Our History
1999
- Global Sports Inc. launches an ecommerce platform solution as a collection of managed services, announcing agreements with its first five sporting goods retail partners.
- Net Revenue: $5.5 million.
- The first customer website order was placed at 4:10 p.m. on Friday, October 15.
2000
- The company opened its first fulfillment center (300,000 square feet) in Louisville, Kentucky.
- The Global Sports Customer Care Center was named Call Center of the Year by Call Center Magazine.
- Net Revenue: $42.8 million.
- Scooters were the hottest-selling sporting goods product of the year, selling out as fast as they could be put in stock. A total of 42,000 scooters were sold in the company's first full year of business.
2001
- The company expanded beyond Sporting Goods, offering ecommerce solutions to companies in new categories.
- Net Revenue: $102.6 million.
2002
- Global Sports, Inc. officially changed its name to GSI Commerce Inc. to reflect the expansion of ecommerce solutions to many retail categories.
- A new state-of-the-art, 82,000 square foot Customer Care Center opened in Melbourne, Florida.
- The company ventured into three new categories this year: entertainment, consumer electronics, and beauty.
- Net Revenue: $172.6 million.
- The 2002 Winter Olympics gave way to one of the most popular and fastest selling products in GSI history – the famed Roots 2002 Winter Olympic beret. 41,000 berets were sold during a 12-week timeframe.
2003
- The company entered into another online retail category, Home.
- The first international website under the GSI Commerce platform was launched.
- Net Revenue: $241.9 million.
- GSI aggressively pursued multichannel retailing opportunities by launching a unique "Ship-To-Store" feature for clients.
2004
- GSI entered into the Apparel category.
- The ecommerce platform provided by GSI was the choice of 27 of the Top 300 Web retailers in the United States.
- The company opened its second fulfillment center (400,000 square feet) in Kentucky.
- Net Revenue: $335.3 million.
2005
- GSI entered an agreement to acquire Aspherio, S.L., a Barcelona-based
ecommerce provider. This acquisition provided GSI with the platform to expand its international business. - GSI won a prestigious MITX award for using rich media in a direct response campaign.
- Since entering this vertical in 2004, the Apparel category became GSI's second largest category in 2005.
- Net Revenue: $440 million.
- GSI hosted its first-ever Client Summit in Philadelphia, Pa. The event featured leaders from the company and many client executives discussing ideas and innovations in ecommerce.
2006
- GSI signed Toys"R"Us as a client and launched a fully functional ecommerce site in 90 days.
- 2006 marked another year of outstanding growth for GSI. The company opened its second 24/7 call center, providing failover capabilities. Also, a new sales office opened in San Jose, Calif. and the Los Angeles and Barcelona offices expanded their operations.
- Net Revenue: $609.6 million.
- GSI charged ahead with Web 2.0 enhancements to its ecommerce platform with the launch of "Express Shop" and "Mini-Cart."
2007
- The company acquired Accretive Commerce, adding significant scale to GSI's fulfillment infrastructure and expanding its growing client base.
- A new state-of-the-art, highly automated, 540,000-square-foot fulfillment center opened in Richwood, Ky. By year end, GSI operated six primary fulfillment centers in the United States with approximately 2.5 million square feet.
- GSI acquired Zendor.com Ltd., establishing GSI as an end-to-end
ecommerce solution provider capable of delivering integrated, multichannel
ecommerce solutions to both U.K. and global retailers and brands. - Net Revenue: $750 million.
- With the successful launch of NBA, GSI now powers all major sports leagues' ecommerce Web stores, including NFL, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, and MLS.
2008
- GSI significantly expanded its interactive marketing services capabilities by acquiring e-Dialog Inc., a market-leading provider of advanced e-mail marketing solutions for more than 100 blue-chip companies in the U.S. and Europe.
- gsi interactivesm (now True Action) was named digital agency of record by Toys"R"Us and Dick's Sporting Goods.
- Net Revenue: $966.9 million.
- On August 7, 2008, more than 6,500 Brett Favre New York Jets jerseys were sold after the Green Bay Packers announced Favre's trade to the Jets the day before. These sales broke the previous single-day record of 900 Tony Romo jerseys sold on November 11, 2007.
- GSI Studios photographed close to 40,000 images in 2008 and based on a normal work day, that's one image every three minutes, five days a week.
- gsi interactivesm (now True Action) built a state-of-the-art Eyetracking Usability Lab to provide in-depth studies of user behavior.
2009
- GSI celebrated its tenth anniversary of providing ecommerce and interactive marketing solutions to more than 200 well-known brands and retailers across 15 merchandise categories.
- GSI expanded its North American operations into Canada, which included the opening of a new fulfillment center and customer care and call center.
- GSI became the leading ecommerce technology and services provider among the nation's top 500 online retailers, according to research published by Internet Retailer.
- GSI successfully completed three acquisitions — including Silverlign, a San Francisco Bay Area interactive agency, Pepperjam, an affiliate marketing network, and Retail Convergence Inc. with Rue La La, a leader in the online private sales business, and SmartBargains, a marketplace for the sale of off-price merchandise.
- GSI rebranded its full-service digital agency as True Action™.
- Cyber Monday (November 30) was GSI's single highest day for online sales with consumers placing a record-breaking 789 orders per minute.
2010
- GSI launched ShopRunner, an innovative membership program offering free two-day shipping and free shipping on returns in cooperation with a collection of the nation's top retailers.
- Michael Rubin donned a disguise and appeared on an episode of the Emmy-nominated CBS reality show "Undercover Boss." The episode ranked #1 in its timeslot.
- GSI Interactive Marketing Services was named one of the Top 15 US Digital Agencies by Ad Age.
- Rue Local—Rue La La's regional private sales sites—debuted in Boston and Seattle.
- GSI acquired Arizona based FetchBack, an Internet retargeting company; M3Mobile, a Philadelphia-based mobile marketing company; MBS, a customer database marketing solutions provider located in New York; and VendorNet, a Florida-based provider of cross-channel fulfillment technology. GSI also made a minority investment in Intershop, an ecommerce software company located in Germany.
- GSI spread its international wings further by expanding to Asia and opening new offices in Tokyo, Japan and Singapore. The company continued its work in Europe, launching several Web Stores for global clients.
- Net Revenue: $1.358B.
2011
- Ebay Inc. completes the acquisition of GSI Commerce on June 20, marking a new chapter in GSI's history. GSI Commerce, an eBay Inc. company, is led by newly appointed president Chris Saridakis and operates as a separate business alongside of the company's eBay Marketplaces and PayPal businesses.
- Ebay Inc. completed the divestiture of 100 percent of GSI's licensed sports merchandise business and 70 percent of ShopRunner and Rue La La to a newly formed holding company led by GSI founder and CEO Michael Rubin.
- Advertising Age ranks GSI's Marketing Services in top 15 U.S. digital agencies for second consecutive year.
- GSI selects Tobias Hartmann as CEO of its Global Operations organization.
- Early in the year, GSI acquired ClearSaleing, the leader in advertising analytics and multichannel attribution.
- Net Revenue: $509 million*.
* Full year 2011 results reflect net revenue attributable to the GSI segment for the period from June 17, 2011 (the date that the acquisition was completed) through December 31, 2011.
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