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
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