Where the Web Meets the Mailroom

Parcel Plus NetStats:
Employees/computers on network: 12 (corp.), 300 (franchise)/250
Internal communications: 80% electronic
External communications: 70% electronic
Primary apps: E-mail, Internet fax, EDI, distance learning, e-commerce, Web-based marketing/advertising, links to partners/ affiliates, recruiting/job postings

No matter how well your company is running, sometimes it's a good idea to step back and examine your strategy. You might just recognize some new opportunities to improve things. That philosophy has helped David Campbell build Parcel Plus into a chain of 120 franchised shipping and mailing stores in 14 years. It also enabled him to get in on the Internet while many of his competitors were trying to figure out how to spell the word.

Three years ago, Campbell concluded that the Web had the potential to rock the business landscape and the consumer shipping business along with it. Instead of getting defensive, he developed plans to leverage the new technology, launching a new Web division, AuctionSHIP, to provide instant shipping quotes for sellers of merchandise on eBay. Then last year, he created an even bigger Internet-oriented service, Netship, which serves as a product fulfillment service for online retailers. "We have repositioned a traditional pack-and-ship system as an industry leader in e-commerce fulfillment solutions," says Campbell, who has seen Parcel Plus's revenues climb more than 20%, to $21 million, in three years.

Although it was designed initially for eBay customers, AuctionSHIP has evolved into an all-purpose Web resource for individual shippers, as well as a tool for driving traffic into Parcel Plus stores. Visitors to the www.auctionship.com site enter their own zip codes, package weights and dimensions, and destination zip codes. The site recommends the most cost-effective way to send the package and tells them the name of the nearest retail shipping outlet. Because Parcel Plus doesn't have a presence everywhere, the site may refer customers to independent packaging retailers who have signed on as AuctionSHIP affiliates.

Netship grew out of Campbell's recognition that many would-be e-tailers lack the infrastructure to stock and ship products in volume. Seeing a business opportunity, he developed an integrated inventory management and fulfillment service using the combined facilities of about 400 retail pack-and-ship centers, many of them Parcel Plus franchisees.

Client companies ship their products in bulk to one or more affiliated shipping centers, which temporarily warehouse them. When an order comes in, the client forwards it electronically to Netship, which processes the credit-card transaction and notifies the appropriate shipping center.

The center pulls the item out of inventory and sends it directly to the customer via mail or parcel service. Netship maintains a centralized inventory and transaction record, which clients can access through password-protected sections of the Netship Web site. Retail customers can track their shipments from the public portion of the same site.

Netship has 14 e-commerce clients and expects more as the result of a joint partnership with Danzas Corp., an international freight forwarder. In Campbell's view, that makes it a full-fledged participant in the Internet economy. "We tried to pick a spot where we could stand into the wave and not get smashed by it," he says. By most measures, he has succeeded.