Columbia Sportswear Expands Global E-Commerce

Columbia Sportswear Company, a global company in the active outdoor apparel and footwear industries, launches an agreement where PFSweb, Inc. will provide online direct-to-consumer support services throughout Europe and Canada for the company’s Columbia and Sorel brands. Columbia Sportswear Company was able to complete one of its largest e-commerce initiatives through this agreement with PFSweb. The first phase of the expansion included eighteen localized sites in Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, Spain and the U.K. The first site launched in the U.K. on September 5, 2011, followed by the remaining countries on September 19, 2011. Future phases will include additional sites in these and other regions.

 

“The services and capabilities provided by PFSweb across a broad global footprint will allow us to seamlessly provide our international customers the highest quality online research and shopping experience possible,” states Paul Zaengle, vice president, e-commerce at Columbia Sportswear. “Our digital presence is the global face of our brands, and most outdoor consumers begin their research online before going into a store to make their purchase. Our responsibility is to maintain a highly branded digital presence, with rich product information, localized in key regions, empowering consumers and benefitting all of our retail partners around the globe.”

 

PFSweb was selected to provide multiple direct-to-consumer services for the Columbia and Sorel sites, including customer order and payment processing, information exchange functionality, account management and reporting services as well as distribution logistics management services and website sales returns processing services.

 

The agreement enlists PFSweb’s global warehousing and product fulfillment capabilities, which are supported by PFSweb’s distribution centers in Liege, Belgium and Toronto, Canada. PFSweb also provides customer contact services in each of the countries with agents staffed to support multiple languages from both locations.