Ebags.com

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

eBags.com

Type	Private
Founded	1998
Headquarters	headquarters: Greenwood Village, CO europe: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Key people	Jon Nordmark, CEO Peter Cobb, VP GMM Joe Devine, VP, CTO Mark DeOrio, VP, CFO Mike Frazzini, VP
Industry	Retail
Products	Luggage, Backpacks, Computer Cases, Shoes, Handbags
Employees	120+
Website	www.eBags.com

eBags.com, a division of eBags, Inc., is an American electronic commerce company founded in 1998. While the company has offices in Richmond, Virginia and Cambridge, UK, it is based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The primary purpose of eBags.com is to be an online retailer of handbags, backpacks, business cases, urban bags, luggage, and travel accessories. eBags.com represents more than 350 brands. eBags, Inc. also owns and operates 6pm.com, formerly Shoedini.com, a high-end, fashion-forward electronic commerce shoe and bag site launched in November 2005. 6pm.com sells more than 200 brands of footwear and bags. In addition, eBags Inc. operates e-commerce websites for such partners as Tumi.com and CaseLogic.com.

1 History
2 Major Launch and Money-Raising Timeline
3 Founders
4 Websites
5 References
6 External links
7 Articles

[edit] History

The website launched on March 1, 1999 with seven brands including Samsonite, JanSport, and Skyway Luggage. The focus was primarily on luggage due to the backgrounds of the founders.

While eBags' growth rate (CAGR) was 42% from the summer of 1999 through summer 2005, three events caused eBags cash to dip below USD$700,000. Those events were:

The "dot bomb" of 2000
The following recession of 2001
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001

eBags.com TV spot produced by Collaborate in 1999

eBags.com TV spot produced by Collaborate^[1] in 1999

In 1999, the company hired San Francisco-based Collaborate to create and test traditional TV, radio and print advertising using celebrities including Reggie Jackson, Gabrielle Reece and Francis Ford Coppola. But, after seeing little change in product demand from test markets, the traditional advertising efforts were tabled

After experiencing very rapid growth, September 11, specifically, caused eBags' luggage sales to slow to 2% growth for the next six months. During the 18 months following 9/11, more than 500 competing brick & mortar luggage specialty stores—most importantly, those operated by Bentleys and El Portal—closed. Another 200 closed in Germany.

To recharge the growth, eBags diversified more into handbags and purses, business cases, sport bags and backpacks. This allowed the company to rely on more daily use brands like Kathy Van Zeeland, Tignanello, Perlina, Stone Mountain and Eastpak. From the beginning, eBags drop-shipped most products direct from manufacturers to consumers. This reduced the company's inventory risk, which could have been substantial as sales slowed after the dot-bomb.

Over the years, eBags expanded its brand represention to more than 500 total, in the United States and in Europe.
ebags no longer owns 6pm.com

[edit] Major Launch and Money-Raising Timeline

December 1998 = Convertible bridge loan from angel investors
March 1999 = eBags.com launch
April 1999 = $8 million raised from Benchmark Capital and angel investors
October 1999 = $22 million raised from Technology Crossover Ventures, Amerindo and previous investors
October 2002 = Tumi.com
October 2004 = eBags.co.uk
July 2005 = CaseLogic.com
October 2005 = Tumi UK
July 2006 = Tumi Germany
August 2006 = Tumi Japan

[edit] Founders

Five people founded eBags in the late spring of 1998. Four of them worked for Samsonite prior to starting eBags. Collectively, they—Jon Nordmark, Peter Cobb, Frank Steed and Andy Youngs—worked more than 50 years at Samsonite, which was headquartered in Denver from 1910 through 1997. Eliot Cobb worked as VP of finance at Music Warehouse.

For Samsonite, Jon Nordmark lead development of luggage, duffel and backpack products while managing about 20 different distribution channels in North America. In 1997-8, he performed similar duties for Samsonite South America. Nordmark helped build hardside and softside products in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

During his six years at Samsonite, Peter Cobb lead USA marketing for both Samsonite and American Tourister. This included marketing communications activities—often created in partnership with Chicago-based ad agency Leo Burnett—and new product development. Before that, Cobb developed golf bags for a Ben Hogan licensing company.

Frank Steed was president of both Samsonite and American Tourister, USA. He served as Chairman of eBags, Inc. until the summer of 2001.

The final founder to join eBags from Samsonite was Andy Youngs. At Samsonite he served in both marketing and sales capacities.

Nordmark and Peter Cobb continue to work for eBags. Steed and Youngs left eBags during the downturn of the dot coms in the summer of 2001. Steed became president of a travel accessories company based in New York. Youngs joined Case Logic—a company that produces storage cases like PDA cases, iPod cases and CD cases—as their Vice President of Marketing.