providing customized technology development.

 

We continuously seek to enhance our capabilities to improve our partners’ e-commerce businesses and enrich the overall customer experience. In addition, we plan to continue to invest in technology and infrastructure to improve the features and functions, speed, navigation, search and usability of our partners’ e-commerce businesses, as well as the customer service, fulfillment and other services we offer as part of our e-commerce platform. We also evaluate opportunities to acquire complementary or new businesses or assets as part of our continuing efforts to add value to our partners’ e-commerce businesses.

 

Expand Our Partner Base

 

We intend to grow our business by adding new partners that have strong brand franchises within the categories we target. We seek to attract new partners by providing solutions that enable partners to grow their e-commerce businesses more rapidly and cost-effectively than they could on their own. Because we provide our solutions through an integrated multi-partner platform, we are able to use the enhanced capabilities we have developed for our existing partners to attract new partners.

 

We began our e-commerce business in fiscal 1999 and initially targeted the sporting goods category. Since fiscal 2001, we have expanded into five additional categories: apparel, beauty, consumer electronics, entertainment and home. In fiscal 2004, we added nine new partners, including three partners in sporting goods, four partners in apparel, one partner in entertainment and one business-to-business partner. As of March 15, 2005, we have added three new partners in fiscal 2005, including one partner in sporting goods, one partner in apparel and one partner in consumer electronics.

 

Our Partners

 

We operate e-commerce businesses for our partners pursuant to contractual agreements. We generally operate e-commerce businesses for our partners based on one of three models or, in some circumstances, a combination of these models. We refer to these three models as the GSI Commerce-owned inventory model, the partner-owned inventory model and the business-to-business model.

 

GSI Commerce-Owned Inventory Model — We select and purchase inventory from vendors, sell the inventory directly to consumers through our e-commerce platform under our partners’ names, record revenues generated from the sale by us of these products and generally pay a percentage of these revenues to the respective partners in exchange for the right to use their brand names, logos and Web site address in the operation of their e-commerce business and for their commitment to promote and advertise their e-commerce business. We have a buying organization that procures products in the following merchandise categories: sporting goods, consumer electronics, and licensed entertainment products. Because we operate e-commerce businesses for our sporting good partners using a common pool of owned sporting goods inventory, we are able to offer a broad assortment while efficiently managing our inventory. Under the owned-inventory model, we establish the prices for products that we offer. To the extent possible, we strategically price products sold through a partner’s e-commerce business to be consistent with the pricing for the same products at that partner’s retail stores. Accordingly, prices

 

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for the same products may differ across our partners’ e-commerce businesses. Revenues generated from this model are recorded by us as product sales. We believe that we have strong relationships with our vendors and sources of unique products, and we regularly seek to add new vendors, brands and sources of unique products. During fiscal 2004, we purchased $80.4 million of inventory from one vendor, which accounted for 43.1% of the total amount of inventory we purchased.

 

Partner-Owned Inventory Model — We operate certain aspects of our partners’ e-commerce businesses in exchange for service fees, which primarily consist of variable fees based on the value of merchandise sold or gross profit generated through our partners’ e-commerce businesses. To a lesser extent, service fees include fixed periodic payments by partners for the development and operation of their e-commerce businesses and fees related to the provision of marketing, design, development and other services. Under the partner-owned inventory model, our partners select the merchandise to be sold, buy and own all or a portion of the inventory and provide offline marketing support. The partner is the seller of the merchandise and establishes the prices. Revenues generated from partners in this model are recorded by us as service fees.

 

Business-to-Business Model — We generally provide a product information database, including product images, descriptions and availability to these partners, which they use to sell merchandise on their e-commerce sites. These partners process customer orders on their Web sites and deliver the orders to us electronically. We sell the products ordered to these partners from our inventory or through our network of drop shippers and transfer title to the partners at a predetermined price. We then send the orders to customers on behalf of these partners. These partners generally perform their own customer service. To date, this model has been deployed using GSI Commerce-owned sporting goods inventory. Revenues generated from sales by us to our partners in this model are recorded by us as product sales.

 

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The following table sets forth as of March 15, 2005, partners for which we operate all or a portion of their e-commerce businesses or with which we have publicly announced agreements and the method in which we record revenues from such partners:

 

Sporting Goods


  

Beauty


Atlanta Falcons® (P)

Bally Total Fitness® (P)

Blades Board and Skate® (P)

Carolina Panthers® (P)

CBS SportslineSM / MVP.com® (P)

City Sports® (P)

Denver Broncos® (P)

Dick’s Sporting Goods® (P)

Dunham’s Sports® (P)

Fogdog® (P)

FOX Sports® (P)

G.I. Joe’s® (P)

Houston Texans® (P)

MC Sports® (P)

Modell’s Sporting Goods® (P)

National Hockey League® (P)

NASCAR/Turner Sports® (P)

Olympia Sports (P)

Pro Golf International (P)

Rawlings® (P)

Reebok® (P)

Rockport® (P)

Russell Athletics® (P)

San Diego Chargers® (P)

Sport Chalet® (P)

The Sports Authority® (including Gart Sports, Oshman’s and Sportmart) (P)

adidas® (S)

Timberland® (S)

   Estee Lauder/Gloss.com® (S)
    
  

Entertainment


   Home Box Office® (P)
   Comedy Central® (P)
   Nickelodeon® (P)
   Public Broadcasting System® (S)
    
  

Consumer Electronics


   palmOne® (P)
   RadioShack® (S)
   Tweeter Home EntertainmentSM (S)
    
  

Home


   Ace Hardware® (S)
   Linens-n-Things® (S)
    
  

Apparel


   Aeropostale® (S)
   Burberry® (S)
   kate spade® (S)
   Liz Claiborne® (S)
   Polo.comSM (S)
   Wilsons Leather® (S)
    
  

Business-to-Business


   Sears® (P)
   Buy.com® (P)
   Sports “R” Us® (P)

Major League Baseball® (P),(S)

   Kmart® (P)
     QVC® (P)

(P)   — Product Sales Based Partners
(S)   — Service Fee Based Partners

 

Competition

 

The market for the development and operation of e-commerce businesses is continuously evolving and intensely competitive. We primarily compete with companies that can offer a full range of e-commerce services similar to the services we provide through our e-commerce platform, such as the services division of Amazon.com, Digital River, Commerce5, Foot Locker (principally in the sporting goods category) and ValueVision Media. We also compete with companies that provide some components of an e-commerce solution, primarily to allow others to develop and operate their e-commerce business in-house, including Web site developers, third-party consultants and third-party fulfillment and customer service providers. In addition, we compete with the online and offline businesses of a variety of retailers and manufacturers in our targeted categories.

 

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We believe that we compete with these competitors primarily on the basis of the following:

 

    ability to generate incremental revenue for our partners;

 

    reputation and experience for providing a quality e-commerce solution;

 

    client services orientation and brand-centric business model;

 

    economic value for the services provided;

 

    the comprehensive, flexible and customized nature of the solution provided; and

 

    the quality of Web site design and development, technology, customer service and fulfillment offered.

 

Intellectual Property

 

We use our partners’ names, URLs, logos and other marks in connection with the operation and promotion of their e-commerce businesses. Our agreements with our partners generally provide us with licenses to use this intellectual property in connection with the operation of their e-commerce businesses. These licenses typically are coterminous with the respective agreements.

 

We also rely on technologies that we license from third parties. These licenses may not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms in the future. As a result, we may be required to obtain substitute technology of lower quality or at greater cost, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

To protect our proprietary rights in services and technology, we rely on various intellectual property laws and contractual restrictions. These include confidentiality, invention assignment and nondisclosure agreements with our partners, employees, contractors and suppliers. Despite these precautions, it may be possible for a third-party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without our authorization.

 

Government Regulation

 

We generally are not regulated other than pursuant to federal, state and local laws applicable to the Internet or e-commerce, or to businesses in general. Certain regulatory authorities have enacted or proposed specific laws and regulations governing the Internet and online retailing. These laws and regulations cover issues such as taxation, pricing, content, distribution, quality and delivery of products and services, electronic contracts, intellectual property rights, user privacy and information security.

 

The issues of user privacy and information security have been the focus of numerous laws and regulations. These laws and regulations impact our business because we store personal information regarding customers of a partner’s e-commerce business and provide this information to that partner and to certain third parties that we use to process credit cards, process and fulfill orders, detect fraud, send emails and evaluate and maintain the performance of our partners’ Web sites. Laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 or other user privacy or security laws could restrict our and our partners’ ability to market products to our partners’ customers, create uncertainty in Web usage and reduce the demand for our products and services or require us to redesign our partners’ Web sites or the operation of their e-commerce businesses.

 

Laws and regulations that were enacted prior to the advent of the Internet also affect our business. These laws and regulations cover issues such as property ownership, intellectual property rights, taxation, libel, obscenity, qualification to do business and export or import matters. Because these laws and regulations do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the Internet and online retailing, we are not certain how our business may be affected by their potential application. Also, changes in these laws and regulations intended to address these issues could create uncertainty in e-commerce. This uncertainty could reduce demand for our services or increase the cost of doing business as a result of litigation costs or increased service delivery costs.

 

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Employees

 

As of March 11, 2005, we employed 1,267 full-time employees and 70 part-time employees. None of our employees is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we consider our relationship with our employees to be good. Competition for qualified personnel in our industry is intense. We believe that our future success will depend, in part, on our continued ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel.

 

Investor Information

 

We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Therefore, we file reports and information, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such reports, proxy and information statements and other information may be obtained by visiting the Public Reference Room of the SEC at 450 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20549 or by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. In addition, the SEC maintains an Internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically.

 

You can access financial and other information at our Investor Relations Web site. The address is www.gsicommerce.com/investors. We make available through our Web site, free of charge, copies of our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after filing such material electronically or otherwise furnishing it to the SEC. In addition, we will provide, at no cost, paper or electronic copies of our reports and other filings made with the SEC. Requests should be directed to Investor Relations, 935 First Avenue, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406. The information on the Web site listed above is not and should not be considered part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is not incorporated by reference in this document. This Web site is and is only intended to be an inactive textual reference.

 

We are a Delaware corporation organized in 1986. Our executive offices are located at 935 First Avenue, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406. Our telephone number is (610) 265-3229.

 

Risk Factors

 

Any investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following information about these risks, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the following risks occur, our business could be materially harmed. In these circumstances, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of the money you paid to buy our common stock. The risks described below are not the only ones facing our company. Additional risks not necessarily known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.

 

All statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “guidance,” “potential,” “continue,” “project,” “forecast,” “confident,” “prospects,” and similar expressions typically are used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about our business and the industries and markets in which we and our partners operate. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors which may affect our business, financial condition and operating results include the effects of changes in the economy, consumer spending, the financial markets and the industries in which we and our partners operate, changes affecting the Internet and e-commerce, our ability to develop and maintain relationships with strategic partners and suppliers and the timing of our establishment, extension or termination of our relationships with strategic partners, our ability to timely and successfully develop, maintain and protect our technology, confidential and proprietary information and product and service offerings and execute

 

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operationally, our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, our ability to successfully integrate our acquisitions of other businesses, if any, and the performance of acquired businesses. More information about potential factors that could affect us is provided below. We expressly disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as otherwise specifically stated by us.

 

Risks Related to Our Business

 

Our future success cannot be predicted based upon our limited operating history.

 

Compared to certain of our current and potential competitors, we have a relatively short operating history. In addition, the nature of our business has undergone rapid development and change since we began operating it. Accordingly, it is difficult to predict whether we will be successful. Thus, our chances of financial and operational success should be evaluated in light of the risks, uncertainties, expenses, delays and difficulties associated with operating a new business in a relatively new market, many of which are beyond our control. If we are unable to address these issues, we may not be financially or operationally successful.

 

We have an accumulated deficit and may incur additional losses.

 

Although we recorded a profit in fiscal 2004, we incurred losses over the prior five fiscal years while operating our business. As of the end of fiscal 2004, we had an accumulated deficit of $177.3 million. We may not generate sufficient revenue and gross profit from our existing partners, add an appropriate number of new partners or adequately control our expenses. If we fail to do this, we may not be able to maintain profitability.

 

We will continue to incur significant operating expenses and capital expenditures as we seek to:

 

    enhance our fulfillment capabilities;

 

    further improve our order processing systems and capabilities;

 

    develop new technologies and features to improve our partners’ e-commerce businesses;

 

    enhance our customer service center capabilities to better serve customers’ needs;

 

    improve our marketing, customer relationship management and design capabilities;

 

    increase our general and administrative functions to support our growing operations;

 

    continue our business development, sales and marketing activities; and

 

    make strategic or opportunistic acquisitions of complementary or new businesses or assets.

 

If we incur expenses at a greater pace than our revenues, we could incur additional losses.

 

Our growth may be limited if we do not generate sufficient cash to fund our operations. We may in the future need additional debt or equity financing to execute our business and continue our growth. Such additional financing may not be available on satisfactory terms or it may not be available when needed, or at all.

 

Because we have not generated sufficient cash from operations to date, we have funded our e-commerce business primarily from the sale of equity securities. If our cash flows are insufficient to fund our operations, we may in the future need to seek additional equity or debt financings or reduce costs. Further, we may not be able to obtain financing on satisfactory terms or it may not be available when needed, or at all. Our inability to finance our growth, either internally or externally, may limit our growth potential and our ability to execute our business strategy. If we issue securities to raise capital, our existing stockholders may experience dilution or the new securities may have rights senior to those of our common stock.

 

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Seasonal fluctuations in sales could cause wide fluctuations in our quarterly results.

 

We have experienced and expect to continue to experience seasonal fluctuations in our revenues. These seasonal patterns have caused and will continue to cause quarterly fluctuations in our operating results. Our results of operations historically have been seasonal primarily because consumers increase their purchases on our partners’ e-commerce businesses during the fourth quarter holiday season.

 

In anticipation of increased sales activity during our fourth fiscal quarter, we incur additional expenses by hiring a significant number of temporary employees to supplement our permanent staff. Our fourth fiscal quarter has accounted for and is expected to continue to account for a disproportionate percentage of our total annual revenues. For each of fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2003 approximately 40.0% of our annual net revenues were generated in our fiscal fourth quarter. Since fiscal 1999, we have not generated net income in any fiscal quarter other than a fiscal fourth quarter. If our revenues are below seasonal expectations during the fourth fiscal quarter, our operating results could be below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. Due to the nature of our business, it is difficult to predict the seasonal pattern of our sales and the impact of this seasonality on our business and financial results. In the future, our seasonal sales patterns may become more pronounced, may strain our personnel, customer service operations, fulfillment operations and shipment activities and may cause a shortfall in revenues compared to expenses in a given period.

 

In addition, if too many consumers access our partners’ e-commerce businesses within a short period of time due to increased holiday or other demand, we may experience system interruptions that make our partners’ e-commerce businesses unavailable or prevent us from transmitting orders to our fulfillment operations, which may reduce the volume of goods we sell as well as the attractiveness of our partners’ e-commerce businesses to consumers. In anticipation of increased sales activity during our fourth fiscal quarter, we and our partners increase our inventory levels. If we and our partners do not increase inventory levels for popular products in sufficient amounts or are unable to restock popular products in a timely manner, we and our partners may fail to meet customer demand which could reduce the attractiveness of our partners’ e-commerce businesses. Alternatively, if we overstock products, we may be required to take significant inventory markdowns or write-offs, which could reduce profits.

 

We have expanded into new categories and may expand into additional new categories in the future. If we do not successfully execute on the expansion of our operations into these new categories, our growth could be limited.

 

While we have operated in e-commerce since 1999, we did not expand beyond the sporting goods category until 2001. Today our operations have expanded into categories including apparel, beauty, consumer electronics, entertainment and home. Each category in which we operate requires unique capabilities and increases the complexity of our business. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenue in a category, we may not be able to cover the incremental staffing and expenses required to support the unique capabilities required by that category. If we do expand into new categories, there can be no assurance that we will do so successfully.

 

Consumers are constantly changing their buying preferences. If we fail to anticipate these changes and adjust our inventory accordingly, we could experience lower sales, higher inventory markdowns and lower margins for the inventory that we own.

 

Our success depends, in part, upon our ability and our partners’ ability to anticipate and respond to consumer trends with respect to products sold through the e-commerce businesses we operate. Consumers’ tastes are subject to frequent and significant changes. In order to be successful, we and our partners must accurately predict consumers’ tastes and avoid overstocking or understocking products. If we or our partners fail to identify and respond to changes in merchandising and consumer preferences, sales on our partners’ e-commerce businesses could suffer and we or our partners could be required to mark down unsold inventory. This would depress our profit margins. In addition, any failure to keep pace with changes in consumers’ tastes could result in lost opportunities which could reduce sales.

 

 

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High merchandise returns or shrinkage rates could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

We cannot be assured that inventory loss and theft, or “shrinkage,” and merchandise returns will not increase in the future. If merchandise returns are significant, or our shrinkage rate increases, our revenues and costs of operations could be adversely affected.

 

Our growth depends, in part, on our ability to add and launch new partners on a timely basis and on favorable terms.

 

One of the principal components of our growth strategy is to add new partners. If we are unable to add our targeted number of new partners or if we are unable to add new partners on favorable terms, our growth may be limited. If we are unable to add and launch new partners within the time frames projected by us, we may not be able to achieve our targeted results in the expected periods. In addition, our ability to add new partners depends on the quality of the services we provide and our reputation. To the extent that we have difficulties with the quality of the services we provide or have operational issues that adversely affect our reputation, it could adversely impact our ability to add new partners. Because competition for new partners is intense, we may not be able to add new partners on favorable terms, or at all.

 

Our success is tied to the success of the partners for which we operate e-commerce businesses.

 

Our success is substantially dependent upon the success of the partners for which we operate e-commerce businesses. The retail business in the United States is intensely competitive. If our partners were to have financial difficulties or seek protection from their creditors or if they were to suffer impairment of