GolfsmithThe world’s largest golf superstore chooses Stamps.com Enterprise to

simplify its mailing process and to boost overall productivity at its stores.

Customer

Golfsmith International Holdings, Inc. is a 40-year-old

specialty retailer of golf and tennis equipment, apparel

and accessories. The company operates as an integrated

multi-channel retailer, offering its guests the convenience

of shopping in its 75-plus stores across the United States,

through its online site, and from its assortment of catalog

distribution. Golfsmith offers an extensive product

selection that features premier-branded merchandise, as

well as its proprietary products, club-making components

and pre-owned golf clubs.

Challenge

Over the last two decades, as Golfsmith continued to

grow its operational footprint nationwide, the company

started taking a closer look at its various business

operations to pinpoint processes that could be improved,

facilitate a reduction of costs, and increase overall

efficiency. As part of this assessment, one of the processes

reviewed was its mailing. In fact, Golfsmith actually did

not have any postage solution in place at its retail stores.

Store managers had to take the packages to the local

Post Office™, taking valuable time away from the store

and forcing managers to pay for the postage out-of-

pocket and upfront. On average, each store sends

between 100–200 packages per week. Having managers

out of the store impeded business operations and

prevented managers from having valuable interaction

with fellow employees and customers. For this reason,

Golfsmith embarked on a full review of its mailing needs

across all retail stores to determine what would be the

optimal mailing solution for their needs. Golfsmith’s

two main objectives was to increase productivity and

to find an efficient postage solution that fit within their

business processes.

Solution

After a thorough review of its mailing process at the

retail store level, Golfsmith identified that managers

could benefit tremendously from a postage solution. At

first, management tried using postage meters at some

of its stores. However, after a short period of testing, it

was quickly determined that postage meters were not

the right solution due to the substantial upfront and

ongoing costs. Additionally, Golfsmith management

saw that postage meters did not satisfy all of its business

requirements, such as the ability to authorize postage

spend levels or the ability to view postage spend from a

centralized location.

In the fall of 2007, Golfsmith ran a trial of Stamps.com at

several stores to see if the software solution could meet

its needs. After a few short months and some impactful

results, Golfsmith management decided to roll out

Stamps.com’s Enterprise solution to all of its 75-plus

stores nationwide. By the end of 2008, Stamps.com

Enterprise was deployed and being actively used at

all stores.

Results

Productivity

Golfsmith takes pride in spending time with customers

and being attentive to their needs. Stamps.com

Enterprise allowed Golfsmith store managers to become

more productive. Managers were relieved to not waste

any more time going to local Post Offices with over 100

packages per week. Their valuable time gained was now

spent at the store with their customers and employees,

which helped to ensure smooth business operations

and satisfied customers. Additionally, managers no

longer had to take time out of their schedule to fill

out cumbersome reimbursement forms for postage

purchased upfront at the Post Office. Stamps.com’s

Enterprise solution makes it easy to purchase postage

at anytime online and it provides tools for tracking

postage spend.

Control and Visibility

One of the most powerful features of Stamps.com

Enterprise is the centralized dashboard that tracks and

displays postage activity across the entire network of

stores. This feature proved to be very important for

Golfsmith, as the company previously had no way to

track postage spend. With Stamps.com Enterprise,

Golfsmith could now quickly view all postage activity

across its retail network of stores, allowing a full review

of all activity from one single point of access. Corporate

managers could also set specific permissions on a user-

by-user basis, therefore eliminating the risk of abuse

system-wide.

Golfsmith now benefits from added control and visibility,

increased productivity and a streamlined mailing

process, all of which meets the company’s long-standing

goals and objectives.

“Before Stamps.com, our managers had to take the

packages to the Post Office, taking valuable time out

of their day away from the store and forcing them to

pay for postage and then complete a reimbursement

form. Stamps.com’s Enterprise postage solution has

dramatically improved productivity across the board.”

- Stephen Graf, Director of Store Systems,

Golfsmith International Holdings