Stamps.com 2014 Annual Report Download - page 9

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 9 of the 2014 Stamps.com annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 99

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99

On August 29, 2014, we acquired 100% of the outstanding equity of Interapptive Inc, which operates ShipWorks, in a cash transaction.
ShipWorks based in St. Louis, Missouri, offers monthly subscription based e-commerce shipping software that provides simple, powerful and
easy to use solutions for online sellers. ShipWorks solutions integrate with over 50 popular online sales and marketplaces systems including
eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Yahoo! and others. ShipWorks offers multi-carrier shipping options and features including sending email notifications
to buyers, updating online order status, generating reports and many more. Please see Note 3 – “Acquisitions” on our Notes to Consolidated
Financial Statements for further description.
Marketing of Mailing and Shipping
We target our mailing and shipping marketing at small businesses, home offices, medium-size businesses and large enterprises, and within these
segments we target both mailers and shippers. We market our mailing and shipping services through the following channels:
5
Table of Contents
1
Affiliate Channels.
We utilize the traffic and customers of smaller web sites and other businesses or individuals that are too small to qualify
for a partnership directly with us by offering financial incentives for these small businesses and individuals to drive traffic to our web site
through a third party affiliate management company.
1
Direct Mail.
We send direct mail pieces to prospective customers with prospect lists purchased from third parties or obtained from partners.
1
Direct Sales
. We utilize a direct sales force for higher-priced Enterprise and Professional Shipper versions of our mailing and shipping
service.
1 Offline Marketing Programs . We utilize various other offline advertising and marketing programs including telemarketing, tradeshows,
retail and other programs.
1
Partnerships.
We work with strategic partners in order to leverage their web site traffic, marketing programs, and existing customer base to
distribute our mailing and shipping software. For example, these partnerships may result in a link to our website from a partner’s website, a
copy of our software included along with a partner’s software product, the distribution of our software at a retail location, or the bundling of
our software with a hardware device. Our partnerships include Microsoft, Avery, Hewlett Packard (
“
HP
”
)
and the USPS.
1
Remarketing.
We remarket our services to former customers. Our remarketing efforts are generally focused on new features that may relate
to the reasons former customers stopped using our service. We utilize e-mail and regular mail to communicate new features of our products
to our former customers.
1 Shipping Integrations. We market our services through integrations with e-commerce platforms, multi-carrier shipping management
software, shopping cart software and other order-
entry management applications. Our shipping integration partnerships include Amazon, the
USPS, QuickBooks and others.
1 Traditional Media. We utilize television commercials and a variety of traditional and internet-based radio endorsements to advertise our
services.
1 Online Advertising. We work with companies to advertise our services online through paid searches, banner ads, permission-based emails,
and other online advertising vehicles.
1 USPS Referrals
. We utilize the nationwide USPS Account Manager network to market and sell our services to customers. We market to the
account managers by attending regional and national meetings and forums, and participating in local vendor calls. We also receive referrals
directly from the USPS website at www.USPS.com.