Staples 2014 Annual Report Download - page 97

PART I
STAPLES 3
Staples.com and Staples.ca are designed to reach a variety
of customers, including small businesses, home offices and
consumers, offering next business day delivery for most
orders in the majority of our markets. Over the past two years
we have made significant investments in talent, technology,
pricing, and marketing while significantly expanding our
assortment to enhance the customer experience online.
We have successfully launched new desktop and mobile
platforms, improved site speed, enhanced usability, and
increased customer acquisition and conversion.
We believe that our integrated network of stores and online
businesses provide a differentiated experience for our
customers. We have increased our focus on maximizing the
synergies between Staples.com and our retail stores with the
introduction of new concepts including ship to store, in store
kiosks, online retail store inventory lookup, as well as buy
online pickup in store. These new concepts offer customers
a more seamless shopping experience, regardless of whether
they physically visit our retail stores or our websites.
North American Commercial
Our North American Commercial segment consists of the U.S.
and Canadian businesses that sell and deliver products and
services directly to businesses, including Staples Advantage
and Quill.com. Our strategies for North American Commercial
focus on expanding in categories beyond office supplies,
increasing our share of wallet with existing customers, and
acquiring new customers. We are also focused on serving
our customers by evolving our team-based contract selling
model which is more unified and collaborative. We are driving
growth in categories beyond core office supplies by adding
specialists who have expertise in selling products like facilities
and breakroom supplies, furniture, promotional products, print
solutions and technology.
Our Staples Advantage contract business focuses on serving
the needs of mid-sized businesses and organizations as well
as larger regional businesses and Fortune 1000 companies.
Through our contract sales force we offer full service account
management, free delivery, customized pricing and payment
terms, usage reporting, the stocking of certain proprietary
items and a wide assortment of environmentally friendly
products and services.
Quill.com is an internet and catalog business with a targeted
approach to serving the needs of small and mid-sized
businesses in the United States. Quill.com has rapidly
expanded its assortment in categories beyond office supplies to
serve the evolving needs of its customers. To attract and retain
its customers, Quill.com seeks to offer outstanding customer
service, and builds loyalty through its Quill brand products and
special services. Quill.com also offers a specialized assortment
of office supplies and products for health care professionals.
Quill.com is viewed separately from our Staples.com business
in that its customer base is somewhat different and it targets
exclusively the business customer.
International Operations
Our International Operations segment consists of businesses
in 23 countries in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia.
The markets for office products and services in these countries
are highly fragmented.
Our European Office Products businesses represent a balanced
multi-channel portfolio serving contract, retail, internet, and
catalog customers in 16 countries. Our contract business
includes sizable operations in Scandinavia, Germany, the
United Kingdom and the Netherlands. We operate 284 retail
stores in Europe, with the largest concentration of stores in
the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal.
We operate internet and direct mail catalog businesses with
a significant concentration of sales in France, Italy and the
United Kingdom.
Our strategies for our European Office Products businesses
focus on expanding our assortment beyond office supplies and
increasing our mix of business services with a focus on copy
and print, streamlining our information technology systems,
further developing our ecommerce platform, and leveraging
best practices from our North American businesses, including
our mid-market contract selling model. We are also focused on
improving profitability by consolidating sub-scale businesses,
streamlining operations to improve efficiencies, increasing
sales of higher margin Staples brand products and improving
the performance of our supply chain.
Staples Australia serves primarily contract and government
customers in Australia and New Zealand. In addition, we
operate a public website which targets small business and
home office customers. Our strategies focus on improving
sales force productivity by increasing customer acquisition and
retention, and by providing customers with a broad assortment
of products and services, including office products, facility
and breakroom supplies, technology, business furniture and
print management.
We continue to build a foundation for growth in Asia and South
America. We operate delivery businesses in China, Argentina,
Taiwan and Brazil. We also have a franchise arrangement in
India with our former joint venture partner.
Merchandising and Marketing
We sell a wide variety of office supplies, business technology
products, facility and breakroom supplies, computers and
mobility products, copy and print services, and office furniture.
Our merchandising team constantly reviews and updates our
product assortment to respond to changing customer needs
and to maximize the performance of our key categories. Ink
and toner remain important categories, and we offer our
customers a wide assortment of these products at competitive
prices which are supported by our loyalty programs. One of
our top priorities is to continue to expand our product offering
beyond office supplies. Over the past few years we have had
success driving growth in adjacent product categories, such
as facilities and breakroom supplies. These positive results
have reinforced our strategy and we continue to broaden
our offering, focusing on categories including technology
products, medical supplies, safety supplies, packaging and
shipping supplies, and office decor.