Item 1. Business
General
Unless otherwise indicated, all references to “PFSweb,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to PFSweb, Inc., a Delaware corporation and its subsidiaries; references to “Supplies Distributors” refer to our subsidiary, Supplies Distributors, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
PFSweb, Inc., was incorporated in 1999 in the state of Delaware and maintains its corporate headquarters in Allen, Texas. All of our services are provided through our direct and indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries as noted above. In December 1999, PFSweb consummated an initial public offering of its common stock and became listed for trading on The NASDAQ Exchange under the symbol “PFSW.”
PFSweb is a Global Commerce Services Company. We manage the entire customer shopping experience for major branded manufacturers and retailers through two business segments, LiveArea Professional Services ("LiveArea") and PFS Operations. LiveArea is a global customer experience and e-commerce agency, providing a comprehensive set of digital agency services to support, develop and improve business-to-business ("B2B"), business-to-consumer ("B2C"), and business-to-business-to-consumer ("B2B2C") customer experiences both online and in-store. LiveArea services include: NXT Intelligence™, Service Design, Product Innovation, Connected Commerce, Performance Marketing, and Orchestrated Services. Through these services, we envision, build, and launch innovative products and omni-channel commerce solutions powered by data-driven insights to help our clients elevate their customer relationships. The PFS Operations segment provides services to support or improve the physical, post-click experience, such as logistics and fulfillment, customer care, and order-to-cash services including distributed order orchestration and payment services. We offer our services on an à la carte basis or as a complete end-to-end solution. Major brands and other companies turn to us to optimize their customer experiences and enhance their traditional and online business channels, creating commerce without compromise.
The services we offer are primarily organized into the following categories by segment:
LiveArea Professional Services
•NXT Intelligence ™
•Service Design
•Product Innovation
•Connected Commerce
•Performance Marketing
•Orchestrated Services
PFS Operations
•Order to Cash (Order Management as a Service)
•Order Fulfillment
•Fulfillment-as-a-Service
•Customer Care
GLOBAL COMMERCE SOLUTIONS
Together LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations serve as the “brand behind the brand” for companies seeking to increase efficiencies, drive customer engagement and growth, innovate and transform digitally, enter new markets or launch optimized sales channels. As a global customer experience and commerce agency and process outsourcer, we offer scalable and cost-effective solutions for brand manufacturers, online retailers, and distributors across a wide range of industry segments to serve business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) channels. We provide our clients with seamless and transparent solutions to support their business strategies, allowing them to focus on their core competencies. Leveraging our technology, expertise, and proven methodologies, we enable clients to develop and deploy new products and implement new business strategies or address new distribution channels rapidly and efficiently through our optimized solutions. Our clients engage us, both as a consulting partner to assist them in the design of a business solution, as well as a virtual and physical infrastructure partner to provide the mission-critical operations required to build and manage their business solution. Together, we not only help our clients define new ways of doing business, but also provide them the technology, physical infrastructure, and professional resources necessary to quickly implement their commerce objectives. We allow our clients to quickly and dramatically change how they “go-to-market” and service their customers.
Each client has a unique business model and unique strategic objectives that often require highly customized enterprise solutions. We support clients in a wide array of industries, including health; fragrance and beauty products; cosmetics; fashion apparel and accessories; luxury goods; consumer packaged goods (“CPG”); coins and collectibles; jewelry; home furnishings and housewares; consumer electronics; quick-serve restaurants ("QSR"); telecommunications; technology manufacturing; computer and office products; among others. Clients turn to LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations for help in addressing a variety of business needs that include strategic consulting, commerce experience design and development, product innovation, customer satisfaction and retention, time-definite logistics, vendor managed inventory and integration, supply chain compression, cost model realignments, transportation management, and international expansion, among others. We also act as a constructive agent of change, providing clients the ability to alter their current distribution model, establish direct relationships with end-customers, reduce the overall time and costs associated with existing distribution channel strategies, while improving customer experience via value-added distribution solutions such as gift-wrapping and product personalization. Our clients are seeking B2C and B2B and B2B2C solutions that will provide them with dynamic supply chain and multi-channel marketing efficiencies, while ultimately delivering a world-class, branded customer service experience.
Our value proposition is to serve as a seamless, well-integrated extension of our clients’ enterprises by delivering superior solutions that drive optimal customer experiences. On behalf of the brands we serve, we strive to increase and enhance sales and market growth, bolster customer satisfaction and customer retention and drive costs out of the business through operations and technology related efficiencies. As both a virtual and a physical infrastructure for our clients’ businesses, we embrace their brand values, strategic objectives and operational processes. By utilizing our services, our clients are able to:
Quickly Capitalize on Market Opportunities. We offer a collection of solutions focused on helping clients quickly assess opportunities that respond to the changing world of technology and assisting clients in harnessing innovation and brand experience through lean start-up methodologies. Our solutions empower clients to rapidly implement their supply chain and commerce strategies and take advantage of opportunities by utilizing our readily available advanced technology and physical infrastructure which facilitates a quick integration and implementation. The solution is designed to allow our clients to deliver consistent, quality service as transaction volumes grow and handle daily and seasonal peak periods. Our international locations allow our clients to expand the global reach of their products.
Elevate the Customer Experience. We enable our clients to provide their customers with a high-touch, positive buying experience, thereby maintaining and promoting brand loyalty. We create omni-channel commerce experiences designed to fit into and fuel a connected digital ecosystem. Our e-commerce solutions communicate seamlessly with stores and varying client applications. Through our use of advanced technology, we help our clients respond directly to customer inquiries by email, voice or data communication and assist them with online ordering and product information. We offer our clients a “world-class” level of service, including high-touch customer care service centers, detailed Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) reporting, and exceptional order accuracy. We have significant experience in the development of e-commerce storefronts that allows us to recommend features and functions easily navigated and understood by our clients’ customers through guided selling designs. Our technology platform is designed to ensure high levels of reliability and fast response times for our clients’ customers. Because of our technology, our clients benefit from being able to offer the latest in traditional customer communication and auto-response technology to their customers. Using data, we create customer relationship-building insights that drive both strategy and action. Our fulfillment facilities are designed for efficient multi-brand operation with an emphasis on creating branded fulfillment experiences featuring custom
packaging, gift-wrapping, extensive personalization options and build-to-order and build-to-stock kitting. Our solutions provide enhanced brand recognition with streamlined and ease of use shopping, checkout, shipping, unboxing and return of goods processing.
Minimize Investment and Improve Operating Efficiencies. One of the most significant benefits outsourcing provides is the ability to transform fixed costs into variable costs. By eliminating the need to invest in a fixed capital infrastructure, our clients’ costs typically become more directly correlated with volume increases or declines. Further, as volume increases drive the demand for greater infrastructure or capacity, we are able to quickly deploy additional resources. We provide services to multiple clients, which enables us to offer our clients economies of scale and resulting cost efficiencies that they may not have been able to obtain on their own. Additionally, because of the large number of daily transactions we process, we have been able to justify investments in levels of automation, security surveillance, quality control processes, and transportation carrier interfaces that are typically outside the scale of investment that our clients might be able to cost-justify on their own. We engage our Service Design capabilities to help brands evolve and improve how they service their clients with a digital advantage through our services. These additional capabilities can provide our clients the benefits of enhanced operating performance and efficiency and expanded customer service options.
Access a Sophisticated Technology Ecosystem. We provide our clients with access to a technology ecosystem featuring best-of-breed e-commerce technologies together in a single, integrated, Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) certified order to cash offering. Powered by leading enterprise-class software solutions, our order to cash platform is seamlessly integrated into a variety of e-commerce platforms and supporting technology components and services to provide an end-to-end e-commerce solution. Built to accelerate the implementation process, the technology ecosystem allows for flexible integrations with other technology providers and client systems.
Our Technology Ecosystem also extends beyond the digital world and into physical commerce channels. Brands and retailers today require flexible technology to control customer shopping experiences regardless of where they shop. As a global commerce services company, we offer unbiased evaluation of new platforms and emerging technologies to help brands choose the best option for their businesses. Deploying ship from store, in-store pick-up, pop-up distribution centers, or mobile point of sale capabilities are just a few examples of how we can enable brands to create a dynamic and unique omni-channel shopping experience.
Our highest value proposition is achieved when our clients engage our full end-to-end suite of services from both LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations. However, we provide our clients with the freedom to customize their solution by selecting only certain services from our offering in an à la carte fashion. We believe this flexibility and willingness to create a customized solution for each client differentiates us from our competition. We also believe that bringing our deep understanding of end-to-end engagements to clients who are only using a portion of our offering is a key differentiator and brings significant value to our solutions and our clients.
LiveArea Professional Services
Through LiveArea Professional Services, we bring together a comprehensive portfolio of e-commerce-focused services fusing creativity, strategy, and technology. Our service areas include NXT Intelligence™, Service Design, Product Innovation, Connected Commerce, Performance Marketing, and Orchestrated Services. Through our services, we bring together exceptional e-commerce technology while building and launching innovative products and services for clients both online and in-store. From brand strategy and digital experiences to the day-to-day mechanics of digital marketing services, we help brands stand apart from competitors, connect with customers and drive revenue. Our end-to-end, omnichannel expertise supports a holistic marketing strategy. When paired with our other services areas and disciplines, we provide a full suite of services that span strategy, creative, experience design, technology development and integration, project management, and quality assurance.
We offer an array of services that help retailers meet consumer expectations across the e-commerce lifecycle, leveraging digital tools within various applications to enhance our client’s end consumer overall experience.
NXT Intelligence ™
NXT Intelligence™ is a collection of purpose-built solutions focused on helping clients rapidly assess emerging opportunities across three primary areas: Technology, innovation, and brand experience. As a technology-agnostic agency, we offer unbiased evaluation of new platforms and emerging technologies to help clients choose the best options for their businesses. Our focus on design thinking and lean start-up methodologies empower clients to explore emerging opportunities without significant upfront investments.
Service Design
Service Design is a business transformation service helping clients create efficiency and identify new revenue streams through the analysis and re-imagining of their services, customer touchpoints, technology, and business processes. We help clients look at their business not as a series of divisions and products, but as a cohesive collection of services they offer customers. We offer a more holistic way to evaluate and solve problems at the customer experience level.
Product Innovation
Our Product Innovation service helps clients rapidly invent, prototype, and test innovative new ideas for products and businesses. Through a series of workshops, we team with clients to invent, identify, generate, and develop customer value proposition opportunities for their business. We examine where customer value overlaps with potential business value to arrive at a shared value proposition that underpins the experience and design of the client’s initial product.
Connected Commerce
Through our Connected Commerce service, we help clients transform their business and customer relationships by creating seamless commerce experiences online and in-store and other environments, such as pop ups. The service is inclusive of e-commerce strategy, consulting services, and technology services. Our approach features four hybrid-agile phases: Rapid start; Design and Build; Test and Launch; and Optimize. The e-commerce solutions adhere to a proven methodology to deliver quality implementations to meet client branded requirements in the industry based on our clients’ custom solutions.
As a platform-agnostic provider, we have dedicated commerce technology practices specializing in all of the leading enterprise platforms. We employ a highly qualified team of solutions architects, web developers, project managers, and quality assurance (“QA”) specialists.
Performance Marketing
Traditional marketing is difficult to track and measure, so marketers have difficulties understanding their return on investment. LiveArea Performance Marketing includes a comprehensive set of marketing services that allows brands to ensure they are truly paying for results. Our tools and approach allow us to tie each dollar spent on customer experience and marketing to its effect on the customer’s journey. This allows us to optimize the journey – from first exposure to client brands, through first purchase, loyalty, and beyond.
We offer a comprehensive set of Performance Marketing services, including: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), where we help clients increase the quality and quantity of organic website traffic and increase brand exposure through non-paid search engine results; Data Analytics where through data capture and strategic analysis, we enable our clients to act on customer insights mined for maximum return; Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) where we focus on improving client conversion rates; Digital Marketing where we enhance marketing performance, creating a cohesive approach to marketing across web, social and other channels; Paid Media where we build holistic programs that include paid search, social, display, and native and affiliate marketing channels to put our clients where their target consumers shop and buy; and with Email Marketing where we help clients create custom, relevant journeys and messaging that help brands nurture and retain customers.
Orchestrated Services
LiveArea assists clients in outsourcing the responsibility of maintaining their core technology systems to improve operations, make smarter, safer decisions, and reduce expenses. LiveArea Orchestrated Services helps clients evaluate the right digital transformation strategies, mitigate workloads, manage infrastructure and backup, and secure data and applications. Our orchestrated services team provides real-time management and monitoring to ensure our clients’ sites operate at peak performance and provides solutions support for optimal issue management. Our automation tools facilitate fast, accurate code deployment - whether applying a software patch or launching a new feature.
PFS Operations
Through the PFS Operations business segment, we provide the operational activities required and expected of the world's leading brands. Our solutions support B2C, B2B, and retail sales channels. We have DTC and B2B experience in customizing solutions to meet the unique nuances of our clients’ internal finance, customer care, supply chain, and omni-channel operations. With approximately 1.6 million square feet of leased distribution space and approximately 1,100+ contact center seats across two continents, we have the global infrastructure to meet the operational needs of our e-commerce and traditional B2B clients.
We focus on three core actions: to deliver, to communicate, and to fulfill the promise behind each brand we support.
The majority of our clients are the merchants of record for the orders we process through our infrastructure on their behalf. For these clients, we do not own the inventory or the resulting accounts receivable but provide commerce solutions and other services for these client-owned assets.
For some of our clients, we are the merchant of record for the orders we process through our infrastructure. Depending on the terms under these arrangements, we record either product revenue or service fee revenue, may own the accounts receivable and inventory and we may be compensated for all or a portion of our services through the resulting profit margin. In some of these client relationships, we purchase the inventory as the product is delivered to our facility. In other of these client relationships, the client retains ownership of inventory in our facility and we purchase the inventory immediately prior to each individual customer sales transaction. In all of these cases, we seek inventory financing from our clients in the form of extended terms, working capital programs or marketing funds to help offset the working capital requirements that follow accounts receivable and inventory ownership.
Order to Cash (Order Management as a Service)
Our order to cash service provides our clients with distributed order orchestration and payment processing. Our order to cash service features an Oracle-based, custom, scalable Distributed Order Management (“DOM”) technology platform built for B2C and B2B and order processing with a variety of fully-integrated B2C and B2B payment processing and fraud management platforms and technologies. Our order to cash service provides interfaces that allow for real-time information retrieval, including information on inventory, sales orders, shipments, delivery, purchase orders, warehouse receipts, customer history, accounts receivable and credit lines. These solutions are seamlessly integrated with our customer contact centers, allowing for the processing of orders through shopping cart, phone, fax, mail, email, live chat and other order receipt methods. As the information backbone for our total supply chain solution, our order to cash service can be used on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with our other business infrastructure offerings, including contact center or order fulfillment services. In addition, for the B2B market, our order to cash platform provides a variety of order receipt methods that facilitate commerce within various stages of the supply chain. Our service provides the ability for both our clients and their customers to track the status of orders at any time. Our services are transparent to our clients’ customers and are seamlessly integrated with our clients’ internal system platforms and websites. By synchronizing these activities, we can capture and provide critical customer information, including:
•Statistical measurements critical to creating a quality customer experience, containing real-time order status, order exceptions, back order tracking, allocation of product based on timing of online purchase and business rules, the ratio of customer inquiries to purchases, average order sizes and order response time;
•B2B supply chain management information critical to evaluating inventory positioning, for the purpose of improving inventory turns, and assessing product flow-through and end-user demand;
•Reverse logistics information, including customer response and reason for the return or rotation of product and desired customer action; and
•Detailed marketing information about what was sold and to whom it was sold, by location and preference
Technology Collaboration. We have created a suite of technology services that enable buyers and suppliers to fully automate their business transactions within their supply chain using our order management interfaces. Our collaboration technologies operate in an open systems environment and feature the use of industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (“XML”) and Service-Oriented Architecture (“SOA”) web services, enabling customized e-commerce solutions with minimal changes to a client’s systems or our systems. The result is a faster implementation process. We also support information exchange methods, such as Applicability Statement 2 (“AS2”), Secure File Transfer Protocol (“SFTP”), Electronic Data Interchange (“EDI”), Message Queue Series (“MQ Series”), Application Link Enabling (“ALE”), and Representational State Transfer / Simple Object Access Protocol (“REST/SOAP”) over Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”).
Information Management. We have the ability to communicate with and transfer information to and from our clients through a wide variety of technology services, including real-time web service enabled data interfaces, file transfer methods and electronic data interchange. Our distributed order orchestration systems are designed to capture, store and electronically forward to our clients critical information regarding customer inquiries and orders, product shipments, inventory status (for example, levels of inventory on hand, on backorder, on purchase order and inventory due dates to our warehouse), product returns and other information. Our clients are able to utilize inventory and order information for use in analyzing sales and marketing trends and introducing new products. We also offer customized reports and data analyses based upon specific client needs to assist them in their budgeting.
Payments. Protecting our clients’ brand with secure payment processing and fraud management services is critical to a successful operation. We also provide flexible global payment options as well as gift cards, B2B invoicing and VAT services.
Our payment services are divided into two major financial management areas: 1) billing, credit, collection and cash application services for B2B clients and 2) fraud review, chargeback management and processing and settlement of credit card services for B2C clients.
Business-to-Business Financial Management. For B2B clients, we offer full-service accounts receivable management and collection capabilities, including the ability to generate customized invoices in our clients’ names. We assist clients in reducing accounts receivable and days sales outstanding, while minimizing costs associated with maintaining an in-house collections staff. We offer electronic credit services in the format of EDI and XML communications direct from our clients to their vendors, suppliers and retailers.
Direct-to-Consumer Financial Management. For B2C clients, we offer secure credit card processing related services for orders made via a client web site or through our customer contact center. We offer manual credit card order review as an additional level of fraud protection. We also calculate sales taxes, goods and services taxes or value added taxes, if applicable, for numerous taxing authorities and on a variety of products. Using third-party leading-edge fraud protection services and risk management systems, we can offer high levels of security and reduce the level of risk for client transactions.
Order Fulfillment
We design advanced distribution operations that streamline our clients’ supply chain process and offer a flexible fulfillment model. Our fulfillment team understands the value of the delivery experience by specializing in creating branded solutions with gift-wrap, product personalization and other value-added services. Our distribution centers are located in the Memphis, Tennessee area, Dallas, Texas, Toronto, Canada, Southampton, U.K., and Liege, Belgium to provide centrally located fulfillment throughout North America and Europe.
Advanced Distribution Facilities and Infrastructure. An integral part of our solution is the warehousing and distribution of our clients’ inventory. We receive inventory in our distribution centers, verify shipment accuracy, unpack and audit packages (a process that includes spot-checking a percentage of the inventory to validate piece counts and check for damages that may have occurred during shipping, loading and unloading). Upon request, we inspect for other damages or defects, which may include checking fabric, stitching and zippers for soft goods, or ‘testing’ power-up capabilities for electronic items as well as product specifications. We generally stock for sale within one business day of unloading. We pick, pack and ship customer orders and can provide customized packaging, customized monogramming, personalized laser engraving, high volume shrink packaging, inserts and promotional literature for distribution with customer orders. For many clients, we provide gift-wrapping services including line level gifting, customized gift-wrapping paper, ribbon, gift-box and gift-messaging.
Our distribution facilities contain computerized sortation equipment, flexible mobile pick-to-light carts, powered material handling equipment and scanning and bar-coding systems. Our distribution facilities include several advanced technology enhancements, such as radio frequency technology in product receiving processing to ensure accuracy, as well as an automated package routing and a pick-to-light paperless order fulfillment system. Our advanced distribution systems provide us with the capability to warehouse an extensive number of stock keeping units (“SKUs”), ranging from large high-end electronics to small cosmetic compacts. Our facilities are flexibly configured to process B2B and DTC orders from the same central location.
In addition to our advanced distribution systems, our proprietary pick-to-light carts, stationary pick-to-light areas and conveyor system controls provide real time productivity reporting, thereby providing our management team with the tools to implement and manage to productivity standards. This combination of computer-controlled equipment provides the seamless integration of our pick-to-light systems and mass sortation capabilities. This unique combination of technologies ensures high order accuracy for each and every customer order.
We are able to take advantage of a variety of shipping and delivery options, which range from next day service to zone skipping, to optimize transportation costs. Our facilities and systems are equipped with multi-carrier functionality, allowing us to integrate with all leading package carriers and provide a comprehensive freight and transportation management offering.
We offer reverse logistics management services, including issuing return authorizations, return carrier shipping labels, receipt of product, crediting customer accounts and disposition of returned product. We also leverage strategic partnerships to provide our clients with access to distributed returns centers that collect, consolidate, report on and forward returned product to our central facilities allowing us to accelerate credits to our clients’ customers, reduce freight costs for our client, improve customer service and reduce complexity and cost in our facilities from handling inbound returns.
Facility Operations and Management. Our facilities management service offering includes distribution facility design and optimization, business process reengineering and ongoing staffing and management. Our expertise in supply chain management, logistics and customer-centric fulfillment operations can provide our clients with cost reductions, process improvements and technology-driven efficiencies.
Kitting and Assembly Services. Our expanded kitting and assembly services enable our clients to reduce the time and costs associated with managing multiple suppliers, warehousing hubs and light manufacturing partners. As a single source provider, we provide the advantage of convenience, accountability and speed. Our kitting and assembly services include light assembly, specialized kitting and supplier-consigned inventory hub either in our distribution facilities or co-located elsewhere. We also offer customized light manufacturing and supplier relationship management.
Pop-Up Distribution Centers. Leveraging our CloudPick℠ solution, temporary fulfillment centers allow our clients’ e-commerce fulfillment networks to flex during peak periods with all the benefits of regional distribution nodes, without the long-term capital costs. We can deploy full pick-pack-ship operations within weeks that run off a simple Wi-Fi network and our proprietary distributed order management technology. Deployed into any real estate space with Wi-Fi, this solution allows for temporary forward stock allocation to alleviate volume from the primary fulfillment center, shorten delivery times and lower shipping costs.
Fulfillment-as-a-Service. PFS has developed and deployed technology products that facilitate the omni-channel shopping experience. Our cloud-based RetailConnectSM Store Edition is designed to streamline the pick/pack/ship operation within a retail store. Our cloud-based solution allows retailers the ability to offer BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick-up In Store) and BOSFS (Buy Online Ship From Store) quickly and accurately, transforming a brick-and-mortar store into an efficient, omi-channel hub which optimizes inventory and improves customer satisfaction.
We work with clients to re-sequence certain supply chain activities to aid in an inventory postponement strategy. We can provide kitting and assembly services and build-to-stock thousands of units daily to stock in a Just-in-Time (“JIT”) environment. This service, for example, can entail the procurement of packaging materials including retail boxes, foam inserts and anti-static bags. These raw material components may be shipped to us from domestic or overseas manufacturers, and we will build the finished SKUs to stock for the client. Also included is the custom configuration of high-end printers and servers. This strategy allows manufacturers to make a smaller investment in base unit inventory while meeting changing customer demand for highly customizable products.
Our standard capabilities include: build-to-order, build-to-stock, expedited orders, passive and active electrostatic discharge (“ESD”) controls, product labeling, serial number generation, marking and/or capture, lot number generation, asset tagging, bill of materials (“BOM”) processing, SKU-level pricing and billing, manufacturing and metrics reporting, first article approval processes and comprehensive quality controls.
Kitting and inventory hub services enable clients to collapse supply chains into the minimal steps necessary to prepare product for distribution to any channel, including wholesale, mass merchant retail or direct to consumer. Clients no longer have to employ multiple providers or require suppliers to consign multiple inventory caches for each channel. We offer our clients the opportunity to consolidate operations from a channel standpoint, as well as from a geographic perspective. Our integrated, global information systems and international locations support business needs worldwide.
Customer Care
Our internal contact center operations are focused on providing essential services such as order entry, returns authorization, product inquiry and order tracking. These operations also include our iCommerce Agent (“iCA”), a customizable web-based application featuring powerful customer service tools for accessing all required customer information. Our unique multi-lingual capabilities are possible through our strategically placed locations in Texas, Belgium, U.K., and Canada, as well as partnerships delivering multi-lingual capability in Mexico. We have also deployed technology which allows for full customer care capabilities to be deployed for agents in a work from home ("WFH") capacity, which has greatly increased our access to skilled staff while reducing attrition.
Customer Service Application. Through our web enabled iCA application, our unique technology leverages the client’s website investment by wrapping the Customer Service Application around the existing website. Using iCA, agents provide customer service functions, such as placing orders, checking order status, facilitating returns, initiating upsell and cross sell, managing escalations and gathering “voice of the customer” information to help our clients evolve with their customers’ changing needs. iCA is fully integrated into the client’s website, our data analytics platform, and our order processing system, allowing full visibility into customer history and customer trends. Through each of our customer touch-points, information can be analyzed and processed for current or future use in business evaluation product effectiveness and positioning, and supply chain planning.
Through this fully integrated system, we are able to provide a complete customer care solution in a contact center or on a license basis to our clients’ owned or outsourced contact centers.
Customer Assistance. An important feature of evolving commerce is the ability for the customer to communicate with a live customer service representative. Our experience has been that many consumers tell us they visited a web location for information, but not all of those consumers chose to place their order online. Our contact center services utilize features that integrate voice, e-mail, standard mail and live chat communications to respond to and handle customer inquiries. Our customer care representatives answer various questions, acting as virtual representatives of our clients’ organization, regarding order status, shipping, billing, returns and product information and availability as well as a variety of other questions. We utilize technology that allows us to route each customer contact automatically to the appropriate customer care representative who is individually trained in the clients’ business and products.
Our contact centers are flexibly designed so that our customer care representatives can handle either several different clients and products in a shared agent environment, thereby creating economy of scale benefits for our clients, or through a highly customized dedicated agent support model that provides the ultimate customer experience and brand reinforcement.
Quality Monitoring. Quality is essential in our client solutions. As representatives of our clients, our customer care representatives must adhere to the unique quality standards of each client for each contact type. We continually monitor the quality of our customer care representatives against each client quality standard and use the results to provide agent-level feedback to continually improve the customer care experience. Clients may participate in the quality process by remotely listening to calls, assisting in the grading of recorded calls and providing ongoing direction to improve quality standards through our calibration process.
Customer Self-Help. With the need for efficiency and cost optimization for many of our clients, we have integrated interactive voice response (“IVR”) as another option for customer contacts. IVR creates an “electronic workforce” with virtual agents that can assist customers with vital information at any time of the day or night. IVR allows for our clients’ customers to deal interactively with our system to handle basic customer inquiries, such as account balance, order status, shipment status and customer satisfaction surveys. The inclusion of IVR in our service offering allows us to offer a cost effective way to handle high volume, low complexity calls.
INDUSTRY INFORMATION AND COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Industry Overview
Business activities in the public and private sectors continue to operate in an environment of rapid technological advancement, increasing competition and continuous pressure to decrease costs by improving operating and supply chain efficiency. We currently see the following trends within the industry:
•Manufacturers strive to restructure their supply chains to maximize efficiency and reduce costs in both B2B and B2C markets, and to create a variable-cost supply chain able to support the multiple, unique needs of each of their initiatives, including traditional retail and e-commerce.
•Companies in a variety of industries seek outsourcing as a method to address one or more business functions that are not within their core business competencies, to reduce operating costs or to improve the speed or cost of implementation.
•Retailers, both traditional and e-commerce only, partner with providers that offer them the most flexibility both short and long-term. The end-to-end model is a viable option for brands that are growing their e-commerce channel, or for large wholesale corporations that do not have the infrastructure to handle B2C transactions. However, many companies today seek to diversify their e-commerce operations across in-house capabilities and outsourced components on an a la carte basis.
•The “seamless customer experience” is a major industry trend that retailers and brand manufacturers are embracing to differentiate and remain relevant to a more sophisticated consumer. As consumers desire a shopping experience that blends sales channels, the integration and flexibility of front and back-end systems and operations becomes more critical to retailers and manufacturers.
•As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in e-commerce growth. Manufacturing and retailers are focused on driving improvements in their online presence through incremental
investments in their website presence and infrastructure to support evolving consumer buying patterns and requirements.
Supply Chain Management Trend
As companies maintain focus on improving their businesses and balance sheet financial ratios, significant efforts and investments continue to be made in identifying ways to maximize supply chain efficiency and extend supply chain processes. Working capital financing, vendor managed inventory, supply chain visibility software solutions, distribution channel skipping, direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales initiatives and complex upstream supply chain collaborative technology are products that manufacturers seek to help them achieve greater supply chain efficiency.
A key business challenge facing many manufacturers and retailers as they evaluate their supply chain efficiency is determining how the trend toward increased omni-channel business activity will impact their traditional B2C commerce business models. Ship-from-store, pick-up-in-store, return-to-store and other omni-channel capabilities are becoming increasingly important processes to accommodate. We believe manufacturers will look to outsource their non-core competency functions to support this modified business model. We believe companies will continue to strategically plan for the impact that technology advancements will have on their traditional commerce business models and their existing technology and infrastructure capabilities. Additionally, B2B opportunities exist as companies look to leverage the technology and enhanced customer experience that currently exists within e-commerce channels.
Manufacturers, as buyers of materials, are also imposing new business practices and policies on their supplier partners to shift the normal supply chain costs and risks associated with inventory ownership away from their own balance sheets. Through techniques like Vendor Managed Inventory or Consigned Inventory Programs, manufacturers are asking their suppliers, as a part of the supplier selection process, to provide capabilities where the manufacturer need not own, or even possess, inventory prior to the exact moment that unit of inventory is required as a raw material component or for shipping to a customer. To be successful for all parties, business models such as these often require a sophisticated collection of technological capabilities that allow for complete integration and collaboration of the information technology environments of both the buyer and supplier. For example, for an inventory unit to arrive at the precise required moment in the manufacturing facility, it is necessary for the Manufacturing Resource Planning systems of the manufacturer to integrate with the CRM systems of the supplier. When hundreds of supplier partners are involved, this process can become quite complex and technologically challenging. Buyers and suppliers are seeking solutions that utilize XML based protocols and traditional EDI standards to ensure an open systems platform that promote easier technology integration in these collaborative solutions. In addition to these traditional integration and collaboration technology environments, we are observing the emergence of a variety of solutions utilizing blockchain technologies and we will continue to evaluate the appropriate time to include emerging technology solutions into our service offering.
Outsourcing Trend
In response to growing competitive pressures and technological innovations, we believe many companies, both large and small, are focusing their critical resources on the core competencies of their business and utilizing e-commerce service providers to accelerate their business plans in a cost-effective manner and perform non-core business functions. Outsourcing can provide many key benefits, including the ability to:
•Enter new business markets or geographic areas rapidly;
•Increase flexibility to meet changing business conditions and demand for products and services;
•Enhance customer satisfaction and gain competitive advantage;
•Reduce capital and personnel investments and convert fixed investments to variable costs;
•Improve operating performance and efficiency; and
•Capitalize on skills, expertise and technology infrastructure that would otherwise be unavailable or expensive given the scale of the business.
Typically, many outsourcing service providers are focused on a single function, such as information technology, contact center management, credit card processing, warehousing or package delivery, etc. This focus creates several challenges for companies looking to outsource more than one of these functions, including the need to manage multiple outsourcing service providers, to share information with service providers and to integrate that information into their internal systems. Additionally, the delivery of these multiple services must be transparent to the customer so the client maintains brand recognition and customer
loyalty. Furthermore, traditional commerce outsourcers are frequently providers of domestic-only services versus international solutions. As a result, companies requiring global solutions must establish additional relationships with other outsourcing parties.
Another vital point for major brand name companies seeking to outsource is the protection of their brand. When looking for an outsourcing partner to provide infrastructure solutions, brand name companies must find a company that can provide the same quality performance and superior experience their customers expect from their brands. Working with an outsourcing partner requires finding a partner that can maintain the consistency of their brand image, which is one of the most valuable intangible assets that recognized brand name companies possess.
Competition
We face competition from many different sources depending upon the type and range of services requested by a potential client. Many other companies offer one or more of the same services we provide on an individual basis. For operations services, our competitors include vertical outsourcers, which are companies that offer a single function solution. We compete with transportation logistics providers, known in the industry as 3PL’s and 4PL’s (third or fourth party logistics providers), who offer product management functions as an ancillary service to their primary transportation services. For professional services, we compete against Global Commerce Service Providers, and Specialists, who perform various services similar to our solution offerings. Additionally, we see competition from digital agencies providing creative, commerce strategy and system integration services. In many instances, PFSweb competes with the in-house operations of our potential clients. Occasionally, the operations departments of potential clients believe they can perform the same services we do, at similar quality levels and costs, while others are reluctant to outsource business functions that involve direct customer contact. We cannot be certain we will be able to compete successfully against these or other competitors in the future.
Although many of our competitors offer one or more of our services, we believe our primary competitive advantage is our ability to offer a full array of customized services, thereby eliminating any need for our clients to coordinate these services from many different providers. We believe we can differentiate ourselves by offering our clients a very broad range of e-commerce and business process services that address, in many cases, the entire value chain, from demand to delivery.
We also compete on the basis of many other important additional factors, including:
•vertical industry expertise;
•omni-channel strategy;
•design and implementation experience;
•operating performance and reliability;
•ease of implementation and integration;
•experience of the people required to successfully and efficiently design and implement solutions;
•experience operating similar solutions dynamically;
•scalable and secure technology experience across all major commerce packages;
•global reach; and
•price.
We believe we can compete favorably with respect to many of these factors. However, the market for our services is competitive and continually evolving, which will require PFSweb to continue to innovate and invest in both its LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations business units to be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.
Competitive Landscape
Global Commerce Service Providers. We compete with companies providing broad strategic solutions for digital transformation along with commerce implementation services including Accenture Digital, Capgemini/LCG, Cognizant, Deloitte Digital, HCL, IBM Global Business Services, Infosys, and Publicis Sapient.
Commerce Specialist Service Providers. We compete with companies providing e-commerce platform-specific services including Astound Commerce, BORN Group, diconium, Gorilla Group/Wunderman Commerce, Isobar and Optaros.
Digital Agency and Digital Marketing Services. We compete with a wide range of digital agency firms, including Isobar, Razorfish (Publicis), R/GA, Capgemini, and Wunderman Thompson.
End-to-End Commerce. In North America, we compete with full service commerce providers such as Blue Acorn, Branded Online, and Pitney Bowes. In the European market, we compete with companies such as Arvato, The Hut Group, and other geographically focused providers in Western Europe.
Operations. We compete with e-commerce focused order fulfillment providers such as Radial and GEODIS (formerly OHL), as well as, depending on the client’s retail and/or supply chain strategy, Saddle Creek Logistics, James and James, FedEx Supply Chain, UPS Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel, and other “pure-play” fulfillment or contact center providers.
COMPANY INFORMATION
Clients and Marketing
Our target clients include traditional retailers, online retailers and leading technology and consumer goods brands looking to quickly and efficiently implement or enhance online and offline business initiatives and operations, adapt their digital strategies or introduce new products, programs or geographies, without the burden of modifying or expanding their technology, customer care, supply chain and logistics infrastructure. Our solutions are applicable to a multitude of industries and company types and we have provided solutions for such companies as:
Procter & Gamble (consumer packaged goods), L’Oréal USA (health & beauty), ASICS (sporting goods/apparel), Thrive Causemetics (health & beauty), Ricoh (printer supplies), Ralph Lauren (fashion), Xerox (printers and printer supplies), PANDORA (jewelry), Moleskine (stationery), Tommy Bahama (fashion), Anastasia Beverly Hills (health & beauty), The United States Mint (collectible coins), among many others.
We target potential clients through an extensive integrated marketing program comprised of a variety of direct marketing techniques, email marketing initiatives, trade event participation, search engine marketing, public relations, social media, thought leadership, and a sophisticated outbound tele-sales lead generation model. We have also developed a global business development methodology which allows us to effectively showcase our various commerce service solutions and products. We also pursue strategic marketing alliances with consulting firms, private equity firms, software manufacturers and other logistics providers to increase market awareness and generate referrals and customer leads.
Because of the highly complex nature of the solutions we provide, our clients demand significant competence and experience from a variety of different business disciplines during the sales cycle. As such, we often utilize a member of our executive team to lead the design and proposal development of each potential new client we choose to pursue. The executive is supported by a select group of highly experienced individuals from our professional services group with specific industry knowledge of, or experience with, the solutions development process. We employ a team of highly trained implementation managers whose responsibilities include the oversight and supervision of client projects and maintaining high levels of client satisfaction during the transition process between the various stages of the sales cycle and steady state operations.
Seasonality
We have historically experienced seasonality due to our client mix and their increased business volumes which are highest in our fourth quarter which coincides with the retail peak season. We cannot predict the volume of sales of our clients or the impact of such seasonality of our clients or the sales they will implement during such peak season nor those of any future client business. We expect this seasonality to continue, or possibly increase in the future, which may cause fluctuations in our business operations and operating. Increased online buying due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions drove substantially increased fulfillment volume in the second quarter of 2020 with continued high growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 as well.
Concentration of Clients
During 2020, one of our clients represented more than 10% of the Company’s consolidated total net revenues. The client represented $38.9 million, or 11%, of consolidated total revenues. The client utilizes the services offered by both the LiveArea and PFS Operations segments.
Human Capital Resources
Workforce Composition and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Our business is operated by a diverse and global workforce, with employees in the following key geographies as of December 31, 2020 (in thousands):
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|
|
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|
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North America:
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United States
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1,400
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Canada
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70
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Total
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1,470
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Europe:
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United Kingdom
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170
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Belgium
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150
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Bulgaria
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50
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Total
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370
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Asia:
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India
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290
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Total Employees
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2,130
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We believe that providing a diverse workplace that promotes mutual respect and inclusion for all employees is critical to our business success and to driving innovation and growth. Since 2018, all US employees were trained on diversity and inclusion. In 2019, this training was expanded to our non-US employees and managers. In 2020, we launched an expanded Diversity & Inclusion effort and hired a firm to help develop a phased approach to increase diversity and ensure inclusion. As part of this process, the Company is engaging its workforce and seeking feedback from various groups within the Company, including, but not limited to, women, African Americans, and LGBTQ employees, to better determine if there are areas within the Company that warrant changes. We continue to work through the phased approach and believe this is an ongoing effort that will drive permanent change in our Company and our practices. As of December 31, 2020:
•globally, women make up approximately 49.5% of our workforce and hold approximately 32.2% of management roles.
•in the US, people of color represent approximately 69.2% of our workforce and hold approximately 44.6% of US management roles.
We are an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws, including but not limited to the applicable provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against our employees, applicants, or any protected group or class including in our hiring, workplace practices, promotions, compensation, benefits, and termination practices.
We have never suffered an interruption of business as a result of a labor dispute. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good. In the U.S., Canada and India, we are not a party to any collective bargaining agreements, and while our European subsidiaries are not a party to a collective-bargaining agreement, certain of them are required to comply with certain rules agreed upon by their employee Works Councils.
Our success in recruiting, hiring and training large numbers of skilled employees and obtaining large numbers of hourly employees and temporary staff during peak periods for distribution and call center operations is critical to our ability to provide high quality services.
Health and Safety
Our frontline employees provide essential services to keep goods flowing to the people who need them. Their protection is important, and with the onset of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we began using a combination of protective measures and virtual communications to maintain a safe workplace environment including, but not limited to:
•Temperature checks at entry doors;
•Personal protective equipment (“PPE”) for all employees; and
•Mobile cleaning stations and access to hand sanitizers.
Government Regulation
We are subject to federal, state, local and foreign consumer protection laws and data privacy laws, protecting our customers’ personally identifiable information and other non-public information and regulations prohibiting unfair and deceptive trade practices to name a few. Moreover, there is a trend toward regulations requiring companies to provide consumers with greater information regarding, and greater control over, how their personal data is used, and requiring notification when unauthorized access to such data occurs. Furthermore, the growth and demand for online commerce has and may continue to result in more stringent consumer protection laws that impose additional compliance burdens and greater penalties on online companies.
These laws are increasing in number, enforcement, fines and other penalties. For example, many states and foreign countries currently require us to notify each of our clients or customers who are affected by any data security breach in which an unauthorized person, such as a computer hacker, who could obtain customer information. In addition, several jurisdictions, including foreign countries, have adopted privacy-related laws that restrict or prohibit unsolicited email promotions, commonly known as “spam,” that impose significant monetary and other penalties for violations. Two such governmental regulations that have significant implications for our products and services are the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and in January 2023 the newly adopted California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) will come into effect. Please refer to Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Report, specifically, We must safeguard the security and privacy of our client’s confidential data and remain in compliance with laws that govern such data and we may be liable for misappropriation of our client’s and our clients’ customers’ personal information, including through cyber-attacks.
In an effort to comply with these laws, internet service providers may increasingly block legitimate marketing emails. Compliance with these and any other applicable privacy and data security laws and regulations is a rigorous and a time-intensive process, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new data protection rules in the future which could result in substantial compliance costs and could interfere with the conduct of our business.
The U.K.’s exit from the European Union (referred to as “Brexit”) may add cost and complexity to our operations and compliance efforts. Brexit has and may continue to contribute to volatility of currency exchange rates, including of the euro and British pound, issues with import and export controls, trade barriers, tariffs, and the movement of employees due to lack of enforceable trade agreements and uniform regulations. The U.K. is an important geography for us and we have structured our privacy and data protection compliance program based on the GDPR. As a result of Brexit, we will be required to implement alternative U.K. compliance measures and comply separately to the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act of 2018.
Where to Find More Information
Our website address is www.pfsweb.com, Information contained on, or accessible from, our website is not incorporated by reference into this annual report and should not be considered part of this annual report or any filing we make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. We file with, or furnish to, the SEC all our periodic filings and reports, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments if any, to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934). All of our filings with the SEC are made available, free of charge, through the investor relations section of this website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC or by mailing a written request to Investor Relations at PFSweb, Inc., 505 Millennium Drive, Allen, Texas 75013. Copies of any of our filings also can be obtained without charge from the SEC at www.sec.gov.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected by any or all of the following factors, in which event the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting which, if not timely remediated, may adversely affect the accuracy and reliability of our financial statements, and our reputation, business and the price of our common stock, as well as lead to a loss of investor confidence in us.
We are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures in order to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. In connection with management’s assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, we determined that we had material weaknesses in our revenue process. We therefore concluded that, as of the end of the period covered by this report, our internal control over financial reporting and our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective. Until we fully remediate these weaknesses, it may be more difficult for us
to report results accurately and on time. While we are working to address our internal control over financial reporting, we cannot be certain that our efforts will be successful or that we will be able to maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future and we expect to incur additional audit fees related to incremental procedures performed and we may see a decline in our stock price due to reduced investor confidence. See “Part II—Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.”
Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur undetected, and it is possible that additional significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting may be identified in the future. Any failure of our internal controls could result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, significant deficiencies, material weaknesses, costs, failure to timely meet our periodic reporting obligations, incremental audit fees and further erosion of investor confidence. It would also adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flow. If our internal controls continue to be deemed deficient in the future, our current external auditors could resign, and the process of retaining new auditors could limit our access to capital for an extended period of time.
We are dependent on our key personnel, and if we are unable to employ skills and resources in balance with client demand and attract and retain skilled professionals in all our geographic locations, our business and our results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
Our performance is highly dependent on the continued services of our officers and other professional personnel, the loss of any of whom could materially adversely affect our business.
In addition, we need to attract and retain other highly-skilled, technical and managerial personnel for whom there is intense competition. For example, if we are unable to hire or continually train our employees to keep pace with the rapid and continuing changes in technology and the markets we serve or changes in the types of services our clients are demanding, we may not be able to develop and deliver services and solutions to fulfill client demand. As we expand our services and solutions, we must also hire and retain an increasing number of professionals with different skills and expectations than those of the professionals we have historically hired and retained in various geographic locations, including North America, Europe and India. We currently rely heavily on our Indian office for developers, technology architects and skilled technology workers. Increasing wages, competition for skilled employees and the imposition of certain employee collective rights in India and Europe, may negatively impact our business and increase our costs. We cannot assure you we will be able to attract and retain the personnel necessary for the continuing support of and growth of our business. Our inability to attract and retain qualified technical and managerial personnel could materially adversely affect our ability to maintain and grow our business.
Our business may suffer if we are unable to hire and retain sufficient temporary workers or if labor costs increase.
We regularly hire a large number of part-time and seasonal workers, particularly during the fourth quarter holiday season and to meet temporary increases in client activity volume related to “flash sales” and other short-term marketing programs throughout our geographic locations. Any difficulty we may encounter in hiring such workers could result in significant increases in labor costs, or inability to support our clients’ businesses, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may also hire more full-time and part-time employees to mitigate the risk of the unavailability of temporary workers, and our failure to maintain an appropriate mix of labor personnel may result in higher costs. Increases in minimum wage requirements and other competition for labor, could also substantially increase our labor costs. Although we seek to preserve the contractual ability to pass through increases in labor costs to our clients, not all of our current contracts provide us with this protection, and we may enter into contracts in the future, which limit or prohibit our ability to pass through increases in labor costs to our clients.
We are exposed to the credit risk of some of our clients and to credit exposures in weakened markets, which could result in material losses.
A substantial portion of our sales are on an open credit basis. We monitor individual client financial viability in granting such open credit arrangements, seek to limit such open credit to amounts we believe the clients can pay, and maintain reserves we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts.
In the past, there have been bankruptcies amongst our client base, and certain of our clients’ businesses face financial challenges that put them at risk of future bankruptcies. Losses, resulting from client bankruptcies, have impacted our operations and any future bankruptcies could harm our business and have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. To the degree that the credit markets become difficult such that clients cannot maintain financing, our clients' ability to pay could be adversely impacted, which in turn could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We face competition from many sources that could adversely affect our business, and; growth in our clients’ e-commerce business may make it more efficient for the client to perform some of our service offerings themselves.
Many companies offer, on an individual basis, one or more of the same services we do, and we face competition from many different sources depending upon the type and range of services requested by a potential client. Our competitors include vertical outsourcers, which are companies that offer a single function, such as call centers, public warehouses or professional services firms such as system integrators and digital agencies. We compete against transportation logistics providers who offer product management functions as an ancillary service to their primary transportation services. We also compete against other infrastructure service providers, who perform many similar services as us. Many of these companies have greater capabilities than we do for the single or multiple functions they provide. In addition, we compete against other professional service firms that have substantial offshore operations with lower labor costs, which enable them to offer lower pricing to potential clients. In many instances, our competition is the in-house operations of potential clients themselves. The in-house operations of potential clients often believe they can perform the same services we do, while others are reluctant to outsource business functions that involve direct customer contact. We cannot be certain we will be able to compete successfully against these or other competitors in the future.
To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our services and the underlying network infrastructure. If we are unable to adapt to changing market conditions, client requirements or emerging industry standards, our business could be adversely affected. The internet and e-commerce environments are characterized by rapid technological change, changes in user requirements and preferences, frequent new product and service introductions embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards and practices that could render our technology and systems obsolete. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to develop and license leading technologies to enhance our existing services and develop new services. We must continue to address the increasingly sophisticated and varied needs of our clients and respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a cost-effective and timely basis. The development of proprietary technology involves significant technical and business risks. We may fail to develop new product offerings and technologies effectively or to adapt our proprietary technology and systems to client requirements or emerging industry standards which could have an adverse impact on our business and operations.
The global coronavirus pandemic and any new strains of the virus could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. This pandemic and the related public health developments, including orders to shelter-in-place, travel restrictions and mandated business closures, have adversely affected businesses, workforces, organizations, customers, economies and financial markets globally, leading to an economic downturn and increased market volatility. While the COVID-19 pandemic has not had a material adverse impact on our operations to date, the extent and duration of the pandemic and any future resulting economic impact or adverse impacts are difficult to predict as the coronavirus continues to spread and cause disruptions to businesses, economies, and more.
Across our business, we have implemented several key measures to prioritize our employees’ health and safety in response to the pandemic. We converted our entire contact center workforce to a work-from-home model, and in our distribution centers we are providing personal protective equipment for our teams, thermal scanning to check temperatures of our employees and mobile cleaning stations and have instituted enhanced sanitation criteria for daily and nightly cleaning and social distancing practices. Despite the pandemic, our fulfillment center teams continue to operate as closely to normal as possible while adhering to global health regulations and guidelines. In response to the growing demand for our services from clients, we have in fact added personnel in our distribution and contact centers. As a strategic partner, we are staying closely aligned with and working with our clients across both business segments as we help them respond and adapt to their evolving e-commerce needs during this time.
Currently, the Company is effectively managing operations during the pandemic in order to continue to provide services to its clients. It is possible that the measures taken by governments and the resulting economic impact may cause disruptions and severely impact our business as we continue to move through the fiscal year, including, but not limited to:
•causing one or more of our clients to reduce requested services, terminate services, delay payments, fail to pay us timely or even file for bankruptcy protection or shut down;
•adversely affecting new client wins in both of our business segments and the anticipated launch dates of, and demand for, new projects;
•reduced availability and productivity of our employees due to illness, quarantines, absenteeism, government actions, travel restrictions or other restrictions in connection with the pandemic;
•disruption to our or our client’s supply chain and the procurement of products and ability to fulfill orders due to disruptions in our distribution centers;
•increased operational risks as a result of remote work arrangements, including the potential effects on internal controls, as well as cybersecurity risks and increased vulnerability to security breaches, information technology disruptions and other similar events;
•increased costs in response to the pandemic, including increased labor costs, procurement of equipment to move personnel into a work-from-home model, personal protective equipment and increased and enhanced cleaning services;
•continued volatility in market prices for our securities; and
•hampering our ability to access funds from financial institutions and the capital markets.
More specifically, our continued access to sources of liquidity during this pandemic also depends on multiple factors, including global economic conditions, the condition of global financial markets, the availability of sufficient amounts of financing and our operating performance. We currently have a revolving credit facility, but cannot guarantee the remaining availability will be enough to support our liquidity needs, should the pandemic last longer than anticipated and materially affect our cash flows. There is no guarantee that additional debt financing will be available in the future to fund our obligations, or that it will be available on commercially reasonable terms, in which case we may need to seek other sources of funding. In addition, the terms of future debt agreements could include more restrictive covenants, which could restrict our business operations.
It is not possible for us to predict the duration or magnitude of any adverse results of the pandemic and its effects on our business, results of operations or financial condition at this time, but such effects may be material and to the extent the duration of any of these conditions extends for a prolonged period of time, any adverse impact may be more severe. Such matters could impact future revenues and the Company’s asset values, including goodwill and intangible assets. We expect to face difficulty predicting our internal financial forecasts as a result of the various continuing unknown factors resulting from the pandemic, including government actions or mandates, restrictions on or changes to clients’ operations and business decisions and our supplier and vendor’s ability to continue operations.
Our operating results are materially impacted by our client concentration and mix and the seasonality of our clients' business.
Our business is materially impacted by our client mix and the seasonality of their business as well as the concentration of our clients including our focus on certain primary vertical industries. Based upon our current client mix and their current projected business volumes, we anticipate our service fee revenue business activity will be at its highest in our fourth quarter. We are unable to predict how the seasonality of future clients’ business may affect our quarterly revenue and whether the seasonality may change due to modifications to a client’s business. As such, we believe results of operations for a quarterly period may not be indicative of the results for any other quarter or for the full year.
Our service fee revenue and gross margin are dependent upon our clients’ business and transaction volumes and our costs. A reduction in our clients’ e-commerce business, our inability to grow our business or increase service fee revenue from new or existing clients, or our inability to manage expected costs could result in financial performance shortfalls and negatively impact our operating results.
Our service fee revenue is primarily transaction and project based and fluctuates with the volume of transactions or level of sales of the products by our clients for whom we provide omni-channel services and the size and scope of projects for clients for whom we perform technology and agency services. If we are unable to retain existing clients or attract new clients, or if we dedicate significant resources to clients whose business does not generate revenues at projected levels or sufficient revenues, or whose products do not generate substantial client sales, our business and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.
When making a proposal for clients or managing engagements, whether on fixed-fee or time and materials basis, we rely on our estimates of costs and timing for delivering our services, which may be based on limited data and could be inaccurate. Further, our ability to estimate service fee revenue for future periods is substantially dependent upon our clients’ and our own projections, the accuracy of which has been, and will continue to be, unpredictable. Therefore, our planning for client activity and targeted goals for service fee revenue and gross margin may be materially adversely affected by incomplete, delayed or inaccurate projections. Any increased or unexpected costs or unanticipated delays in connection with the performance of fixed-price contracts, including delays caused by factors outside of our control, could make these contracts less profitable or unprofitable and may affect the amount of revenue, profit and profit margin reported in any period.
In addition, most of our service agreements with our clients are non-exclusive and we cannot be assured that any of our clients will continue to use our services for any period of time. The loss of a significant amount of service fee revenue due to client terminations (including terminations related to client bankruptcies) or material reductions in the services provided to one or more clients could have a material adverse effect on our ability to cover our costs and thus on our profitability.
Our business could be adversely affected if our clients are not satisfied with our services or our third party provider services or we may incorrectly design client solutions resulting in client attrition.
Our success depends on our ability to handle a large number of transactions for many different clients in various product categories and to design client solutions that are effective and profitable. Our success also depends on our ability to satisfy our clients, both with respect to our professional services and operational e-commerce platform to meet our clients’ business needs. These services may be performed by our own staff, or by a third party or a combination of the two. Our strategy is to work with third parties to increase the breadth of capability and depth of capacity for delivery of these services to our clients. If a client is not satisfied with the quality of work performed by us or a third party or with the type of services or solutions delivered, then we could incur additional costs to address the situation, the profitability of that work might be impaired, and the client’s dissatisfaction with our services could damage our ability to obtain additional work from that client. Under the terms of several of our contracts with our service clients, we remain liable to provide such third party services and may be liable for the actions and omissions of such third party providers. Consequently, in the event our third party provider fails to provide the third party services in compliance with required services levels, or otherwise breaches its obligations, or discontinues its business, whether as the result of bankruptcy, insolvency or otherwise, we may be required to provide such services at a higher cost to us and may otherwise be liable for various costs and expenses related to such event. In addition, negative publicity related to our client relationships, regardless of its accuracy, may further damage our business and reputation by affecting our ability to compete for new business with current and prospective clients and otherwise could result in a material adverse effect upon our business and financial condition.
Further, as we experience volume increases in transactions due to increased sales and/or client growth, including from client marketing programs, such as “secret sales”, “flash sales” or holiday related promotions, these often result in significant short-term spikes in transaction volumes. When this occurs, additional stress is placed upon our network hardware and software and our ability to efficiently manage our operations and available staffing resources, and our ability to efficiently manage a large number of spikes in transactions could be hampered. In addition, if we incorrectly design a client solution, we may incur additional costs to operate the solution, which may result in the client solution being unprofitable or otherwise not meeting our margin targets. If we are not able to maintain an appropriate level of operating performance, we may be in breach of our client contractual obligations, develop a negative reputation, and impair existing and prospective client relationships and our business could be materially adversely affected.
We may experience fluctuations in the utilization of our underlying infrastructure as a result of shifts in our client concentration, attrition or growth, some of which we may not be able to control, which could adversely impact our operations and financial condition.
Our clients expect us to provide omni-channel services at the appropriate size and scope of projects based on the client’s needs, whether such needs are expanding or contracting. We must seek to maintain sufficient capacity in our fulfillment, call center and professional services operations and computer technology systems to support our projected existing and new client business activity, including seasonal volumes, and we currently plan on increasing capacity to support future projected growth. The fixed cost structure of many of these investments limits our flexibility to reduce our costs when excess capacity occurs. A reduction in our clients’ business, including from financial distress or related bankruptcies, or our inability to grow our business or increase service fee revenue from new or existing clients could result in an underutilization in our invested assets. While certain of our building leases permit early termination in advance of their regular scheduled maturity date, these early terminations could require incremental termination related payments which reduce the potential benefit of this flexibility.
Similarly, salaries and payroll-related expenses are a significant component of our costs. Balancing our workforce levels against the demands for our services is difficult. We generally cannot reduce our labor costs as quickly as negative changes in revenue may occur. We may retain underutilized employees to maintain scalability to meet client demand. We must maintain our operating efficiency and utilization at an appropriate rate to achieve our desired level of profitability. If we are unable to achieve and maintain our target efficiency and utilization rates, our profitability could be adversely impacted. Further, increases in minimum wage requirements and other competitive increases in labor costs could put upward pressure on our costs and adversely affect our profitability if we are unable to recover these increased costs by increasing the prices for our services.
Our business is subject to the risk associated with timing of contracts, adherence to contract terms and certain recovery of costs under the contract.
The sales cycle for our services is variable, typically ranging between several months to up to a year from initial contact with the potential client to the signing of a contract. A potential client’s decision to purchase our services is discretionary, involves a significant commitment of the client’s resources and is influenced by intense internal and external pricing and operating comparisons. Consequently, the period between initial contact and the purchase of our services is often long and subject to delays associated with the lengthy approval and competitive evaluation processes that typically accompany significant operational decisions. Additionally, the time required to finalize pending contracts and to implement our systems and integrate a new client can range from several weeks to many months. Delays in signing and integrating new clients may affect our revenue and cause our operating results to vary widely.
Many of our client service agreements contain minimum service level requirements and impose financial penalties if we fail to meet such requirements. The imposition of a substantial amount of such penalties could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations. In the event we are unable to meet the service levels expected by the client, our relationship with the client could suffer and may result in financial penalties and/or the termination of the client contract.
Additionally, most of our client agreements provide a contract expiration date, but many also include an early termination clause permitting the client to terminate the contract for convenience prior to its stated expiration date or to reduce the scope of services or delay the commencement of services to be provided under the contract. Termination, reduction, or delay of our services under a contract could result from factors unrelated to our work product or the progress of the project, such as factors related to business or financial conditions of the client, changes in client strategies or the domestic or global economy generally. The bankruptcy, early termination, reduction or substantial delay of services of any significant client, or nonrenewal of any significant client contract, or the nonpayment of a material amount of our service fees by a significant client, if not offset by an increase in other revenue or cost reductions, could have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operation and financial condition.
Further, we generally incur start-up costs in connection with the planning and implementation of business process solutions for our clients. Although we generally attempt to recover these costs from the client in the early stages of the client relationship, or upon contract termination if the client terminates without cause prior to full payment of these costs, there is a risk that the client contract may not fully cover the start-up costs or that the client will terminate the contract for cause and withhold payment of any unpaid start-up costs. To the extent start-up costs exceed the start-up fees received, certain excess costs will be expensed as incurred. Additionally, in connection with new client contracts, we may incur capital expenditures associated with assets whose primary use is related to the client solution. There is a risk that the contract may end before expected and we may not recover the full amount of our capital costs.
We must safeguard the security and privacy of our clients' confidential data and remain in compliance with laws that govern such data and we may be liable for misappropriation of our clients' and our clients’ customers’ personal information, including through cyber-attacks.
We are subject to U.S. and foreign laws relating to the collection, use, retention, security and transfer and processing of personally identifiable information. In the provisions of our services to our clients, we may be required to process personally identifiable information in compliance and adherence to these varying data protection laws. The interpretation and application of user data protection laws are in a state of flux, and may vary from country to country or state to state in the U.S. These laws are increasing in number, enforcement, fines and other penalties. In the event of a security breach, these laws may subject us to incident response, notice and remediation costs, as well as costs associated with any investigations that might arise from federal regulatory agencies and state attorney generals. Failure to safeguard data adequately, process data in accordance with such laws or to destroy data securely could subject us to regulatory investigations or enforcement actions under federal or state data security, unfair practices, or consumer protection laws. The scope and interpretation of these laws could change and the associated burdens and compliance costs could increase in the future. Two such governmental regulations that have significant implications for our products and services are the GDPR and the CCPA.
The GDPR went into effect in May 2018, implementing more stringent requirements in relation to the use of personal data relating to European Union individuals. Personal data includes any type of information that can identify a living individual, including name, identification number, email address, location, internet protocol addresses and cookie identifiers. Among other requirements, the GDPR mandates notice of and a lawful basis for data processing activities, data protection impact assessments, a right to “erasure” of personal data and data breach reporting.
In the United States, California adopted the CCPA, which became effective in January 2020. The CCPA establishes a privacy framework for covered businesses, including an expansive definition of personal information and data privacy rights for California residents. The CCPA includes a framework with potentially severe statutory damages and private rights of action. It still remains unclear how the CCPA will be interpreted by the Attorney General of California since the CCPA became effective.
but we have taken what we believe are appropriate measures to implement CCPA in our business activities, including establishing internal protocols and procedures as well as modifying our contracts accordingly. California has further adopted the CPRA, effective in January 2023, which amends and expands the CCPA as well as establishes a new enforcement agency dedicated to consumer privacy. We will likely see the continuing compliance impact of the new legislation and interpretations thereof and the evolving regulatory environment on our business activities with respect to the use and transfer of personal data. As we expand our operations, the CCPA, CPRA and evolving consumer protection regulation may significantly increase our compliance costs and potential liability.
Third parties are engaging in increased cyber-attacks against companies doing business on the internet and individuals are increasingly subjected to identity and credit card theft on the internet. We and our third-party service providers may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent all such cyber-attacks. Moreover, techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to systems change frequently and may not be known until launched against us or our third-party service providers. If third parties or unauthorized employees are able to penetrate our network security or otherwise misappropriate our clients’ or our clients’ customers’ personal information or credit card information, or if we give third parties or our employees improper access to clients’ personal information or credit card information, we could be subject to liability. This liability could include claims for unauthorized purchases with credit card information, impersonation or other similar fraud claims, as well as claims for other misuses or inadvertent disclosure of personal information, including unauthorized marketing purposes or selling of data. In such circumstances, we also could be liable for failing to provide timely notice of a data security breach affecting certain types of personal information.
We rely on encryption and authentication technology to provide the security and authentication necessary to effect secure transmission of sensitive client information such as customer credit card numbers. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other events or developments may result in a compromise or breach of the measures that we use to protect client transaction data. If any such compromise of security were to occur, it could subject us to liability, damage our reputation and diminish the value of our brand-name. A party who is able to circumvent the security measures could misappropriate proprietary information or cause interruptions in operations. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against such security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches. Our security measures are designed to prevent security breaches, but our failure to prevent such security breaches could subject us to liability, damage our reputation and diminish the value of our brand-name.
Compliance with these and any other applicable privacy and data security laws and regulations is a rigorous and time-intensive process, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms ensuring compliance with the new data protection rules. If we fail to comply with any such laws or regulations, or in the event of a significant data breach, we may face significant fines, penalties and costs that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
A breach of our e-commerce security measures could reduce demand for our services. Credit card fraud and other fraud could adversely affect our business.
A requirement of the continued growth of e-commerce is the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks. A party who is able to circumvent our security measures could misappropriate proprietary information or interrupt our operations. Any compromise or elimination of our security could reduce demand for our services.
We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against security breaches or to address any problem they may cause. Because our activities involve the storage and transmission of proprietary information, such as credit card numbers, security breaches could damage our reputation, cause us to lose clients, impact our ability to attract new clients and we could be exposed to litigation and possible liability. Our security measures may not prevent security breaches, and failure to prevent security breaches may disrupt our operations. The failure to adequately control fraudulent transactions on either our behalf or our client’s behalf could increase our expenses and expose us to reputational damage which could adversely affect our business.
We have made, and may make in the future, strategic acquisitions and divestitures that may involve significant risks and uncertainties. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of past or future acquisitions and integration of these acquisitions may disrupt our business and divert management attention. Likewise, any future divestitures may be unsuccessful and negatively impact our business.
From time to time, we may seek opportunities to maximize efficiency and value through various transactions including the sale of assets or businesses, or the pursuit of acquisitions of complementary assets or businesses. These transactions are subject to inherent risks and could:
•cause us to incur significant expenses, increase our operating costs, or potentially harm our business;
•divert management's attention away from other operational matters;
•result in unanticipated costs, assumption of liabilities or exposure to unforeseen liabilities of acquired businesses;
•difficulties in integrating the operations, assets and employees of the acquired business;
•the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of a proposed transaction on the market value of our common stock or relationships with third parties;
•reductions in cash balances and/or increases in debt obligations to finance activities associated with a transaction, including future payments under earn-outs and other contingent payments, which reduce the availability of cash flow for general corporate or other purposes or impact our financial results;
•difficulties in maintaining an effective internal control environment over an acquired business;
•risks of entering markets in which we have limited prior experience;
•decreased earnings, revenues or cash flow resulting from dispositions; and
•increases in our expenses and working capital requirements.
The process of integrating an acquired business may involve unforeseen costs and delays or other operational, technical and financial difficulties that may require a disproportionate amount of management attention and financial and other resources. Our failure to achieve consolidation savings, to incorporate the acquired businesses and assets into our existing operations successfully or to minimize any unforeseen operational difficulties could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Likewise, divestitures of assets or businesses involves a number of risks, including the diversion of management's attention, significant costs and expenses, goodwill and other intangible asset impairment charges, the loss of customer relationships and cash flow, adverse impact on any remaining business and our stock price, and disruption of operations in the affected business. Failure to timely complete or consummate a divestiture may negatively affect valuation of the affected business or result in restructuring charges. In the event an unsuccessful acquisition or divestiture, our competitive position, revenues, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our financial results may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the foreign currency exchange markets.
The revenues and expenses of our international operations generally are denominated in local currencies. Accordingly, we are subject to exchange rate fluctuations between such local currencies and the U.S. dollar. These exchange rate fluctuations subject us to currency translation risk with respect to the reported results of our international operations. Significant strengthening or weakening of the U.S. dollar against currencies like the Canadian Dollar, British Pound and the Euro may materially impact our revenue and profits. As we continue to expand our presence in India, we will have increased exposure to fluctuations between the Indian Rupee and the U.S. dollar. In addition, we have transactions with clients, as well as inter-company transactions between our subsidiaries, that cross currencies and expose us to foreign currency gains and losses. These types of events are difficult to predict and may recur. There can be no assurance that we will be able to reduce the currency risks associated with our international operations. We seek to manage our exposure to changes in foreign currency exchange rates through our normal operating and financing activities and, if deemed appropriate, we may use derivative financial instruments. There is no assurance that we will be successful in managing or controlling foreign currency risks.
Our business is susceptible to risks associated with international operations.
Outside of the United States, we currently maintain distribution facilities, call centers, technology centers, administrative offices and/or have sales personnel in Belgium, Canada, India, Bulgaria, and the U.K., and we currently intend to expand our international operations. We cannot assure you we will be successful in expanding in these or any additional international markets. In addition, we may face competition from companies that may have more experience with operations in these countries or with international operations generally. We may also face difficulties integrating new facilities in different countries into our existing operations, as well as integrating employees that we hire in different countries into our existing corporate culture. In addition to the uncertainty regarding our ability to generate revenue or profits from foreign operations and expand our international presence, there are risks inherent in doing business internationally that we have not generally faced in our U.S. operations, including:
•lack of familiarity with, and resulting risk of breach of, and/or unanticipated additional cost of compliance with, foreign laws and regulations governing privacy, data security, data transfer, employment, taxes, tariffs, trade restrictions, transfer pricing and other matters;
•changes in local tax and customs duty laws or changes in the enforcement, application or interpretation of such laws;
•potential for violations of anti-corruption laws and regulations, such as those related to bribery and fraud;
•fluctuations in currency exchange rates;
•difficulties and expenses associated with localizing our services and operations to local markets, including language and cultural differences;
•difficulties in staffing and managing international operations, including complex and costly hiring, disciplinary and termination requirements;
•the impact upon our clients, international firms and global economies arising from Brexit and surrounding uncertainty, and the political, economic and commercial responses related to such events, including related instability in global financial and foreign exchange markets, including volatility in the value of the British pound and European euro, legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations and the absence of established trade agreements between the U.K. and other E.U. countries which could result in increased or decreased sales or revenues or an increase in costs of operations due to tariffs or other factors;
•the complexities of foreign value-added taxes and restrictions on the repatriation of earnings;
•reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
•political, social and economic instability abroad, terrorist attacks and security concerns; and
•increased accounting and reporting burdens and complexities.
Additionally, the U.K. is one of our larger markets in Europe. We currently ship products for U.K. clients from our continental Europe location, as well as our new facility in Southampton, U.K. We anticipate greater restrictions on imports and exports between the U.K. and the E.U. and increased regulatory complexity as a result of Brexit.. The uncertainty regarding the final terms of trade agreements and the application and interpretation of the UK GDPR due to Brexit may adversely affect our international operations by, among other things, increasing our costs and reducing the volume of our client activities.
Further, operating in any international markets requires significant management attention and financial resources. We cannot be certain that the investments and additional resources required to establish and maintain operations in other countries will hold their value or produce desired levels of revenues or profitability. Any negative impact from our international business efforts could negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial condition as a whole.
Our business and profitability could be adversely affected if the operations of one or more of our facilities were interrupted or shut down as the result of acts of God, natural disasters, pandemics and/or endemics and other catastrophic events beyond our control.
Our operations are dependent upon our ability to protect our distribution facilities, client service centers, computer and telecommunications equipment and software systems against interruption, damage and failures. Our business operations are subject to serious disruptions, interruption and possible cessation of services by acts of God, natural disasters, fire, tornado, flood, power shortages, terrorism, strikes, pandemics and endemics (including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), equipment malfunctions, system failures and other events beyond our control. Although we maintain crisis management and disaster response plans, such events could make it difficult or impossible or substantially disrupt our ability for us to deliver our services to our clients, which may be due to (i) the inability of personnel to come to work to perform services, (ii) personnel being incapacitated to work, and/or (iii) third party vendors and suppliers inability to provide materials and/or services required for us to perform our services which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, we could incur significantly higher costs during the time it takes for us to reopen or replace any one or more of our facilities, personnel, vendors and/ supplier services which may or may not be reimbursed by insurance.
Our clients’ businesses may also be harmed from any system or equipment failures we experience as a result of the same acts of God, natural disasters, fire, tornado, flood, power shortages, terrorism, strikes, pandemics and endemics (including the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) and other events beyond our control. In that event, our relationship with these clients may be adversely affected, we may lose these clients, and our ability to attract new clients may be adversely affected and we could be exposed to liability.
We or our clients may be a party to litigation involving our e-commerce intellectual property rights. If third parties claim we or our clients are infringing their intellectual property right under the indemnification obligations within our contracts with our clients and business partners, we could incur significant litigation costs and be required to pay damages, which may have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Third parties have asserted, and may in the future assert, that our business or the technologies we use infringe on their intellectual property rights. As a result, we or our clients may be subject to intellectual property legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of business. We cannot predict whether third parties will assert claims of infringement in the future or whether any future claims will prevent us from offering popular products or services. If we or our clients are found to infringe, we may be required to pay monetary damages, which could include treble damages and attorneys’ fees for any infringement that is found to be willful, and either be enjoined or required to pay ongoing royalties with respect to any technologies found to infringe. Further, as a result of infringement claims either against us or our clients, we may be required, or deem it advisable, to develop non-infringing technology, which could be costly and time consuming, or enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements. Such royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable on terms that are acceptable, or at all. If a third party successfully asserts an infringement claim against us or our clients and we are enjoined or required to pay monetary damages or royalties or we are unable to develop suitable non-infringing alternatives or license the infringed or similar technology on reasonable terms on a timely basis, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially harmed.
Under our indemnification provisions in the contracts that we enter into with our clients and business partners, we are generally required to defend against claims arising out of our infringement of third-party intellectual property rights, breach of contractual obligations and/or unlawful or otherwise culpable conduct, including breach of data security. The indemnity obligations generally cover damages, costs and attorneys’ fees arising out of such claims. In many instances, our indemnification obligations to our clients include the actions or omissions of our third-party service providers. Although we seek to limit our total liability under such provisions to either a portion of the value of the contract or a specified, agreed-upon amount, in some cases our total liability under such provisions is unlimited. Although in many cases our third party service providers indemnify us for their actions and omissions, such providers may dispute or be unable to satisfy their indemnification obligation to us. In addition, our indemnification obligation to our clients may be broader in scope, or may be subject to larger limitations of liability, than the indemnification obligation of our third party service providers to us. In most cases, the term of the indemnity provision is perpetual. If we are required to indemnify a claim in a material amount, or if a series of indemnification claims are in the aggregate a material amount, we may be required to expend significant resources to defend the claims, which may have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We and our clients may be subject to existing, new or expanded imposition of sales tax in one or more jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business.
We collect sales or other similar taxes for shipments of our and our clients’ goods in certain states and jurisdictions. One or more local, state or foreign jurisdictions may seek to impose sales tax collection obligations on us and other out-of-state companies, including our clients, that engage in online commerce, depending upon the nexus we or our clients may have with that jurisdiction and the product or services being performed. As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, many states have enacted, and others may choose to enact in the future, new legislation and increase enforcement efforts of existing legislation requiring online retailers to collect and remit sales tax. If unexpected sales tax obligations are successfully imposed upon us or our clients by a state or other jurisdiction, we or our clients could be exposed to substantial tax liabilities for past sales and fines and penalties for failure to collect sales taxes and we or our clients could suffer decreased sales in that state or jurisdiction as the effective cost of purchasing goods from or through us increases for those residing in that state or jurisdiction. This imposition of sales tax may also be enforced on companies providing software as a service (SaaS), information services, data processing services, and maintenance, to name a few. As we provide such services, we may become subject to sales tax in each state where we provide services.
If there is increased legislative or enforcement action, e-commerce in general could decline as increased taxation of online sales could result in online shopping losing some of its current advantage over traditional retail models, which could diminish its appeal to consumers. A decrease in our clients’ e-commerce sales could impact our revenue. In addition, the cost of implementing new and expanded sales tax impositions by multiple taxing authorities may adversely impact our and our clients’ profitability.
Determinations under government audits could negatively affect our business.
We provide services to a U.S. government agency under a contract that provides the agency with the right to audit and review our performance under the contract, our pricing practices, our cost structure, and our compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards. If a government audit determines that we are in breach of our contractual terms, or have engaged in improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of the contract, suspension of payments, or disqualification from continuing to do business, or bidding on new business, with this agency and other federal agencies.
Risks related to our Financial Position and Capital Needs
We operate with significant levels of indebtedness and are required to comply with certain financial and non-financial covenants; and we have guaranteed certain indebtedness and obligations of our subsidiaries.
As of December 31, 2020, our total credit facilities outstanding, including debt, finance lease obligations and our vendor accounts payable related to financing of Ricoh product inventory for a client, were approximately $46.1 million. We cannot provide assurance that our credit facilities will be renewed by the lending parties. Additionally, these credit facilities include both financial and non-financial covenants, many of which also include cross-default provisions applicable to other agreements. Certain of these covenants also restrict our ability to transfer funds among our various subsidiaries, which may adversely affect the ability of our subsidiaries to operate their businesses or comply with their respective loan covenants. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants. A non-renewal, default under or acceleration of any of our credit facilities may have a material adverse impact upon our business and financial condition. We have guaranteed most of the indebtedness of our subsidiary Supplies Distributors. Furthermore, we are obligated to repay any over-advance made to Supplies Distributors by its lenders to the extent Supplies Distributors is unable to do so.
Our business and future growth depend on our continued access to bank and commercial financing.
Our business and future growth currently depend on our ability to access bank, vendor and commercial lines of credit, including a line of credit facility provided by various banks that provided for an aggregate of up to approximately $60.0 million of financing as of December 31, 2020, with an accordion feature providing for a potential of additional $20.0 million. This line of credit currently matures in November 2023 and is secured by substantially all our assets. Our ability to maintain, renew or replace our bank, vendor and commercial financing depends upon various factors, including the availability of bank loans and commercial credit in general, as well as our financial condition and prospects. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that these credit facilities will continue to be available beyond their current maturities on reasonable terms or at all. Our inability to maintain, renew or replace our credit facilities or find alternative financing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flow.
We anticipate incurring significant expenses in the foreseeable future, which may reduce our ability to achieve or maintain profitability.
To reach our business growth objectives, we currently expect to increase our operating, sales and marketing expenses, as well as capital expenditures. To offset these expenses, we will need to generate additional profitable business. If our revenue declines or grows slower than either we anticipate or our clients’ projections indicate, or if our operating, sales and marketing expenses exceed our expectations or cannot be reduced to an appropriate level, we may not generate sufficient revenue to be profitable or be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis in the future. Additionally, if our revenue declines or grows slower than either we anticipate or our clients’ projections indicate, we may incur unnecessary or redundant costs and our operating results could be adversely affected.
Our financial results may be negatively impacted by impairment in the carrying value of our goodwill.
Goodwill represented approximately 20% of our total assets as of December 31, 2020. The carrying value of goodwill represents the fair value of an acquired business in excess of identifiable assets and liabilities as of the acquisition date. We are required to test goodwill for impairment annually and when factors or indicators become apparent that could reduce the fair value of any of our reporting units below its book value. Such factors requiring an interim test for impairment include financial performance indicators, such as negative or declining cash flows or a decline in actual or planned revenue or earnings, and a sustained decrease in share price. A significant downward revision in the fair value of one or more of our business units that causes the carrying value to exceed the fair value could cause goodwill to be considered impaired and could result in a non-cash impairment charge in our consolidated statement of operations.
If our estimates relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, allowance for uncollectible accounts receivable, accounting for property, plant and equipment and definite-lived assets, stock-based compensation, income taxes and other contingencies. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the price of our Common Stock.
We may experience additional costs and uncertainties from the LIBOR phase-out.
The London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) is commonly used as a benchmark for rates across a wide range of financial products and instruments, however, financial regulators are transitioning away from the use of LIBOR by the end of 2021. As a result, we anticipate certain risks associated with this transition, including market uncertainty and disruptions, particularly with our existing debt instruments and equipment financings. We are working to review and address the potential issues in our existing debt instruments and equipment financings for substitutions, as well as revisit our accounting policies.
Our expenses could be adversely impacted by increases in healthcare costs.
We provide healthcare benefits to our employees. Increased costs of providing such benefits, including potential impact from modifications to healthcare legislation and related regulations, could materially impact our future healthcare costs, which could adversely affect our results and cash flow.
Risks Related to Our Stock
Institutional shareholders hold a significant amount of our common stock and these shareholders may have conflicts of interests with the interests of our other shareholders.
As of December 31, 2020, our top three shareholders (including transcosmos, Inc., our largest shareholder) own or control approximately 35% of the voting power of our common stock. The interests of these shareholders may differ from our other shareholders in material respects. This concentration of voting power of our common stock may make it difficult for our other shareholders to approve or defeat matters that may be submitted for action by our shareholders, including the election of directors and amendments to our Certificate of Incorporation or Bylaws. This also may have the effect of deterring, delaying, or preventing a change in control, even when such a change in control could benefit our other shareholders. These shareholders may have the power to exert significant influence over our affairs in ways that may be adverse to the interests of our other shareholders.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile. You may not be able to sell your shares at or above the price at which you purchased such shares.
The trading price of our common stock may be subject to wide fluctuations in response to quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in operating results, announcements of material adverse events, general conditions in our industry or the public marketplace and other events or factors, including the thin trading of our common stock. In addition, stock markets have experienced extreme price and trading volume volatility in recent years. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities of many technology-related companies for reasons frequently unrelated to the operating performance of the specific companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Further, our market price may be impacted by our inability to maintain or comply with the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) listing requirements, which could include reduction in our market price or delisting of our stock.
In addition, if our operating results differ from our announced guidance or the expectations of equity research analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decrease significantly.
Our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws, our shareholder rights plan and Delaware law make it difficult for a third party to acquire us, despite the possible benefit to our shareholders.
Provisions of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws, our shareholder rights plan and Delaware law could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would be beneficial to our shareholders. For example, our certificate
of incorporation permits our Board of Directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock, which may have rights and preferences superior to those of the common stock. The ability to issue preferred stock could have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring us. We have also adopted a shareholder rights plan. These provisions could discourage takeover attempts and could materially adversely affect the price of our stock. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which may prohibit large shareholders from consummating a merger with, or acquisition of us. These provisions may prevent a merger or acquisition that could be attractive to shareholders and could limit the price investors would be willing to pay in the future for our common stock.
General Risks
If our internal controls are ineffective, our operating results could be adversely affected.
Our internal controls over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements because of its inherent limitations, including the possibility of human error, the circumvention or overriding of controls or fraud. Even effective internal controls can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements. If we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, including any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or if we experience difficulties in their implementation, our business and operating results could be harmed and we could fail to meet our financial reporting obligations.
We are investing in technology to manage these reporting requirements. Implementing the appropriate changes to our internal controls may distract our officers and employees, result in substantial costs if we implement new processes or modify our existing processes and require significant time to complete. Any difficulties or delays in implementing these controls could impact our ability to timely report our financial results. In addition, we currently rely on a manual process in some areas which increases our exposure to human error or intervention in reporting our financial results. For these reasons, we may encounter difficulties in the timely and accurate reporting of our financial results, which could impact our ability to provide our investors with information in a timely manner. As a result, our investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, and our stock price could decline.
Our stock price could decline if a significant number of shares become available for sale.
The current and future issuance and/or vesting of shares of our common stock under our outstanding and future stock options, stock awards, performance shares and deferred stock units, sales of substantial amounts of common stock in the public market following the issuance and/or vesting of such shares, and/or the perception that future sales of these shares could occur, could reduce the market price of our common stock and make it more difficult to sell equity securities in the future.
Actions of activist shareholders could be disruptive and potentially costly, and the possibility that activist shareholders may seek changes that conflict with our strategic direction could cause uncertainty about the strategic direction of our business.
Activist investors may attempt to effect changes in our strategic direction or our business objectives, or to acquire control or Board representation to advocate corporate actions such as financial restructuring, stock repurchases or sales of assets or the entire company. Activist campaigns that contest or conflict with our strategic direction could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial conditions, as responding to proxy contests and other actions by activist shareholders can disrupt our operations, be costly and time consuming and divert the attention of our Board and senior management from the pursuit of business strategies. These types of actions could cause significant fluctuations in our stock price based on temporary or speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.
Our insurance policies may not fully cover all losses we may incur.
Although we attempt to limit our liability for damages arising from negligent acts, errors or omissions through contractual provisions, the limitations of liability included in our contracts may not fully protect us from liability or damages and may not be enforceable in all instances. In addition, not all of our contracts may limit our exposure for certain liabilities, such as data security claims or claims of third parties for which we may be required to indemnify our clients. Although we have general liability and errors and omissions insurance coverage, this coverage may not continue to be available on terms reasonable to us or in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, and our insurers may disclaim coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that are excluded from our insurance coverage or that exceed our available insurance coverage, or changes in our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.