SEC Filings Section 16 Filings Only
 
PFSWEB INC filed this 8-K on 03/31/2006.
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You know, the challenge for many, particularly direct brands — I think that one of the major trends we see right now in the Web commerce area is that a lot of the direct brands are now aggressively embracing doing direct to consumer business themselves via their Web sites.
And five years ago there was quite a hesitation in that and it was primarily predicated around the concerns of channel conflict and competing with their customers and other large channels, competing with my distributor, competing with a major retailer. I think that time has calmed a lot of those fears. I think that, you know, many of the channels have shown that allegiance to a brand only to a certain point, i.e. the best price. And as a result I think many of the major manufacturers and brand companies have learned that they simply have to be able to provide a direct channel in order to be clear that they’re getting their message to consumers in terms of the extension of their brand and that it isn’t changed or watered down by other channel members. And also for, you know, vivid announcement of new products and new areas that are there.
So as a result, you know, the areas that we were focused with is in these — is in a lot of these brands where we see that their commerce sites either are not conducting commerce at all right now or from that data that we collect we find that their percentage of revenue is below their peers. And we will market those companies to show them how we can not only get them there quickly but we can provide them with, you know, world-class capability that their customers will, you know, find to be an extension of their brand from there. So it’s real important for us — we use the slogan “the brand behind the brand.” We have to enhance the brand value of that. So I think those are kind of macro trends that are driving that market area out there.
And I completely agree with your comment that we’re kind of at the elbow of this thing. I mean, PFS was a pioneer in the Web commerce area. You know, back in the mid ‘90s we were some of the — really early to providing PC-based ordering tools and the first on the Internet or one of the first companies on the net in terms of providing commerce sites. You know, this business really exploded and grew out of the dot-com area earlier. During the retrenchment period in the early 2000s timeframe, early part of this decade, you know, we had to take and step back and focus on some additional channels as that activity slowed down. But I agree with your comment. We’re at the elbow and there is — there is really good potential for us in a market that is growing nicely.
LANG GERHARD: But who are you — who do you compete with when you’re, you know, approaching a customer or potential customer along those lines? Who are they shopping other than you?
MARK LAYTON: Well, it depends on the geographic area. You know, in Canada it’s different, in Europe it’s different. But let’s talk about the U.S. where the majority of our business is at. In a Web — in Web commerce deals we would compete with companies like GSI Commerce, Innotrac (ph). There’s a private company called New Roads (ph). You know, these are companies that have a little bit different niches of where they’re at. GSI (ph), for example. With sporting goods and apparel retailers we see a lot more than we would with technology, for example. And in the technology area we see UPS supply chain’s division a fair bit. And there are other smaller boutique and local fulfillment houses out there that we compete against. But those names I just described in the Web commerce area are the primary ones we compete in.

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