UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

Form 10-K

 

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018

or

For the transition period from              to

Commission file number 000-28275

 

PFSWEB, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code

972-881-2900

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Common Stock, par value $.001 per share

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.   Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.   Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.   Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such fi les).   Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K  (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicated by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).   Yes  ☐    No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2018 (based on the closing price as reported by the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System) was $147,258,058.

There were 19,260,829 shares of the registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of March 8, 2019.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Information required by Part III of this Form 10-K, to the extent not set forth herein, is incorporated herein by reference to the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2019 annual meeting of shareholders, which is expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by April 30, 2019.

 

 

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INDEX

 

 

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business, future results of operations or financial condition, new or planned features or services, or management strategies). You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “intend,” “project,” and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and may include assumptions as to how we may perform in the future. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee these expectations will actually be achieved. In addition, some forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions about future events that may not prove to be accurate. Therefore, our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any of our forward-looking statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

 

 

 

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PART I

General

Unless otherwise indicated, all references to “PFSweb,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to PFSweb, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its subsidiaries; references to “Supplies Distributors” refer to our subsidiary, Supplies Distributors, Inc., and its subsidiaries.

PFSweb, Inc., was incorporated in 1999 in the state of Delaware and maintains its corporate headquarters in Allen, Texas. All of our services are provided through our direct and indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries as noted above. In December 1999, PFSweb consummated an initial public offering of its common stock and became listed for trading on The NASDAQ Exchange under the symbol “PFSW.”

PFSweb is a Global Commerce Services Company. We manage the entire customer shopping experience for major branded manufacturers and retailers through two business segments, LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations.  The LiveArea Professional Services segment provides services to support or improve the digital shopping experience of shopping online, such as strategic commerce consulting, design and digital marketing services and technology services. The PFS Operations segment provides services to support or improve the physical, post-click experience, such as logistics and fulfillment, customer care and order to cash services including distributed order orchestration and payment services. We offer our services on an à la carte basis or as a complete end-to-end solution.  Major brands and other companies turn to us to optimize their customer experiences and enhance their traditional and online business channels, creating commerce without compromise.

The services we offer are primarily organized into the following categories:

LiveArea Professional Services

PFS Operations

Our executive offices are located in Allen, Texas which is where we also maintain our primary technology operations and provide professional services. We operate state-of-the-art contact centers in Dallas, Texas, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, Liège, Belgium, and Basingstoke, United Kingdom (“U.K.”). We lease warehouse facilities of approximately 1.6 million square feet in Memphis, Tennessee, Southaven, Mississippi, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, Liège, Belgium, and Southampton, U.K. allowing us to provide global distribution solutions. Additionally, we engage in business development activities and provide additional professional services and/or technology services from our offices in Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Washington, U.K., Bulgaria and India.

GLOBAL COMMERCE SOLUTIONS

LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations serve as the “brand behind the brand” for companies seeking to increase efficiencies, enter new markets or launch optimized sales channels. As an eCommerce development firm, digital agency and business process outsourcer, we offer scalable and cost-effective solutions for brand manufacturers, online retailers, and distributors across a wide range of industry segments. We provide our clients with seamless and transparent solutions to support their business strategies, allowing them to focus on their core competencies. Leveraging our technology, expertise and proven methodologies, we enable clients to develop and deploy new products and implement new business strategies or address new distribution channels rapidly and efficiently through our optimized solutions. Our clients engage us both as a consulting partner to assist them in the design of a business solution as well as a virtual and physical infrastructure partner to provide the mission critical operations required to build and manage their business solution. Together, we not only help our clients define new ways of doing business, but also provide them the technology, physical infrastructure and professional resources necessary to quickly implement their business model. We allow our clients to quickly and dramatically change how they “go-to-market.”

Each client has a unique business model and unique strategic objectives that often require highly customized solutions. We support clients in a wide array of industries, including fashion apparel and accessories, fragrance and beauty products, consumer packaged goods (“CPG”), home furnishings and housewares, coins and collectibles, and technology products. These clients turn to LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations for help in addressing a variety of business needs that include strategic

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consulting, commerce creative design and development, customer satisfaction and retention, time-definite logistics, vendor managed inventory and integration, supply chain compression, cost model realignments, transportation management and international expansion, among others. We also act as a constructive agent of change, providing clients the ability to alter their current distribution model, establish direct relationships with end-customers, and reduce the overall time and costs associated with existing distribution channel strategies. Our clients are seeking solutions that will provide them with dynamic supply chain and multi-channel marketing efficiencies, while ultimately delivering a world-class, branded customer service experience.

Our value proposition is to become a seamless, well integrated extension of our clients’ enterprises by delivering superior solutions that drive optimal customer experiences. On behalf of the brands we serve, we strive to increase and enhance sales and market growth, bolster customer satisfaction and customer retention, and drive costs out of the business through operations and technology related efficiencies. As both a virtual and a physical infrastructure for our clients’ businesses, we embrace their brand values and strategic objectives. By utilizing our services, our clients are able to:

Quickly Capitalize on Market Opportunities. Our solutions empower clients to rapidly implement their supply chain and eCommerce strategies and take advantage of opportunities without lengthy integration and implementation efforts. We have readily available advanced technology and physical infrastructure that is flexible in its design, which facilitates quick integration and implementation. The solution is designed to allow our clients to deliver consistent quality service as transaction volumes grow and also to handle daily and seasonal peak periods. Through our international locations, our clients expand the global reach of their products.

Improve the Customer Experience. We enable our clients to provide their customers with a high-touch, positive buying experience thereby maintaining and promoting brand loyalty. Through our use of advanced technology, we can respond directly to customer inquiries by e-mail, voice or data communication and assist them with online ordering and product information. We believe we offer our clients a “world-class” level of service, including high-touch customer care service centers, detailed Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) reporting and exceptional order accuracy. We have significant experience in the development of eCommerce storefronts that allows us to recommend features and functions easily navigated and understood by our clients’ customers. Our technology platform is designed to ensure high levels of reliability and fast response times for our clients’ customers. Because of our technology, our clients benefit from being able to offer the latest in customer communication and response conveniences to their customers.  Our fulfillment facilities are designed for efficient multi-brand operation with an emphasis on creating branded fulfillment experiences featuring custom packaging, gift wrapping, extensive personalization options and build-to-order and build-to-stock kitting.

Minimize Investment and Improve Operating Efficiencies. One of the most significant benefits outsourcing provides is the ability to transform fixed costs into variable costs. By eliminating the need to invest in a fixed capital infrastructure, our clients’ costs typically become more directly correlated with volume increases or declines. Further, as volume increases drive the demand for greater infrastructure or capacity, we are able to quickly deploy additional resources. We provide services to multiple clients, which enables us to offer our clients economies of scale and resulting cost efficiency that they may not have been able to obtain on their own. Additionally, because of the large number of daily transactions we process, we have been able to justify investments in levels of automation, security surveillance, quality control processes and transportation carrier interfaces that are typically outside the scale of investment that our clients might be able to cost justify on their own. These additional capabilities can provide our clients the benefits of enhanced operating performance and efficiency and expanded customer service options.

Access a Sophisticated Technology Ecosystem. We provide our clients with access to a Technology Ecosystem featuring best-of-breed eCommerce technologies together in a single, integrated, Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) certified order to cash offering. Powered by leading enterprise-class software solutions, our order to cash platform is seamlessly integrated into a variety of eCommerce platforms and supporting technology components and services to provide an end-to-end eCommerce solution. Built to accelerate the implementation process, the Technology Ecosystem allows for flexible integrations with other technology providers and client systems.

Our Technology Ecosystem also extends beyond the digital world and into physical commerce channels. Brands and retailers today require flexible technology to control customer shopping experiences regardless of where they shop. Deploying ship from store, in-store pick up, pop-up distribution centers, or mobile point of sale capabilities are just a few examples of how we can enable brands to create a dynamic and unique omni-channel shopping experience.

We believe our highest value proposition is achieved when our clients engage our full end-to-end suite of services from both LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations. However, we provide our clients with the opportunity to customize their solution by selecting only certain services from our offering in à la carte fashion. We believe this flexibility and willingness to create a customized solution for each client differentiates us from our competition.

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LiveArea Professional Services

Through the LiveArea Professional Services business segment, we bring together a comprehensive portfolio of commerce-focused professional services. Key offerings include strategic commerce consulting, design, digital marketing and technology development services.  Delivering a boutique approach and world-class capabilities, we create digital experiences that deliver tangible results.  

Our strategic approach addresses the entire customer journey. From brand strategy and digital experiences to the day-to-day mechanics of digital marketing services, we help brands stand apart from competitors, connect with customers and drive revenue. Our end-to-end, omni-channel expertise supports a holistic marketing strategy, from awareness and attraction to conversion and optimization.

Strategic Commerce Consulting Services

Our strategic commerce consulting practice leverages our commerce business and operational capabilities along with extensive vertical expertise to assist our clients in identifying new opportunities for channel revenue/margin growth, omni-channel alignment, digital transformation, new customer/segment acquisition, market expansion and cost savings. We also monitor emerging technologies and trends, with an eye to measuring business impact and alignment with our clients’ end goals. With a focus on actionable strategy, we seek to optimize clients’ commerce investments while anticipating competitive opportunities and threats.

Our clients seek help navigating an increasingly complex digital landscape, lowering barriers to market for new players and an array of options for companies looking to innovate. We work closely with client stakeholders to develop strategic and prioritization frameworks that drive change while providing the ability to pivot as threats or opportunities are identified. In particular, our consultants focus on three key areas that enable clients to remain competitive while taking a leadership position: commerce ecosystem management (including omni-channel alignment), digital opportunity analysis, and an agile operational model to roll out new capabilities and tactics in a measurable yet timely fashion.

Commerce Strategy. From identifying new markets and methods to drive higher revenue to delivering competitive and market analysis, we help clients formulate strategies and tactics that work. Our consultants look to leverage existing assets, personnel, and processes wherever possible while identifying where investment is needed. We also offer roadmaps and initiative “backlogs” prioritized for impact, including guidance on taking a phased approach. Our recommendations balance the need for achieving timely return on investment (“ROI”) against sometimes competing needs for scalability and aggressive growth.

Omni-Channel Consulting. Retail clients are concerned with increased consumer expectations for a holistic, seamless experience regardless of where or when they shop, in-store or online. We offer an array of services that help retailers meet consumer expectations across the commerce lifecycle, from customer acquisition through the transaction, order fulfillment, customer service, and loyalty. In particular, we implement tools and processes to support “endless aisle” inventory access, ship-to-store and ship-from- store capabilities, buy online and return in-store, and similar delivery scenarios.  We similarly consult with retailers on leveraging digital tools within the store environment, whether enabling sales associates to “save the sale” in-store or enhancing consumers’ overall experiences.

Digital Opportunity Audits. Our consultants’ help clients identify where new digital platforms, tools, and technologies can provide competitive advantage or bridge gaps in their current operations and capabilities. Our digital opportunity audits can take into account the competitive landscape, industry trends, digital best practices across verticals, and cost models, providing helpful benchmarks and flagging areas of opportunity. These audits may be conducted periodically to track changes and emerging technologies and measure effectiveness.

Organizational/Operational Readiness. Many clients require organizational readiness consulting to ensure they can effectively utilize the platforms and tools we provide. Providing readiness consulting is crucial to driving client satisfaction and confidence when adopting commerce platforms, particularly when business users are given new capabilities and may need to adapt existing business processes. We also provide organizational design consulting, which is often implemented in a phased approach as the client’s commerce channel grows; this may include recommendations regarding which functions to outsource and which to maintain in-house.

Platform Evaluation/Selection. Our strategists take the lead in helping clients evaluate and select the right commerce platforms, leveraging our expertise implementing all market-leading solutions. We assist clients through a process matching their requirements to platform capabilities, measure their operational ability to utilize the platforms under consideration, and provide total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis comparing initial and ongoing costs for everything from software licensing models to ongoing maintenance and upgrades.

Design and Digital Marketing Services

Design. We conceive and design client solutions with a deliberate focus on balancing creativity and usability. We create flagship digital experiences for global brands, offering full-service creative design and production services for a range of digital applications. Our advanced customer experience design offerings include concept development, visual design, user experience design, copywriting, interactive development and content creation.

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User Experience. We architect fully responsive branded commerce sites and tools that eliminate transactional friction, reduce cognitive load and improve the shopping experience. We specialize in taking advantage of platform functionality to add one-of-a-kind interactions and designing guided selling apps that use brand expertise to walk customers through complicated purchase decisions.

Interactive Development. We believe front-end development is as much about artfully enhancing a user interaction as it is engineering pixel perfection. We turn digital designs into beautiful, functioning experiences that look and behave the way they were intended across screens and devices of all types, sizes and systems. We also use motion and interactive accents to provide users with guidance and an enhanced user experience.

Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) & Paid Search. We seek to drive traffic by maintaining an in-depth knowledge of the ever-changing best practices for search engine optimization. We provide insight and advice on algorithm changes, content gaps, multi-language global expansion and competitors’ search efforts. From implementation to ongoing management, we can help brands reach customers who are actively looking for what they offer.

Affiliate Marketing. Our approach to affiliate partner marketing focuses on building relationships with reputable, appropriate online influencers. We can help clients reach customers they may not through other channels, improving brand awareness and increasing sales quickly and efficiently. Then, through proactive program management, we can ensure ongoing optimization and continued growth. From publisher research and competitive analysis to payments, we can implement and manage the entire affiliate and partner ecosystem.

Conversion Optimization. Our conversion optimization team applies an in-depth analysis of product and behavioral data on the storefront to continually optimize our client’s site. By combining analytics with the capabilities of the platform, we plan and execute A/B tests, optimize onsite searches, and create personalized experiences to maximize the impact of the marketing and merchandising efforts. From an audit of an existing site to building a conversion optimization roadmap, we help our clients generate more revenue and provide an ever-improving customer experience that turns shoppers into buyers.

Storefront Management. Through proven strategic merchandising methodologies, we create personalized shopping experiences that drive conversion and increase revenue. With specialized expertise in dynamic merchandising, we can draw on each customer’s history to connect these buyers with the right products and content at the right time. Our day-to-day storefront operations include product and category setup, sorting rules definition, promotion configuration and price adjustment. Working within predetermined guidelines, we incorporate best practices and make strategic decisions to achieve each client’s goals.

Email Marketing. Combining technology with proven strategies, we elevate and optimize email programs to develop personalized customer relationships. We create custom customer journeys through dynamic email, automated remarketing, automations, and subscriber segmentation. Our data focused approach reduces the costs of customer acquisition, inspires brand loyalty, and increases ROI through both larger basket sizes and higher customer lifetime value.

Digital Analytics. We provide more than snapshots of user activity through the usual charts and dashboards. We mine all available data and use advanced analysis to identify opportunities within the customer journey that will allow brands to improve the overall user experience and generate increased business. With a focus on never-ending improvement, we use the data to continuously pinpoint actions that will strengthen customer relationships and drive results across marketing channels.

Technology Services

LiveArea's Technology Services builds world-class commerce websites that are designed to maximize revenue opportunities. Built by a seasoned group of professionals, we combine strategy and technology to create innovative user experiences. From high-fashion apparel to CPG, our portfolio consists of brands that accept only the highest quality shopping websites.

We use a proven methodology to deliver quality implementations to meet some of the strictest brand requirements in the industry. Our project teams are comprised of industry-leading professionals that bring eCommerce and web development best practices to our clients’ custom solutions. Once live, our team applies the same level of excellence to ongoing development, site maintenance and solutions support.

As a platform-agnostic provider, we manage dedicated commerce technology practices specializing in all of the leading enterprise platforms to enable our clients’ growth. We employ a proven development methodology, led by a highly-qualified team of solutions architects, web developers, project managers, and quality assurance (“QA”) specialists. When paired with our strategic commerce consulting services and our design / user experience (“UX”) and digital marketing services, we can provide an entire suite of services that spans strategy, creative, project management, web development, and quality assurance.

Commerce Development. Our technology services practice partners and actively works with each commerce platform provider to ensure we are delivering quality services for our joint clients. We also work to achieve higher-level partner status with each provider to demonstrate our expertise and experience for each practice.

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Managed Services. The right people, processes and tools are essential to maintaining a high-performance commerce environment. LiveArea’s Managed Services delivers all three elements integrated into an array of services to optimize, manage, and protect commerce technology. Our work doesn't stop when we launch a commerce site. Our Managed Services team provides real-time management and monitoring to ensure our clients’ sites are always operating at peak performance. We provide Level 1/2/3 technical, business, and solutions support for optimal issue management. Our team of technologists manage day-to-day commerce operations and monitor technology continuously with best-in-class tools and practices. The result is a high performing, stable commerce infrastructure always available, always operating at peak performance. Our automation tools facilitate fast, accurate code deployment – whether applying a software patch or launching new code.

Quality Assurance. Whether it's a new site build or ongoing development, our team of QA experts employ a full-service test suite that includes quality assurance scripting and testing, regression, load testing, and automation.

Training. We provide on-site, personalized platform training from experienced subject-matter experts. Our training team empowers our clients’ business and merchandising staff with the knowledge they need to operate and optimize their eCommerce sites. Core training includes platform essentials, advanced merchandising, front-end design and developer training.

PFS Operations

Through the PFS Operations business segment, we provide the operational activities required and expected of the world's leading brands. Our solutions support direct-to-consumer (“DTC”), business-to-business (“B2B”), and retail sales channels. We have DTC and B2B experience in customizing solutions to meet the unique nuances of our clients’ internal finance, customer care, and supply chain operations. With approximately 1.6 million square feet of leased or managed distribution space and approximately 1,100+ contact center seats across two continents, we have the global infrastructure to meet the operational needs of our eCommerce and traditional B2B clients.

As the operational backbone of the online and B2B shopping experience, we focus on three core actions: to deliver, to communicate, and to fulfill the promise behind each brand we support.

The majority of our clients are the merchants of record for the orders we process through our infrastructure on their behalf. For these clients, we do not own the inventory or the resulting accounts receivable, but provide eCommerce solutions and other services for these client-owned assets.

For some of our clients, we are the merchant of record for the orders we process through our infrastructure. Depending on the terms under these arrangements, we record either product revenue or service fee revenue, may own the accounts receivable and inventory and we may be compensated for all or a portion of our services through the resulting profit margin. In some of these client relationships, we purchase the inventory as the product is delivered to our facility. In other of these client relationships, the client retains ownership of inventory in our facility and we purchase the inventory immediately prior to each individual customer sales transaction. In all of these cases, we seek inventory financing from our clients in the form of extended terms, working capital programs or marketing funds to help offset the working capital requirements that follow accounts receivable and inventory ownership.

Order to Cash Service

Our order to cash service provides our clients with distributed order orchestration and payment processing.  Our order to cash service features an Oracle-based, custom, scalable Distributed Order Management System (“D-OMS”) built for DTC and B2B and order processing with a variety of fully-integrated DTC and B2B payment processing and fraud management platforms and technologies. Our order to cash service provides interfaces that allow for real-time information retrieval, including information on inventory, sales orders, shipments, delivery, purchase orders, warehouse receipts, customer history, accounts receivable and credit lines. These solutions are seamlessly integrated with our customer contact centers, allowing for the processing of orders through shopping cart, phone, fax, mail, email, live chat and other order receipt methods. As the information backbone for our total supply chain solution, our order to cash service can be used on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with our other business infrastructure offerings, including contact center or order fulfillment services. In addition, for the B2B market, our order to cash service provides a variety of order receipt methods that facilitate commerce within various stages of the supply chain. Our service provide the ability for both our clients and their customers to track the status of orders at any time. Our services are transparent to our clients’ customers and are seamlessly integrated with our clients’ internal system platforms and websites. By synchronizing these activities, we can capture and provide critical customer information, including:

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Technology Collaboration. We have created a suite of technology services that enable buyers and suppliers to fully automate their business transactions within their supply chain using our order management interfaces. Our collaboration technologies operate in an open systems environment and feature the use of industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (“XML”) and Service-Oriented Architecture (“SOA”) web services, enabling customized eCommerce solutions with minimal changes to a client’s systems or our systems. The result is a faster implementation process. We also support information exchange methods, such as Applicability Statement 2 (“AS2”), Secure File Transfer Protocol (“SFTP”), Electronic Data Interchange (“EDI”), Message Queue Series (“MQ Series”), Application Link Enabling (“ALE”), and Representational State Transfer / Simple Object Access Protocol (“REST/SOAP”) over Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”).

Information Management. We have the ability to communicate with and transfer information to and from our clients through a wide variety of technology services, including real-time web service enabled data interfaces, file transfer methods and electronic data interchange. Our distributed order orchestration systems are designed to capture, store and electronically forward to our clients critical information regarding customer inquiries and orders, product shipments, inventory status (for example, levels of inventory on hand, on backorder, on purchase order and inventory due dates to our warehouse), product returns and other information. Our clients are able to utilize inventory and order information for use in analyzing sales and marketing trends and introducing new products. We also offer customized reports and data analyses based upon specific client needs to assist them in their budgeting.

Payments. Protecting our clients’ brand with secure payment processing and fraud management services is critical to a successful operation. We also provide flexible global payment options as well as gift cards, B2B invoicing and VAT services.

Our payment services are divided into two major financial management areas: 1) billing, credit, collection and cash application services for B2B clients and 2) fraud review, chargeback management and processing and settlement of credit card services for DTC clients.

Business-to-Business Financial Management. For B2B clients, we offer full-service accounts receivable management and collection capabilities, including the ability to generate customized invoices in our clients’ names. We assist clients in reducing accounts receivable and days sales outstanding, while minimizing costs associated with maintaining an in-house collections staff. We offer electronic credit services in the format of EDI and XML communications direct from our clients to their vendors, suppliers and retailers.

Direct-to-Consumer Financial Management. For DTC clients, we offer secure credit card processing related services for orders made via a client web site or through our customer contact center. We offer manual credit card order review as an additional level of fraud protection. We also calculate sales taxes, goods and services taxes or value added taxes, if applicable, for numerous taxing authorities and on a variety of products. Using third-party leading-edge fraud protection services and risk management systems, we can offer high levels of security and reduce the level of risk for client transactions.

Fulfillment

We design advanced distribution operations that streamline our clients’ supply chain process and offer a flexible fulfillment model. Our fulfillment team understands the value of the delivery experience by specializing in creating branded solutions with gift wrap, product personalization and other value-added services. Our distribution centers are located in the Memphis, Tennessee area, Toronto, Canada, Basingstoke, U.K., and Liege, Belgium to provide centrally located fulfillment throughout North America and Europe.

Advanced Distribution Facilities and Infrastructure. An integral part of our solution is the warehousing and distribution of our clients’ inventory. We receive inventory in our distribution centers, verify shipment accuracy, unpack and audit packages (a process that includes spot-checking a percentage of the inventory to validate piece counts and check for damages that may have occurred during shipping, loading and unloading). Upon request, we inspect for other damages or defects, which may include checking fabric, stitching and zippers for soft goods, or ‘testing’ power-up capabilities for electronic items as well as product specifications. We generally stock for sale within one business day of unloading. We pick, pack and ship customer orders and can provide customized packaging, customized monogramming, personalized laser engraving, high volume shrink packaging, inserts and promotional literature for distribution with customer orders. For many clients, we provide gift-wrapping services including line level gifting, customized gift-wrapping paper, ribbon, gift-box and gift-messaging.

Our distribution facilities contain computerized sortation equipment, flexible mobile pick-to-light carts, powered material handling equipment, scanning and bar-coding systems. Our distribution facilities include several advanced technology enhancements, such as radio frequency technology in product receiving processing to ensure accuracy, as well as an automated package routing and a pick-to-light paperless order fulfillment system. Our advanced distribution systems provide us with the capability to warehouse an extensive number of stock keeping units (“SKUs”), ranging from large high-end electronics to small cosmetic compacts. Our facilities are flexibly configured to process B2B and DTC orders from the same central location.

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In addition to our advanced distribution systems, our proprietary pick-to-light carts, stationary pick-to-light areas and conveyor system controls provide real time productivity reporting, thereby providing our management team with the tools to implement productivity standards. This combination of computer-controlled equipment provides the seamless integration of our pick-to-light systems and mass sortation capabilities. This unique combination of technologies ensures high order accuracy for each and every customer order.

We are able to take advantage of a variety of shipping and delivery options, which range from next day service to zone skipping, to optimize transportation costs. Our facilities and systems are equipped with multi-carrier functionality, allowing us to integrate with all leading package carriers and provide a comprehensive freight and transportation management offering.

We offer reverse logistics management services, including issuing return authorizations, return carrier shipping labels, receipt of product, crediting customer accounts and disposition of returned product. We also leverage strategic partnerships to provide our clients with access to distributed returns centers that collect, consolidate, report on and forward to our central facilities returned product allowing us to accelerate credits to our clients’ customers, reduce freight costs for our client, improve customer service and reduce complexity and cost in our facilities from handling inbound returns.

Facility Operations and Management. Our facilities management service offering includes distribution facility design and optimization, business process reengineering and ongoing staffing and management. Our expertise in supply chain management, logistics and customer-centric fulfillment operations can provide our clients with cost reductions, process improvements and technology-driven efficiencies.

Pop-Up Distribution Centers. Temporary fulfillment centers allow our clients’ eCommerce fulfillment networks to flex during peak periods with all the benefits of regional distribution nodes, without the long-term capital costs. We can deploy full pick-pack-ship operations within weeks that run off a simple Wi-Fi network and our proprietary distributed order management technology. Deployed into any real estate space with Wi-Fi, this solution allows for temporary forward stock allocation to alleviate volume from the primary fulfillment center, shorten delivery times and lower shipping costs.

Kitting and Assembly Services. Our expanded kitting and assembly services enable our clients to reduce the time and costs associated with managing multiple suppliers, warehousing hubs and light manufacturing partners. As a single source provider, we provide the advantage of convenience, accountability and speed. Our kitting and assembly services include light assembly, specialized kitting and supplier-consigned inventory hub either in our distribution facilities or co-located elsewhere. We also offer customized light manufacturing and supplier relationship management.

We work with clients to re-sequence certain supply chain activities to aid in an inventory postponement strategy. We can provide kitting and assembly services and build-to-stock thousands of units daily to stock in a Just-in-Time (“JIT”) environment. This service, for example, can entail the procurement of packaging materials including retail boxes, foam inserts and anti-static bags. These raw material components may be shipped to us from domestic or overseas manufacturers, and we will build the finished SKUs to stock for the client. Also included is the custom configuration of high-end printers and servers. This strategy allows manufacturers to make a smaller investment in base unit inventory while meeting changing customer demand for highly customizable products.

Our standard capabilities include: build-to-order, build-to-stock, expedited orders, passive and active electrostatic discharge (“ESD”) controls, product labeling, serial number generation, marking and/or capture, lot number generation, asset tagging, bill of materials (“BOM”) processing, SKU-level pricing and billing, manufacturing and metrics reporting, first article approval processes and comprehensive quality controls.

Kitting and inventory hub services enable clients to collapse supply chains into the minimal steps necessary to prepare product for distribution to any channel, including wholesale, mass merchant retail or direct to consumer. Clients no longer have to employ multiple providers or require suppliers to consign multiple inventory caches for each channel. We offer our clients the opportunity to consolidate operations from a channel standpoint, as well as from a geographic perspective. Our integrated, global information systems and international locations support business needs worldwide.

Customer Care

Our internal contact center operations are focused on providing essential services such as order entry, returns authorization, product inquiry and order tracking. These operations also include our iCommerce Agent (“iCA”), a customizable web-based application featuring powerful customer service tools for accessing all required customer information. Our unique multi-lingual capabilities are possible through our strategically placed locations in Texas, Belgium, U.K., and Canada.

Customer Service Application. Through our web enabled iCA application, our unique technology leverages the client’s website investment by wrapping the Customer Service Application around the existing website. Using iCA, agents provide customer service functions, such as placing orders, checking order status, facilitating returns, initiating upsell and cross sell, managing escalations and gathering “voice of the customer” information to help our clients evolve with their customers’ changing needs. iCA is fully integrated into the client’s website, our data analytics platform, and our order processing system, allowing full visibility into customer history and customer trends. Through each of our customer touch-points, information can be analyzed and processed for current or future use in business evaluation product effectiveness and positioning, and supply chain planning. Through this fully integrated system, we are able to provide a complete customer care solution in a contact center or on a license basis to our clients’ owned or outsourced contact centers.

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Customer Assistance. An important feature of evolving commerce is the ability for the customer to communicate with a live customer service representative. Our experience has been that many consumers tell us they visited a web location for information, but not all of those consumers chose to place their order online. Our contact center services utilize features that integrate voice, e-mail, standard mail and live chat communications to respond to and handle customer inquiries. Our customer care representatives answer various questions, acting as virtual representatives of our clients’ organization, regarding order status, shipping, billing, returns and product information and availability as well as a variety of other questions. We utilize technology that allows us to route each customer contact automatically to the appropriate customer care representative who is individually trained in the clients’ business and products.

Our contact centers are flexibly designed so that our customer care representatives can handle either several different clients and products in a shared agent environment, thereby creating economy of scale benefits for our clients, or through a highly customized dedicated agent support model that provides the ultimate customer experience and brand reinforcement.

Quality Monitoring. Quality is essential in our client solutions. As representatives of our clients, our customer care representatives must adhere to the unique quality standards of each client for each contact type. We continually monitor the quality of our customer care representatives against each client quality standard and use the results to provide agent-level feedback to continually improve the customer care experience. Clients may participate in the quality process by remotely listening to calls, assisting in the grading of recorded calls and providing ongoing direction to improve quality standards through our calibration process.

Customer Self-Help. With the need for efficiency and cost optimization for many of our clients, we have integrated interactive voice response (“IVR”) as another option for customer contacts. IVR creates an “electronic workforce” with virtual agents that can assist customers with vital information at any time of the day or night. IVR allows for our clients’ customers to deal interactively with our system to handle basic customer inquiries, such as account balance, order status, shipment status and customer satisfaction surveys. The inclusion of IVR in our service offering allows us to offer a cost effective way to handle high volume, low complexity calls.

INDUSTRY INFORMATION AND COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Industry Overview

Business activities in the public and private sectors continue to operate in an environment of rapid technological advancement, increasing competition and continuous pressure to improve operating and supply chain efficiency while decreasing costs. We currently see the following trends within the industry:

Supply Chain Management Trend

As companies maintain focus on improving their businesses and balance sheet financial ratios, significant efforts and investments continue to be made identifying ways to maximize supply chain efficiency and extend supply chain processes. Working capital financing, vendor managed inventory, supply chain visibility software solutions, distribution channel skipping, direct-to-consumer eCommerce sales initiatives and complex upstream supply chain collaborative technology are products that manufacturers seek to help them achieve greater supply chain efficiency.

A key business challenge facing many manufacturers and retailers as they evaluate their supply chain efficiency, is determining how the trend toward increased omni-channel business activity will impact their traditional DTC commerce business models. Ship-from-store, pick-up-in-store, return-to-store and other omni-channel capabilities are becoming increasingly important processes to accommodate. We believe manufacturers will look to outsource their non-core competency functions to support this modified business model. We believe companies will continue to strategically plan for the impact that technology advancements will have on their traditional commerce business models and their existing technology and infrastructure capabilities. Additionally, B2B opportunities exist as companies look to leverage the technology and enhanced customer experience that currently exists within eCommerce channels.

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Manufacturers, as buyers of materials, are also imposing new business practices and policies on their supplier partners to shift the normal supply chain costs and risks associated with inventory ownership away from their own balance sheets. Through techniques like Vendor Managed Inventory or Consigned Inventory Programs, manufacturers are asking their suppliers, as a part of the supplier selection process, to provide capabilities where the manufacturer need not own, or even possess, inventory prior to the exact moment that unit of inventory is required as a raw material component or for shipping to a customer. To be successful for all parties, business models such as these often require a sophisticated collection of technological capabilities that allow for complete integration and collaboration of the information technology environments of both the buyer and supplier. For example, for an inventory unit to arrive at the precise required moment in the manufacturing facility, it is necessary for the Manufacturing Resource Planning systems of the manufacturer to integrate with the CRM systems of the supplier. When hundreds of supplier partners are involved, this process can become quite complex and technologically challenging. Buyers and suppliers are seeking solutions that utilize XML based protocols and traditional EDI standards to ensure an open systems platform that promote easier technology integration in these collaborative solutions. In addition to these traditional integration and collaboration technology environments, we are observing the emergence of a variety of solutions utilizing blockchain technologies and we will continue to evaluate the appropriate time to include emerging technology solutions into our service offering.

Outsourcing Trend

In response to growing competitive pressures and technological innovations, we believe many companies, both large and small, are focusing their critical resources on the core competencies of their business and utilizing eCommerce service providers to accelerate their business plans in a cost-effective manner and perform non-core business functions. Outsourcing can provide many key benefits, including the ability to:

Typically, many outsourcing service providers are focused on a single function, such as information technology, contact center management, credit card processing, warehousing or package delivery. This focus creates several challenges for companies looking to outsource more than one of these functions, including the need to manage multiple outsourcing service providers, to share information with service providers and to integrate that information into their internal systems. Additionally, the delivery of these multiple services must be transparent to the customer and enable the client to maintain brand recognition and customer loyalty. Furthermore, traditional commerce outsourcers are frequently providers of domestic-only services versus international solutions. As a result, companies requiring global solutions must establish additional relationships with other outsourcing parties.

Another vital point for major brand name companies seeking to outsource is the protection of their brand. When looking for an outsourcing partner to provide infrastructure solutions, brand name companies must find a company that can provide the same quality performance and superior experience their customers expect from their brands. Working with an outsourcing partner requires finding a partner that can maintain the consistency of their brand image, which is one of the most valuable intangible assets that recognized brand name companies possess.

Competition

We face competition from many different sources depending upon the type and range of services requested by a potential client. Many other companies offer one or more of the same services we provide on an individual basis. For operations services, our competitors include vertical outsourcers, which are companies that offer a single function solution. We compete with transportation logistics providers, known in the industry as 3PL’s and 4PL’s (third or fourth party logistics providers), who offer product management functions as an ancillary service to their primary transportation services. For professional services, we compete against Global Commerce Service Providers, and Specialists, who perform various services similar to our solution offerings. Additionally, we see competition from digital agencies providing creative, commerce strategy and system integration services. In many instances, PFSweb competes with the in-house operations of our potential clients. Occasionally, the operations departments of potential clients believe they can perform the same services we do, at similar quality levels and costs, while others are reluctant to outsource business functions that involve direct customer contact. We cannot be certain we will be able to compete successfully against these or other competitors in the future.

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Although many of our competitors offer one or more of our services, we believe our primary competitive advantage is our ability to offer a full array of customized services, thereby eliminating any need for our clients to coordinate these services from many different providers. We believe we can differentiate ourselves by offering our clients a very broad range of eCommerce and business process services that address, in many cases, the entire value chain, from demand to delivery.

We also compete on the basis of many other important additional factors, including:

We believe we can compete favorably with respect to many of these factors. However, the market for our services is competitive and continually evolving, and we may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.

Competitive Landscape

Global Commerce Service Providers. We compete with companies providing broad strategic solutions for digital transformation along with commerce implementation services including Accenture Digital, Capgemini/LCG, Cognizant, Deloitte Digital, HCL, IBM Global Business Services, Infosys, and Publicis.Sapient.

Commerce Specialist Service Providers. We compete with companies providing eCommerce platform-specific services including Astound Commerce, BORN Group, diconium, Gorilla Group/Wunderman Commerce, Isobar and Optaros.

End-to-End Commerce. In North America, we compete with full service commerce providers such as BrandShop, Branded Online, Newgistics/Pitney Bowes, and Trade Global. In the European market, we compete with companies such as Arvato, Yoox and other geographically focused providers in Western Europe.

Design and Digital Marketing Services. We compete with a wide range of digital agency firms, including Fluid, Huge, AKQA, and Wednesday.

Operations. We compete with eCommerce focused order fulfillment providers such as Radial and GEODIS (formerly OHL), as well as, depending on the client’s retail and/or supply chain strategy, Saddle Creek Logistics, Excel Logistics, FedEx Supply Chain, UPS Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel, and other “pure-play” fulfillment or contact center providers.

COMPANY INFORMATION

Clients and Marketing

Our target clients include traditional retailers, online retailers and leading technology and consumer goods brands looking to quickly and efficiently implement or enhance business initiatives, adapt their go-to-market strategies or introduce new products, programs or geographies, without the burden of modifying or expanding their technology, customer care, supply chain and logistics infrastructure. Our solutions are applicable to a multitude of industries and company types and we have provided solutions for such companies as:

Procter & Gamble (consumer packaged goods), L’Oréal USA (health & beauty), ASICS (sporting goods/apparel), Thrive Causemetics (health & beauty), Ricoh (printer supplies), Ralph Lauren (fashion), Kendo (health & beauty), Xerox (printers and printer supplies), PANDORA (jewelry), Tommy Bahama (fashion), Anastasia Beverly Hills (health & beauty), The United States Mint (collectible coins), among many others.

We target potential clients through an extensive integrated marketing program comprised of a variety of direct marketing techniques, email marketing initiatives, trade event participation, search engine marketing, public relations, social media and a sophisticated outbound tele-sales lead generation model. We have also developed a global business development methodology which allows us to effectively showcase our various eCommerce service solutions and products. We also pursue strategic marketing alliances with consulting firms, software manufacturers and other logistics providers to increase market awareness and generate referrals and customer leads.

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Because of the highly complex nature of the solutions we provide, our clients demand significant competence and experience from a variety of different business disciplines during the sales cycle. As such, we often utilize a member of our executive team to lead the design and proposal development of each potential new client we choose to pursue. The executive is supported by a select group of highly experienced individuals from our professional services group with specific industry knowledge of, or experience with, the solutions development process. We employ a team of highly trained implementation managers whose responsibilities include the oversight and supervision of client projects and maintaining high levels of client satisfaction during the transition process between the various stages of the sales cycle and steady state operations.

Employees

As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately 2,300 employees, of which approximately 1,500 were located in the United States. We have never suffered an interruption of business as a result of a labor dispute. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good. In the U.S., Canada and India, we are not a party to any collective bargaining agreements and while our European subsidiaries are not a party to a collective-bargaining agreement, certain of them are required to comply with certain rules agreed upon by their employee Works Councils.

Our success in recruiting, hiring and training large numbers of skilled employees and obtaining large numbers of hourly employees and temporary staff during peak periods for distribution and call center operations is critical to our ability to provide high quality distribution and support services. Contact center representatives and distribution personnel receive feedback on their performance on a regular basis and, as appropriate, are recognized for superior performance or given additional training. Generally, our clients provide specific product training for our contact center representatives and, in certain instances, on-site client personnel to provide specific technical support. To maintain good employee relations and to minimize employee turnover, we strive to offer competitive pay, hire primarily full-time employees who are eligible to receive a full range of employee benefits, and provide employees with clear, visible career paths.

Internet Access to Reports

Our website address is, www.pfsweb.com, Information contained on, or accessible from, our website is not incorporated by reference into this annual report and should not be considered part of this annual report or any filing we make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. We file with, or furnish to, the SEC all our periodic filings and reports, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments if any, to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934).  All of our filings with the SEC are made available, free of charge, through the investor relations section of this website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC or by mailing a written request to Investor Relations at PFSweb, Inc., 505 Millennium Drive, Allen, Texas 75013. Copies of any of our filings also can be obtained without charge from the SEC at www.sec.gov.

Government Regulation

We are subject to federal, state, local and foreign consumer protection laws, including laws protecting the privacy of our customers’ personally identifiable information and other non-public information and regulations prohibiting unfair and deceptive trade practices. Furthermore, the growth and demand for online commerce has and may continue to result in more stringent consumer protection laws that impose additional compliance burdens and greater penalties on online companies. Moreover, there is a trend toward regulations requiring companies to provide consumers with greater information regarding, and greater control over, how their personal data is used, and requiring notification when unauthorized access to such data occurs. For example, many states currently require us to notify each of our customers who are affected by any data security breach in which an unauthorized person, such as a computer hacker, obtains such customer’s name and one or more of the customer’s social security number, driver’s license number, credit or debit card number or other similar personal information. In addition, several jurisdictions, including foreign countries, have adopted privacy-related laws that restrict or prohibit unsolicited email promotions, commonly known as “spam,” and that impose significant monetary and other penalties for violations.

In an effort to comply with these laws, internet service providers may increasingly block legitimate marketing emails. These consumer protection laws may become more stringent in the future and could result in substantial compliance costs and could interfere with the conduct of our business. Also, an increasing number of countries have introduced and/or increased enforcement of comprehensive privacy laws, or are expected to do so. In Europe, the implementation of new General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) in May 2018 provides heightened rights for individuals and increased sanctions and fines for non-compliance with regulations, including non-adherence to the core principles of processing personal data, infringement of the rights of data subjects and the transfer of personal data to third parties or international organizations that do not ensure an adequate level of data protection.

The UK’s decision to leave the European Union (referred to as “Brexit”) may add cost and complexity to our operations and compliance efforts. The effect of Brexit is uncertain, and, among other things, Brexit has and may continue to contribute to volatility of currency exchange rates, including of the euro and British pound, issues with import and export controls, trade barriers, and the movement of employees. The UK is an important geography for us and we have structured our privacy and data protection compliance program based on the GDPR. If UK and EU privacy and data protection laws and regulations diverge, we will be required to implement alternative UK compliance measures and adapt separately to any new UK requirements.

 

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Our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected by any or all of the following factors, in which event the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We operate with significant levels of indebtedness and are required to comply with certain financial and non-financial covenants; and we have guaranteed certain indebtedness and obligations of our subsidiaries.

As of December 31, 2018, our total credit facilities outstanding, including debt, capital lease obligations and our vendor accounts payable related to financing of Ricoh product inventory for a client, were approximately $46.7 million. We cannot provide assurance that our credit facilities will be renewed by the lending parties. Additionally, these credit facilities include both financial and non-financial covenants, many of which also include cross-default provisions applicable to other agreements. Certain of these covenants also restrict our ability to transfer funds among our various subsidiaries, which may adversely affect the ability of our subsidiaries to operate their businesses or comply with their respective loan covenants. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants. A non-renewal, default under or acceleration of any of our credit facilities may have a material adverse impact upon our business and financial condition. We have guaranteed most of the indebtedness of our subsidiary Supplies Distributors. Furthermore, we are obligated to repay any over-advance made to Supplies Distributors by its lenders to the extent Supplies Distributors is unable to do so.

We may experience additional costs and uncertainties from the LIBOR phase-out.

London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) is commonly used as benchmark for rates across a wide range of financial products and instruments, however, financial regulators are transitioning away from the use of LIBOR by the end of 2021. As a result we anticipate certain risks associated with this transition, including market uncertainty and disruptions, particularly with our existing debt instruments and equipment financings. We will need to review and address the potential issues in our existing debt instruments and equipment financings for substitutions, as well as revisit our accounting policies.

Our business and future growth depend on our continued access to bank and commercial financing.

Our business and future growth currently depend on our ability to access bank, vendor and commercial lines of credit, including a line of credit facility provided by various banks  that provided for an aggregate of up to approximately $60.0 million of financing as of December 31, 2018, with an accordion feature providing for a potential of additional $20.0 million. This line of credit currently matures in November 2023 and is secured by substantially all our assets. Our ability to maintain, renew or replace our bank, vendor and commercial financing depends upon various factors, including the availability of bank loans and commercial credit in general, as well as our financial condition and prospects. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that these credit facilities will continue to be available beyond their current maturities on reasonable terms or at all. Our inability to maintain, renew or replace our credit facilities or find alternative financing would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flow.

We are uncertain about the availability of additional capital.

We may require additional capital to take advantage of opportunities, including strategic alliances and acquisitions, and to fund capital expenditures, or to respond to changing business conditions and unanticipated competitive pressures. We may also require additional funds to finance operating losses. Should these circumstances arise, our existing cash balance and credit facilities may be insufficient and we may need to raise additional funds either by borrowing money or issuing additional equity or both. We cannot assure you that such resources will be adequate or available for all of our future financing needs. Our inability to finance our growth, either internally or externally, may limit our growth potential and our ability to execute our business strategy. If we are successful in completing an additional equity financing, this could result in further dilution to our shareholders’ ownership or reduce the market value of our common stock.

We anticipate incurring significant expenses in the foreseeable future, which may reduce our ability to achieve or maintain profitability.

To reach our business growth objectives, we currently expect to increase our operating, sales and marketing expenses, as well as capital expenditures. To offset these expenses, we will need to generate additional profitable business. If our revenue declines or grows slower than either we anticipate or our clients’ projections indicate, or if our operating, sales and marketing expenses exceed our expectations or cannot be reduced to an appropriate level, we may not generate sufficient revenue to be profitable or be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis in the future. Additionally, if our revenue declines or grows slower than either we anticipate or our clients’ projections indicate, we may incur unnecessary or redundant costs and our operating results could be adversely affected.

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Our service fee revenue and gross margin are dependent upon our clients’ business and transaction volumes and our costs. A reduction in our clients’ ecommerce business, our inability to grow our business or increase service fee revenue from new or existing clients, or our inability to manage expected costs could negatively impact our operating results.

Our service fee revenue is primarily transaction and project based and fluctuates with the volume of transactions or level of sales of the products by our clients for whom we provide omni-channel services and the size and scope of projects for clients for whom we perform technology and agency services. If we are unable to retain existing clients or attract new clients, or if we dedicate significant resources to clients whose business does not generate revenues at projected levels or sufficient revenues, or whose products do not generate substantial customer sales, our business may be materially adversely affected in a number of ways.

For example, we seek to maintain sufficient capacity in our fulfillment, call center and professional services operations and computer technology systems to support our projected existing and new client business activity, including seasonal volumes, and we currently plan on increasing capacity to support future projected growth. The fixed cost structure of many of these investments limits our flexibility to reduce our costs when excess capacity occurs. A reduction in our clients’ business or our inability to grow our business or increase service fee revenue from new or existing clients could result in an underutilization in our invested assets. While certain of our building leases permit early termination in advance of their regular scheduled maturity date, these early terminations would require incremental termination related payments which reduce the potential benefit of this flexibility.

Similarly, salaries and payroll-related expenses are a significant component of our costs. Balancing our workforce levels against the demands for our services is difficult. We generally cannot reduce our labor costs as quickly as negative changes in revenue may occur. We may retain underutilized employees to maintain scalability to meet client demand. We must maintain our operating efficiency and utilization at an appropriate rate to achieve our desired level of profitability. If we are unable to achieve and maintain our target efficiency and utilization rates, our profitability could be adversely impacted. Further, increases in minimum wage requirements and other competitive increases in labor costs could put upward pressure on our costs and adversely affect our profitability if we are unable to recover these increased costs by increasing the prices for our services.

Moreover, our ability to estimate service fee revenue for future periods is substantially dependent upon our clients’ and our own projections, the accuracy of which has been, and will continue to be, unpredictable. Therefore, our planning for client activity and targeted goals for service fee revenue and gross margin may be materially adversely affected by incomplete, delayed or inaccurate projections. In addition, most of our service agreements with our clients are non-exclusive and we cannot be assured that any of our clients will continue to use our services for any period of time. The loss of a significant amount of service fee revenue due to client terminations (including terminations related to client bankruptcies) or material reductions in the services provided to one or more clients could have a material adverse effect on our ability to cover our costs and thus on our profitability.

We may incur financial penalties if we fail to meet contractual service levels under client service agreements.

Many of our client service agreements contain minimum service level requirements and impose financial penalties if we fail to meet such requirements. The imposition of a substantial amount of such penalties could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations. In the event we are unable to meet the service levels expected by the client, our relationship with the client will suffer and may result in financial penalties and/or the termination of the client contract.

We are dependent on our key personnel, and if we are unable to keep our supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand and attract and retain skilled professionals, our business, the utilization rate of our professionals and our results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Our performance is highly dependent on the continued services of our executive officers and other key personnel, the loss of any of whom could materially adversely affect our business. In addition, we need to attract and retain other highly-skilled, technical and managerial personnel for whom there is intense competition. For example, if we are unable to hire or continually train our employees to keep pace with the rapid and continuing changes in technology and the markets we serve or changes in the types of services our clients are demanding, we may not be able to develop and deliver new services and solutions to fulfill client demand. As we expand our services and solutions, we must also hire and retain an increasing number of professionals with different skills and expectations than those of the professionals we have historically hired and retained. We cannot assure you we will be able to attract and retain the personnel necessary for the continuing growth of our business. Our inability to attract and retain qualified technical and managerial personnel could materially adversely affect our ability to maintain and grow our business significantly.

Our business may suffer if we are unable to hire and retain sufficient temporary workers or if labor costs increase.

We regularly hire a large number of part-time and seasonal workers, particularly during the fourth quarter holiday season and to meet temporary increases in client activity volume related to “flash sales” and other short-term marketing programs. Any difficulty we may encounter in hiring such workers could result in significant increases in labor costs, or inability to support our clients’ business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may also hire more full-time and part-time employees to mitigate the risk of the unavailability of temporary workers, and our failure to maintain an appropriate mix of labor personnel may result in higher costs. Increases in minimum wage requirements and other competition for labor could also substantially increase our labor costs. Although we seek to preserve the contractual ability to pass through increases in labor costs to our clients, not all of our current contracts provide us with this protection, and we may enter into contracts in the future, which limit or prohibit our ability to pass through increases in labor costs to our clients.

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Our expenses could be adversely impacted by increases in healthcare costs.

We provide healthcare benefits to our employees. Increased costs of providing such benefits, including potential impact from modifications to healthcare legislation and related regulations, could materially impact our future healthcare costs, which would adversely affect our results and cash flow.

Our business is susceptible to risks associated with international operations.

Outside of the United States, we currently maintain distribution facilities, call centers, technology centers, administrative offices and/or have sales personnel in Belgium, Canada, India, Bulgaria and U.K., and we currently intend to expand our international operations. We cannot assure you we will be successful in expanding in these or any additional international markets. In addition, we may face competition from companies that may have more experience with operations in these countries or with international operations generally. We may also face difficulties integrating new facilities in different countries into our existing operations, as well as integrating employees that we hire in different countries into our existing corporate culture. In addition to the uncertainty regarding our ability to generate revenue or profits from foreign operations and expand our international presence, there are risks inherent in doing business internationally that we have not generally faced in our U.S. operations, including:

Additionally, operating in international markets requires significant management attention and financial resources. We cannot be certain that the investments and additional resources required to establish and maintain operations in other countries will hold their value or produce desired levels of revenues or profitability. Any negative impact from our international business efforts could negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial condition as a whole.

Our financial results may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the foreign currency exchange markets.

The revenues and expenses of our international operations generally are denominated in local currencies. Accordingly, we are subject to exchange rate fluctuations between such local currencies and the U.S. dollar. These exchange rate fluctuations subject us to currency translation risk with respect to the reported results of our international operations. Significant strengthening or weakening of the U.S. dollar against currencies like the Canadian Dollar, British Pound and the Euro may materially impact our revenue and profits. As we continue to expand our presence in India, we will have increased exposure to fluctuations between the Indian Rupee and the U.S. dollar. In addition, we have transactions with clients, as well as inter-company transactions between our subsidiaries, that cross currencies and expose us to foreign currency gains and losses. These types of events are difficult to predict and may recur. There can be no assurance that we will be able to reduce the currency risks associated with our international operations. We seek to manage our exposure to changes in foreign currency exchange rates through our normal operating and financing activities and, if deemed appropriate, we may use derivative financial instruments. There is no assurance that we will be successful in managing or controlling foreign currency risks.

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU may adversely impact our operations in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

 

The uncertainty regarding Brexit, related instability in global financial and foreign exchange markets, including volatility in the value of the British pound and European euro, legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations and the absence of established trade agreements between the UK and other EU countries may adversely affect our international operations by, among other things, increasing our costs and reducing the volume of our client activities.

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Additionally, the UK is one of our larger markets in Europe. We currently ship products to UK customers from continental Europe, although we are moving operations to our new facility in Southampton, UK. If Brexit results in greater restrictions on imports and exports between the UK and the EU or increased regulatory complexity, then our operations and financial results could be negatively impacted.

We may engage in future strategic alliances or acquisitions that could dilute our existing shareholders’ ownership, cause us to incur significant expenses or harm our business. Acquisitions can result in an increase in our operating costs, divert management's attention away from other operational matters and expose us to other risks associated with acquisitions.

We have pursued an acquisition strategy designed to enhance or add to our offerings of services and solutions, or to enable us to expand in certain geographic and other markets, and we may continue to seek appropriate acquisition candidates. We may not succeed in completing targeted transactions, or achieve desired results of operations. Furthermore, we face risks in successfully integrating any businesses we acquire. Ongoing business may be disrupted and our management's attention may be diverted by acquisitions, transition or integration activities. In addition, we might need to dedicate additional management and other resources, and our organizational structure could make it difficult for us to efficiently integrate acquired businesses into our ongoing operations and assimilate and retain employees of those businesses into our culture and operations.

We might fail to realize the expected benefits or strategic objectives of any acquisition we make. We might not achieve our expected return on investment, or we may lose money. We may be adversely impacted by liabilities that we assume from a company we acquire, including from that company's known and unknown obligations, intellectual property or other assets, terminated employees, current or former clients, or other third parties, and we may fail to identify or adequately assess the magnitude of certain liabilities, shortcomings or other circumstances prior to acquisition, which could result in unexpected legal or regulatory exposure, unfavorable accounting treatment, unexpected increases in taxes, or other adverse effects on our business. If we are inefficient or unsuccessful at integrating any acquired businesses into our operations, we may not be able to achieve our planned rates of growth or improve our market share, profitability, or competitive position in specific markets or services.

In addition, acquisitions involve further risks, such as:

Our financial results may be negatively impacted by impairment in the carrying value of our goodwill.

Goodwill represented approximately 26% of our total assets as of December 31, 2018. The carrying value of goodwill represents the fair value of an acquired business in excess of identifiable assets and liabilities as of the acquisition date. We are required to test goodwill for impairment annually and when factors or indicators become apparent that could reduce the fair value of any of our reporting units below its book value. Such factors requiring an interim test for impairment include financial performance indicators, such as negative or declining cash flows or a decline in actual or planned revenue or earnings, and a sustained decrease in share price. A significant downward revision in the fair value of one or more of our business units that causes the carrying value to exceed the fair value could cause goodwill to be considered impaired, and could result in a non-cash impairment charge in our consolidated statement of operations.

Our business and profitability could be adversely affected if the operations of one or more of our facilities were interrupted or shut down as the result of a natural disaster.

We operate a majority of our distribution facilities in the Memphis, Tennessee area and our headquarters and call center operations are centered in the Dallas, Texas area. We also maintain facilities in Canada, Europe and India. A natural disaster or other serious disruption to our facilities due to fire, tornado, flood, severe weather or any other cause could substantially disrupt our operations and could impair our ability to adequately service our clients and customers. In addition, we could incur significantly higher costs during the time it takes for us to reopen or replace any one or more of our facilities, which may or may not be reimbursed by insurance. As a result, disruption at one or more of our facilities could adversely affect our business and profitability.

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A breach of our eCommerce security measures could reduce demand for our services. Credit card fraud and other fraud could adversely affect our business.

A requirement of the continued growth of eCommerce is the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks. A party who is able to circumvent our security measures could misappropriate proprietary information or interrupt our operations. Any compromise or elimination of our security could reduce demand for our services.

We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against security breaches or to address any problem they may cause. Because our activities involve the storage and transmission of proprietary information, such as credit card numbers, security breaches could damage our reputation, cause us to lose clients, impact our ability to attract new clients and we could be exposed to litigation and possible liability. Our security measures may not prevent security breaches, and failure to prevent security breaches may disrupt our operations. The failure to adequately control fraudulent transactions on either our behalf or our client’s behalf could increase our expenses and expose us to reputational damage which would adversely affect our business.

We may be liable for misappropriation of our customers’ and our clients’ customers’ personal information, including through cyber-attacks and the like.

Data security laws are becoming more stringent in the United States and abroad. Third parties are engaging in increased cyber-attacks against companies doing business on the internet and individuals are increasingly subjected to identity and credit card theft on the internet. If third parties or unauthorized employees are able to penetrate our network security or otherwise misappropriate our customers’ or our clients’ customers’ personal information or credit card information, or if we give third parties or our employees’ improper access to customers’ personal information or credit card information, we could be subject to liability. This liability could include claims for unauthorized purchases with credit card information, impersonation or other similar fraud claims, as well as claims for other misuses of personal information, including unauthorized marketing purposes. Liability for misappropriation of this information could decrease our profitability and adversely affect our business. In such circumstances, we also could be liable for failing to provide timely notice of a data security breach affecting certain types of personal information. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission, state and international agencies have brought numerous enforcement actions against internet companies for alleged deficiencies in those companies’ privacy and data security practices, and they may continue to bring such actions. We could incur additional expenses if new regulations regarding the collection, use or storage of personal information are introduced or if government agencies investigate our privacy or security practices.

We rely on encryption and authentication technology to provide the security and authentication necessary to effect secure transmission of sensitive customer information such as customer credit card numbers. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other events or developments may result in a compromise or breach of the measures that we use to protect customer transaction data. If any such compromise of security were to occur, it could subject us to liability, damage our reputation and diminish the value of our brand-name. A party who is able to circumvent the security measures could misappropriate proprietary information or cause interruptions in operations. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against such security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches. Our security measures are designed to prevent security breaches, but our failure to prevent such security breaches could subject us to liability, damage our reputation and diminish the value of our brand-name.

Our insurance policies may not fully cover all losses we may incur.

Although we attempt to limit our liability for damages arising from negligent acts, errors or omissions through contractual provisions, the limitations of liability included in our contracts may not fully protect us from liability or damages and may not be enforceable in all instances. In addition, not all of our contracts may limit our exposure for certain liabilities, such as data security claims or claims of third parties for which we may be required to indemnify our clients. Although we have general liability and errors and omissions insurance coverage, this coverage may not continue to be available on terms reasonable to us or in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, and our insurers may disclaim coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that are excluded from our insurance coverage or that exceed our available insurance coverage, or changes in our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Changes in regulations, regulatory scrutiny, or user concerns regarding privacy and protection of user data could adversely affect our business.

We are subject to U.S. and foreign laws relating to the collection, use, retention, security and transfer of personally identifiable information. The interpretation and application of user data protection laws are in a state of flux, and may vary from country to country. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among ourselves, our subsidiaries and other parties with which we have commercial relations. Further, these laws continue to develop in ways we cannot predict and which may adversely impact our business. For example, new laws or regulations, in particular, financial or privacy laws or regulations, may be enacted in jurisdictions in which we do business that require data (including customer information, transaction data or other information) to be stored locally on servers in that jurisdiction and/or prohibit such data from being transmitted outside of that jurisdiction, which would increase our operational costs or capital expenditures and potentially impact the performance or availability of our services and/or our ability to use or process customer data.

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The EU’s implementation of new General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) in May 2018 provides heightened rights for individuals and increased sanctions and fines for non-compliance with regulations, including non-adherence to the core principles of processing personal data, infringement of the rights of data subjects and the transfer of personal data to third parties or international organizations that do not ensure an adequate level of data protection. Any imposition of fines resulting from our failure to comply with the GDPR requirements could materially and adversely affect our financial results. The GDPR also introduces measures that will make data processing and sharing between our European-based businesses and our other businesses more difficult.  We have implemented data processing agreements and reliance on the use of model clauses with our clients and third party vendors as a protective measure, however there can be no guarantee such will be sufficient. As such, we may face a risk of enforcement actions by data protection authorities in the EU. Any such enforcement actions could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, distract management and technical personnel and negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

We or our clients may be a party to litigation involving our eCommerce intellectual property rights. If third parties claim we or our clients are infringing their intellectual property rights, we could incur significant litigation costs, be required to pay damages, or change our business or incur licensing expenses.

Third parties have asserted, and may in the future assert, that our business or the technologies we use infringe on their intellectual property rights. As a result, we or our clients may be subject to intellectual property legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of business. We cannot predict whether third parties will assert claims of infringement in the future or whether any future claims will prevent us from offering popular products or services. If we or our clients are found to infringe, we may be required to pay monetary damages, which could include treble damages and attorneys’ fees for any infringement that is found to be willful, and either be enjoined or required to pay ongoing royalties with respect to any technologies found to infringe. Further, as a result of infringement claims either against us or our clients, we may be required, or deem it advisable, to develop non-infringing technology, which could be costly and time consuming, or enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements. Such royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable on terms that are acceptable, or at all. If a third party successfully asserts an infringement claim against us or our clients and we are enjoined or required to pay monetary damages or royalties or we are unable to develop suitable non-infringing alternatives or license the infringed or similar technology on reasonable terms on a timely basis, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially harmed.

We rely on third party providers for a portion of our client services, and we are subject to various risks and liabilities if we are unable to continue our relationship with such providers, such providers do not provide the third party services or provide them in a manner that does not meet required service levels.

We currently, and may in the future, rely on third party providers to provide various material portions of our solution service offering. If our business relationship with a third-party provider of a material portion of our solution service offering is negatively affected, or is terminated, we might not be able to deliver the corresponding service offering to our clients, which could cause us to lose clients and future business, reducing our revenues. Under the terms of several of our contracts with our service clients, we remain liable to provide such third party services and may be liable for the actions and omissions of such third party providers. In certain instances, certain clients prepay in advance a portion of the service fees payable in respect of the third party services, and, under certain circumstances, including our breach or the breach by our third party provider of our or their respective obligations, we are liable to refund all or a portion of such prepaid fees. Consequently, in the event our third party provider fails to provide the third party services in compliance with required services levels, or otherwise breaches its obligations, or discontinues its business, whether as the result of bankruptcy, insolvency or otherwise, we may be required to provide such services at a higher cost to us and may otherwise be liable for various costs and expenses related to such event. In addition, any such failure may damage our reputation and otherwise result in a material adverse effect upon our business and financial condition.

We may incur liability for indemnification obligations under our contracts with our clients and business partners, which may have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We include indemnification provisions in the contracts we enter into with our clients and business partners. Generally, the provisions require us to defend claims arising out of our infringement of third-party intellectual property rights, breach of contractual obligations and/or unlawful or otherwise culpable conduct, including breach of data security. The indemnity obligations generally cover damages, costs and attorneys’ fees arising out of such claims. In many instances, our indemnification obligations to our clients include the actions or omissions of our third-party service providers. Although we seek to limit our total liability under such provisions to either a portion of the value of the contract or a specified, agreed-upon amount, in some cases our total liability under such provisions is unlimited. Although in many cases our third party service providers indemnify us for their actions and omissions, such providers may dispute or be unable to satisfy their indemnification obligation to us. In addition, our indemnification obligation to our clients may be broader in scope, or may be subject to larger limitations of liability, than the indemnification obligation of our third party service providers to us. In most cases, the term of the indemnity provision is perpetual. If we are required to indemnify a claim in a material amount, or if a series of indemnification claims are in the aggregate a material amount, we may be required to expend significant resources to defend the claims, which may have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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Our business is subject to the risk of customer and supplier concentration.

Most of our client agreements state a contract expiration date, but many also include an early termination clause permitting the client to terminate the contract for convenience prior to its stated expiration date or to reduce the scope of services or delay the commencement of services to be provided under the contract. Termination, reduction, or delay of our services under a contract could result from factors unrelated to our work product or the progress of the project, such as factors related to business or financial conditions of the client, changes in client strategies or the domestic or global economy generally. The bankruptcy, early termination, reduction or substantial delay of services of any significant client, or nonrenewal of any significant client contract, or the nonpayment of a material amount of our service fees by a significant client, if not offset by an increase in other revenue or cost reductions, could have a material adverse effect upon our business, results of operation and financial condition.

The majority of our Supplies Distributors product revenue is generated by sales of product purchased under distributor agreements with Ricoh Company Limited and Ricoh USA, Inc., a strategic business unit within the Ricoh Family Group of Companies (collectively hereafter referred to as “Ricoh”). These agreements are terminable at will and no assurance can be given that Ricoh will continue the distributor agreements with Supplies Distributors. Supplies Distributors does not have its own sales force and relies upon Ricoh’s sales force and product demand generation activities for its sale of Ricoh product. As a result of certain operational restructuring of its business and its discontinuance of certain product lines, Ricoh has implemented, and will continue to implement, certain changes in the sale and distribution of Ricoh products. The changes have resulted, and are expected to continue to result, in reduced revenues and profitability for Supplies Distributors. Further material reduction in the Ricoh business may have a material adverse effect on Supplies Distributors’ business and the termination of the Ricoh business would adversely affect our overall profitability.

Our operating results are materially impacted by our client mix and the seasonality of their business.

Our business is materially impacted by our client mix and the seasonality of their business. Based upon our current client mix and their current projected business volumes, we anticipate our service fee revenue business activity will be at its highest in our fourth quarter. We are unable to predict how the seasonality of future clients’ business may affect our quarterly revenue and whether the seasonality may change due to modifications to a client’s business. As such, we believe results of operations for a quarterly period may not be indicative of the results for any other quarter or for the full year.

Our systems may not accommodate significant growth in our number of clients; we may incorrectly design client solutions.

Our success depends on our ability to handle a large number of transactions for many different clients in various product categories and to design client solutions that are effective and profitable. We expect the volume of transactions will increase significantly as we expand our operations. In addition, client marketing programs, such as “secret sales”, “flash sales” or holiday related promotions often result in significant short-term spikes in transaction volumes. When this occurs, additional stress is placed upon our network hardware and software and our ability to efficiently manage our operations, and we cannot assure you of our ability to efficiently manage a large number of transactions. In addition, if we incorrectly design a client solution, we may incur additional costs to operate the solution, which may result in the client solution being unprofitable or otherwise not meeting our margin targets. If we are not able to maintain an appropriate level of operating performance, we may be in breach of our client contractual obligations, develop a negative reputation, and impair existing and prospective client relationships and our business would be materially adversely affected.

We may not be able to recover all or a portion of our start-up costs associated with one or more of our clients.

We generally incur start-up costs in connection with the planning and implementation of business process solutions for our clients. Although we generally attempt to recover these costs from the client in the early stages of the client relationship, or upon contract termination if the client terminates without cause prior to full amortization of these costs, there is a risk that the client contract may not fully cover the start-up costs or that the client will terminate the contract for cause and withhold payment of any unamortized start-up costs. To the extent start-up costs exceed the start-up fees received, certain excess costs will be expensed as incurred. Additionally, in connection with new client contracts, we may incur capital expenditures associated with assets whose primary use is related to the client solution. There is a risk that the contract may end before expected and we may not recover the full amount of our capital costs.

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We face competition from many sources that could adversely affect our business; growth in our clients’ ecommerce business may make it more efficient for the client to perform our services themselves.

Many companies offer, on an individual basis, one or more of the same services we do, and we face competition from many different sources depending upon the type and range of services requested by a potential client. Our competitors include vertical outsourcers, which are companies that offer a single function, such as call centers, public warehouses or professional services firms such as system integrators and digital agencies. We compete against transportation logistics providers who offer product management functions as an ancillary service to their primary transportation services. We also compete against other infrastructure service providers, who perform many similar services as us. Many of these companies have greater capabilities than we do for the single or multiple functions they provide. In addition, we compete against other professional service firms that have substantial offshore operations with lower labor costs, which enable them to offer lower pricing to potential clients. In many instances, our competition is the in-house operations of potential clients themselves. The in-house operations of potential clients often believe they can perform the same services we do, while others are reluctant to outsource business functions that involve direct customer contact. We cannot be certain we will be able to compete successfully against these or other competitors in the future.

In addition, growth in our clients’ ecommerce businesses may cause a client to consider making the necessary investments to process their ecommerce operations in-house. In such event, unless we can provide a more cost-effective solution to the client, the client may choose to terminate our services. There is no assurance that we will be able to provide a more cost-effective solution, or that any such solution will not reduce our profitability or be accepted by the client.

Our sales and implementation cycles are highly variable and our ability to finalize pending contracts may cause our operating results to vary widely.

The sales cycle for our services is variable, typically ranging between several months to up to a year or longer from initial contact with the potential client to the signing of a contract. Occasionally the sales cycle requires substantially more time. Delays in signing and executing client contracts may affect our revenue and cause our operating results to vary widely. A potential client’s decision to purchase our services is discretionary, involves a significant commitment of the client’s resources and is influenced by intense internal and external pricing and operating comparisons. To successfully sell our services, we generally must educate our potential clients regarding the use and benefit of our services, which can require significant time and resources. Consequently, the period between initial contact and the purchase of our services is often long and subject to delays associated with the lengthy approval and competitive evaluation processes that typically accompany significant operational decisions. Additionally, the time required to finalize pending contracts and to implement our systems and integrate a new client can range from several weeks to many months. Delays in signing and integrating new clients may affect our revenue and cause our operating results to vary widely.

Our business could be adversely affected by a systems or equipment failure, whether ours or our clients.

Our operations are dependent upon our ability to protect our distribution facilities, customer service centers, computer and telecommunications equipment and software systems against damage and failures. Damage or failures could result from fire, power loss, equipment malfunctions, system failures, natural disasters and other causes. If our business is interrupted either from accidents or the intentional acts of others, our business could be materially adversely affected. In addition, in the event of widespread damage or failures at our facilities, our short-term disaster recovery and contingency plans and insurance coverage may not be sufficient.

Our clients’ businesses may also be harmed from any system or equipment failures we experience. In that event, our relationship with these clients may be adversely affected, we may lose these clients, our ability to attract new clients may be adversely affected and we could be exposed to liability.

Interruptions could also result from the intentional acts of others, like hackers. If our systems are penetrated by computer hackers, or if computer viruses infect our systems, our computers could fail or proprietary information could be misappropriated.

If our clients suffer similar interruptions in their operations, for any of the reasons discussed above or for others, our business could also be adversely affected. Many of our clients’ computer systems interface with our systems. If our clients suffer interruptions in their systems, the link to our systems could be severed and sales of the client’s products could be slowed or stopped.

We and our clients may be subject to existing, new or expanded imposition of sales tax in one or more jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business.

We collect sales or other similar taxes for shipments of our and our clients’ goods in certain states and jurisdictions. One or more local, state or foreign jurisdictions may seek to impose sales tax collection obligations on us and other out-of-state companies, including our clients, that engage in online commerce, depending upon the nexus we or our clients may have with that jurisdiction and the product or services being performed. Recently, with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, some states have begun to enact, and others may choose to enact in the future, new legislation and increase enforcement efforts of existing legislation requiring online retailers to collect and remit sales tax. If unexpected sales tax obligations are successfully imposed upon us or our clients by a state or other jurisdiction, we or our clients could be exposed to substantial tax liabilities for past sales and fines and penalties for failure to collect sales taxes and we or our clients could suffer decreased sales in that state or jurisdiction as the effective

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cost of purchasing goods from or through us increases for those residing in that state or jurisdiction. This imposition of sales tax may also be enforced on companies providing software as a service (SaaS), information services, data processing services, and maintenance, to name a few. As we provide such service we may become subject to sales tax in each state where we provide services.

If there is increased legislative or enforcement action, e-commerce in general could decline as increased taxation of online sales could result in online shopping losing some of its current advantage over traditional retail models, which could diminish its appeal to consumers. A decrease in our clients’ ecommerce sales could impact our revenue. In addition, the cost of implementing new and expanded sales tax impositions by multiple taxing authorities may adversely impact our and our clients’ profitability.

Determinations under government audits could negatively affect our business.

We provide services to a U.S. government agency under a contract that provides the agency with the right to audit and review our performance under the contract, our pricing practices, our cost structure, and our compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and standards. If a government audit determines that we are in breach of our contractual terms, or have engaged in improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of the contract, suspension of payments, or disqualification from continuing to do business, or bidding on new business, with this agency and other federal agencies.

We may recognize losses or reduced profitability if we do not accurately estimate the cost of engagements conducted on a fixed-price basis.

When making a proposal for or managing a fixed-price engagement, we rely on our estimates of costs and timing for delivering our services, which may be based on limited data and could be inaccurate. If we do not accurately estimate our costs and the timing for completion of a fixed-price project, the contract for such a project could prove unprofitable or yield a profit margin that is lower than expected. Losses, if any, on fixed-price contracts are recognized when the loss is determined. Any increased or unexpected costs or unanticipated delays in connection with the performance of fixed-price contracts, including delays caused by factors outside of our control, could make these contracts less profitable or unprofitable and may affect the amount of revenue, profit, and profit margin reported in any period.

If our internal controls are ineffective, our operating results could be adversely affected.

Our internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements because of its inherent limitations, including the possibility of human error, the circumvention or overriding of controls or fraud. Even effective internal controls can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements. If we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, including any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or if we experience difficulties in their implementation, our business and operating results could be harmed and we could fail to meet our financial reporting obligations.

We are investing in technology to manage these reporting requirements. Implementing the appropriate changes to our internal controls may distract our officers and employees, result in substantial costs if we implement new processes or modify our existing processes and require significant time to complete. Any difficulties or delays in implementing these controls could impact our ability to timely report our financial results. In addition, we currently rely on a manual process in some areas which increases our exposure to human error or intervention in reporting our financial results. For these reasons, we may encounter difficulties in the timely and accurate reporting of our financial results, which would impact our ability to provide our investors with information in a timely manner. As a result, our investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, and our stock price could decline.

If our estimates relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our operating results could be adversely affected.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, allowance for uncollectible accounts receivable, inventory reserves, contingent payments under endorsement contracts, accounting for property, plant and equipment and definite-lived assets, hedge accounting for derivatives, stock-based compensation, income taxes and other contingencies. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the price of our Common Stock.

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Risks Related to Our Industry

Our market is subject to rapid technological change and to compete we must continually enhance our systems to comply with evolving standards.

To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our services and the underlying network infrastructure. If we are unable to adapt to changing market conditions, client requirements or emerging industry standards, our business could be adversely affected. The internet and eCommerce environments are characterized by rapid technological change, changes in user requirements and preferences, frequent new product and service introductions embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards and practices that could render our technology and systems obsolete. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to both internally develop and license leading technologies to enhance our existing services and develop new services. We must continue to address the increasingly sophisticated and varied needs of our clients and respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a cost-effective and timely basis. The development of proprietary technology involves significant technical and business risks. We may fail to develop new technologies effectively or to adapt our proprietary technology and systems to client requirements or emerging industry standards.

Risks Related to Our Stock and/or Stockholders

Institutional shareholders hold a significant amount of our common stock and these shareholders may have conflicts of interests with the interests of our other shareholders.

As of December 31, 2018, institutional investors (including transcosmos, Inc., our largest shareholder) own or control approximately 86% of the voting power of our common stock. The interests of these shareholders may differ from our other shareholders in material respects. This concentration of voting power of our common stock may make it difficult for our other shareholders to approve or defeat matters that may be submitted for action by our shareholders, including the election of directors and amendments to our Certificate of Incorporation or Bylaws. This also may have the effect of deterring, delaying, or preventing a change in control, even when such a change in control could benefit our other shareholders. These shareholders may have the power to exert significant influence over our affairs in ways that may be adverse to the interests of our other shareholders.

The market price of our common stock may be volatile. You may not be able to sell your shares at or above the price at which you purchased such shares.

The trading price of our common stock may be subject to wide fluctuations in response to quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in operating results, announcements of material adverse events, general conditions in our industry or the public marketplace and other events or factors, including the thin trading of our common stock. In addition, stock markets have experienced extreme price and trading volume volatility in recent years. This volatility has had a substantial effect on the market prices of securities of many technology-related companies for reasons frequently unrelated to the operating performance of the specific companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. In addition, if our operating results differ from our announced guidance or the expectations of equity research analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decrease significantly.

Our stock price could decline if a significant number of shares become available for sale.

The current and future issuance and/or vesting of shares of our common stock under our outstanding and future stock options, stock awards, performance shares and deferred stock units, sales of substantial amounts of common stock in the public market following the issuance and/or vesting of such shares, and/or the perception that future sales of these shares could occur, could reduce the market price of our common stock and make it more difficult to sell equity securities in the future.

Our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws, our shareholder rights plan and Delaware law make it difficult for a third party to acquire us, despite the possible benefit to our shareholders.

Provisions of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws, our shareholder rights plan and Delaware law could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would be beneficial to our shareholders. For example, our certificate of incorporation permits our Board of Directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock, which may have rights and preferences superior to those of the common stock. The ability to issue preferred stock could have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring us. We have also adopted a shareholder rights plan. These provisions could discourage takeover attempts and could materially adversely affect the price of our stock. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which may prohibit large shareholders from consummating a merger with, or acquisition of us. These provisions may prevent a merger or acquisition that would be attractive to shareholders and could limit the price investors would be willing to pay in the future for our common stock.

There are limitations on the liabilities of our directors and executive officers.

Pursuant to our bylaws and under Delaware law, our directors are not liable to us or our shareholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty, except for liability for breach of a director’s duty of loyalty, acts or omissions by a director not in good faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law, or any transaction in which a director has derived an improper personal benefit.

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Actions of activist shareholders could be disruptive and potentially costly, and the possibility that activist shareholders may seek changes that conflict with our strategic direction could cause uncertainty about the strategic direction of our business.

Activist investors may attempt to effect changes in our strategic direction or our business objectives, or to acquire control or Board representation to advocate corporate actions such as financial restructuring, stock repurchases or sales of assets or the entire company. Activist campaigns that contest or conflict with our strategic direction could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial conditions, as responding to proxy contests and other actions by activist shareholders can disrupt our operations, be costly and time consuming and divert the attention of our Board and senior management from the pursuit of business strategies. These types of actions could cause significant fluctuations in our stock price based on temporary or speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.

 

None.

 

Our headquarters are located in Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb. In the U.S., we operate a distribution facility in Memphis, Tennessee, with aggregate space of more than 440,000 square feet. We also operate four additional distribution facilities totaling an aggregate of approximately 756,000 square feet in Southaven, Mississippi. These facilities are located approximately ten miles from the Memphis International Airport.

Internationally, we operate a distribution complex in Liège, Belgium with approximately 200,000 square feet, and distribution operations in Ontario, Canada with approximately 95,000 square feet, and distribution operations in Southampton, U.K. with approximately 54,000 square feet. We also operate facilities in Bangalore, India, London, U.K., Basingstoke, U.K. and Sofia, Bulgaria, each of which provides primarily technology development, operations and administrative support.

We lease all of our distribution and other facilities under third party leases that generally contain one or more renewal options.

We operate customer service centers in our facilities in Dallas, Texas, Liège, Belgium, Basingstoke, U.K., and Ontario, Canada. Our call center technology permits the automatic routing of calls to available customer service representatives in several of our call centers.

 

We are not party to any legal proceedings other than routine claims and lawsuits arising in the ordinary course of our business. We do not believe such claims and lawsuits, individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

Not applicable.

 

 

 

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PART II

 

For information regarding the securities authorized for issuance under our equity compensation plans, refer to “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters” included in Part III, Item 12 of this report.

Common Stock

Our common stock is listed, and currently trades, on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “PFSW.” The following table sets forth for the periods indicated the high and low sale price for the common stock as reported by NASDAQ:   

 

 

As of March 8, 2019, there were 101 record holders of the common stock.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate the payment of cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We are also restricted from paying dividends under our debt agreements without the prior approval of our lenders. The payment of any future cash dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon, among other things, future earnings, operations, capital requirements, the general financial condition of the Company and general business conditions and the approval of our lenders. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

 

 

Not applicable.  

 

 

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We believe the following discussion and analysis provides information that is relevant to an assessment and understanding of our consolidated results of operations and financial condition. The discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This Management’s Discussion and Analysis will help you understand:

Forward-Looking Information

We have made forward-looking statements in this Report on Form 10-K. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and there can be no guarantee that these statements will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements include assumptions as to how we may perform in the future. When we use words like “seek,” “strive,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “will,” “may,” “could,” “intend,” “plan,” “target,” “project” and “estimate” or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements. You should understand that the following important factors, in addition to the Risk Factors set forth above or elsewhere in this Report on Form 10-K, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements. These factors include:

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We have based these statements on our current expectations about future events. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee these expectations will actually be achieved. In addition, some forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expected or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future. There may be additional risks we do not currently view as material or that are not presently known. In evaluating these statements, you should consider various factors, including the risks set forth in the section entitled “Risk Factors.”

Key Transactions and Events

We were impacted by the following key transactions and events in 2018 that may affect comparability of our results to 2017 and other periods:

Year ended December 31, 2018:

Overview

We are a global commerce solutions company. We manage the entire customer shopping experience for major branded manufacturers and retailers through two business segments, LiveArea Professional Services and PFS Operations.  The LiveArea Professional Services segment provides services to support and improve the digital shopping experience of shopping online, such as strategic commerce consulting, strategy, design and digital marketing services and technology services. The PFS Operations segment provides services to support and improve the physical experience, such as order management, order fulfillment, customer care and payment services. We offer our services on an a la carte basis or as a complete end-to-end solution.

Service Fee Model. We refer to our standard seller services financial model as the Service Fee model. In this model, our clients own the inventory and are the merchants of record and engage us to provide various infrastructure, technology and digital agency services in support of their business operations. We offer our services as an integrated solution, which enables our clients to outsource their complete eCommerce needs to a single source and to focus on their core competencies, though clients are also able to select individual or groupings of our various service offerings on an à la carte basis. We currently provide services to clients that operate in a range of vertical markets, including technology manufacturing, computer products, cosmetics, fragile goods, coins and collectibles, apparel, telecommunications, consumer electronics and consumer packaged goods, among others.

In the Service Fee model, we typically charge for our services on time and material basis, a cost-plus basis, a percent of shipped revenue basis, a time and materials, project or retainer basis for our professional services or a per transaction basis, such as a per labor hour basis for web-enabled customer contact center services and a per-item basis for fulfillment services. Additional fees are billed for other services. We price our services based on a variety of factors, including the depth and complexity of the services provided, the amount of capital expenditures or systems customization required, the length of contract and other factors.  

Many of our service fee contracts involve third-party vendors who provide additional services, such as package delivery. The costs we are charged by these third-party vendors for these services are often passed on to our clients. Our billings for reimbursements of these costs and other ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses include travel, shipping and handling costs and telecommunication charges and are included in pass-through revenue.

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Agent (Flash) Model. In our PFS Operations business unit, as an additional service, we offer the Agent, or Flash, financial model, in which our clients maintain ownership of the product inventory stored at our locations as in the Service Fee model. When a customer orders the product from our clients, a “flash” sale transaction passes product ownership to us for each order and we in turn immediately re-sell the product to the customer. The “flash” ownership exchange establishes us as the merchant of record, which enables us to use our existing merchant infrastructure to process sales to end customers, removing the need for the clients to establish these business processes internally, but permitting them to control the sales process to end customers. In this model, based on the terms of our current client arrangements, we record product revenue net of cost of product revenue as a component of service fee revenue in our consolidated statement of operations.

Retail Model. Our PFS Operations business unit also provides a Retail model which allows us to purchase inventory from the client. We place the initial and replenishment purchase orders with the client and take ownership of the product either upon shipment to or delivery to our facility. In this model, depending on the terms of our client arrangements, we may own the inventory and the accounts receivable arising from our product sales. Under the Retail model, depending upon the product category and sales characteristics, we may require the client to provide product price protection as well as product purchase payment terms, right of return, and obsolescence protection appropriate to the product sales profile. Depending on the terms of our client arrangements in the Retail model, we record in our consolidated statement of operations either: 1) product revenue as a component of product revenue, or 2) product revenue net of cost of product revenue as a component of service fee revenue. In general, we seek to structure client relationships in our Retail model under the net revenue approach to more closely align with our service fee revenue financial presentation and mitigate inventory ownership risk, although we have one client still operating under the gross revenue approach. Freight costs billed to customers are reflected as components of product revenue. This business model generally requires significant working capital, for which we have credit available either through credit terms provided by our clients or under senior credit facilities.

Currently, we are targeting growth within our Retail model to be through relationships with clients under which we can record service fee revenue in our consolidated statement of operations. These relationships are often driven by the sales and marketing efforts of the manufacturers and third party sales partners. In addition, as a result of certain operational restructuring of its business, our primary client relationship operating in the Retail model, Ricoh, has implemented, and will continue to implement, certain changes in the sale and distribution of Ricoh products. The changes have resulted, and are expected to continue to result, in reduced product revenues and profitability under our Retail model.

Growth is a key element to achieving our future goals, including achieving and maintaining sustainable profitability. Growth in our company is driven by two main elements: new client relationships and organic growth from existing clients. Within our LiveArea Professional Services segment, we focus our sales efforts on engaging with brands, retailers and manufacturers to perform discrete projects such as website design, platform selection and platform implementation and system integration projects.  We also focus our LiveArea sales efforts on engaging with brands, retailers and manufacturers to provide ongoing services such as digital marketing retainers and technology managed services engagements. Within our PFS Operations segment, we focus our sales efforts on larger contracts with brand-name companies within four primary target markets, health and beauty, home goods and collectibles, fashion, and consumer packaged goods. Consumer packaged goods require a longer duration to close but also have the potential to be higher quality and longer duration engagements. Within both segments, we focus our sales efforts on both new clients and also on existing clients where we believe opportunity exists to expand a client relationship to include additional services within the segment, across segments and/or across multiple geographies.  We continue to monitor and control our costs to focus on profitability. While we are targeting our new service fee contracts to yield incremental gross profit, we also expect to incur incremental investments in technology development, operational and support management and sales and marketing expenses to help generate growth.

Our expenses comprise primarily four categories: 1) cost of service fee revenue, 2) cost of product revenue, 3) cost of pass-through revenue and 4) selling, general and administrative expenses.

Cost of service fee revenue – consists primarily of compensation and related expenses for our web-enabled customer contact center services, international fulfillment and distribution services and professional, digital agency and technology services, and other fixed and variable expenses directly related to providing services under the terms of fee based contracts, including certain occupancy and information technology costs and depreciation and amortization expenses.

Cost of product revenue – consists of the purchase price of product sold and freight costs, which are reduced by certain reimbursable expenses. These reimbursable expenses include pass-through customer marketing programs, direct costs incurred in passing on any price decreases offered by vendors to cover price protection and certain special bids, the cost of products provided to replace defective product returned by customers and certain other expenses as defined under the distributor agreements.

Cost of pass-through revenue – the related reimbursable costs for pass-through expenditures are reflected as cost of pass-through revenue.

Selling, General and Administrative expenses – consist of expenses such as compensation and related expenses for sales and marketing staff, distribution costs (excluding freight) applicable to the Agent and the Retail model, executive, management and administrative personnel and other overhead costs, including certain occupancy and information technology costs, and depreciation and amortization expenses and acquisition related, restructuring and other costs.

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Monitoring and controlling our available cash balances and our expenses continues to be a primary focus. Our cash and liquidity positions are important components of our financing of both current operations and our targeted growth.

Operating Results

The following table discloses certain financial information for the periods presented, expressed in terms of dollars, dollar change, percentage change and as a percentage of total revenues (in thousands, except percentages):

 

Year Ended December 31, 2018 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2017

Segment Operating Data

PFS Operations (in thousands, except percentages)

 

 

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PFS Operations total revenues for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 increased by $4.9 million compared with the corresponding period in 2017. Service fee revenue increased by $2.4 million due to new and expanded client relationships, partially offset by the impact of client terminations, including the termination of certain lower-margin engagements. Product revenue, net, decreased by $6.3 million due to the revenue stream being primarily dependent on one client, which restructured its operations and discontinued certain product lines which has resulted, and is expected to continue to result, in reduced product revenue activity.  Pass-through revenue increased primarily as a result of freight related activity.  

PFS Operations gross margin improved to 18.4% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 as compared to 15.7% in the same period of the prior year primarily due to improved operational efficiency through enhanced warehouse technology capabilities, focus on higher margin service offerings, including project work, and the termination of certain lower margin client engagements, which did not meet our profitability objectives and were discontinued.

Direct operating expenses increased by $4.9 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 compared to the corresponding period in 2017. The increase was primarily due to higher personnel and facility related costs.

LiveArea Professional Services (in thousands, except percentages)

 

 

LiveArea Professional Services revenues for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 decreased by $5.6 million compared with the corresponding period in 2017. The decreases in revenues are primarily due to reduced technology services project activity for certain clients, as well as client terminations. 

 

LiveArea Professional Services gross margin increased slightly to 48.3% from 48.2% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 compared with the corresponding period in 2017.

Direct operating expenses decreased by $4.2 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 compared to the corresponding period in 2017. The decreases were primarily due to lower personnel costs attributable to our cost reduction efforts in response to lower revenues as well as reduced amortization of intangible assets of $1.8 million.  Excluding the decrease in amortization of intangible assets, direct contribution decreased by $0.2 million.

Corporate (in thousands, except percentages)

 

 

Unallocated corporate expenses decreased by $1.9 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2018 compared to the corresponding period in 2017. The decrease was primarily due to a $2.1 million decrease in earnout expense related to our final performance-based contingent payment applicable to our 2015 acquisition of CrossView, Inc. as well as reduced severance costs of $0.8 million, partially offset by an increase in stock-based compensation expenses of $0.7 million.  Excluding these expenses, unallocated corporate expenses increased by $0.3 million.

Income Taxes

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2018, we recorded a tax provision comprised primarily of $1.7 million related to the majority of our international operations, $0.6 million related to state income taxes, and $0.5 million associated with the tax amortization of goodwill relation to our CrossView acquisition. A valuation allowance has been provided for the majority of our domestic net deferred tax assets, which are primarily related to our net operating loss carryforwards, and for certain foreign deferred tax assets.

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On December 22, 2017, the United States government enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, commonly referred to as the Tax Reform Act. The Tax Reform Act included significant changes to the U.S. income tax system, including, but not limited to: a federal corporate rate reduction from 35% to 21%; limitations on the deductibility of interest expense and executive compensation; repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax (“AMT”); full expensing provisions related to business assets; creation of new minimum taxes, such as the base erosion anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”) and Global Intangible Low Taxed Income (“GILTI”) tax; and the transition of U.S. international taxation from a worldwide tax system to a modified territorial tax system, which resulted in a one-time U.S. tax liability on those earnings which have not previously been repatriated to the U.S. (the “Transition Tax”). The impacts of this legislation are outlined below:

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We currently believe our cash position, financing available under our credit facilities and funds generated from operations will satisfy our presently known operating cash needs, our working capital and capital expenditure requirements, our current debt and lease obligations, and additional loans to our subsidiaries, if necessary, for at least the next twelve months.

To obtain additional financing in the future, in addition to our current cash position, we plan to evaluate various financing alternatives including the sale of equity, utilizing capital or operating leases, borrowing under our credit facilities, expanding our current credit facilities or entering into new debt agreements. No assurances can be given we will be successful in obtaining any additional financing or the terms thereof.

Our cash position decreased in 2018 primarily due to payments made applicable to capital expenditures, acquisition-related contingencies and debt obligations, all of which combined exceeded our cash generated from operations.

Cash Flows from Operating Activities

During 2018, cash provided from operations was $11.6 million, compared to $11.1 million in 2017. Cash flow from operating activities increased primarily due to improvements in net income for the year ended December 31, 2018 as compared to the same period in 2017.

Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Cash used in investing activities included capital expenditures of $4.9 million and $4.6 million in the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, exclusive of property and equipment acquired under debt and capital lease financing, which consisted primarily of capitalized software costs and equipment purchases.

Capital expenditures have historically consisted of additions to upgrade our management information systems, development of customized technology solutions to support and integrate with our service fee clients and general expansion and upgrades to our facilities, both domestic and foreign. We expect to incur capital expenditures to support new contracts and anticipated future growth opportunities. Based on our current client business activity and our targeted growth plans, we anticipate our total investment in upgrades and additions to facilities and information technology solutions and services for the upcoming twelve months, including costs to implement new clients, will be approximately $7.0 million to $10.0 million, although additional capital expenditures may be necessary to support the infrastructure requirements of new clients. To maintain our current operating cash position, a portion of these expenditures may be financed through client reimbursements, debt, operating or capital leases or additional equity. We may elect to

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modify or defer a portion of such anticipated investments in the event that we do not obtain the financing results necessary to support such investments.

Cash Flows from Financing Activities

During 2018, cash used in financing activities was $9.9 million, compared to $14.7 million in 2017.  In both years, the cash used in financing activity was primarily related to the paydown of debt and capital lease obligations as well as the payout of performance-based contingent payments related to our prior year acquisitions.  

Working Capital

During 2018, our working capital increased to $22.9 million from $13.7 million at December 31, 2017, primarily related to income generated from operations before working capital changes, the refinancing of our U.S. Credit Agreement, which decreased the current portion of our long-term debt, and the reduction of our performance based contingent payment partially offset by capital expenditures and the reductions of our capital lease obligations.

Inventory Financing

To finance its distribution of Ricoh products in the U.S., Supplies Distributors has a short-term credit facility with IBM Credit LLC (“IBM Credit”) that provides financing for eligible inventory and certain receivables for up to $11.0 million. We have provided a collateralized guarantee to secure the repayment of this credit facility. The IBM Credit facility does not have a stated maturity and both parties have the ability to exit the facility following a 90-day notice.

This credit facility contains various restrictions upon the ability of Supplies Distributors and its subsidiaries to, among other things, merge, consolidate, sell assets, incur indebtedness, make loans, investments and payments to related parties (including entities directly or indirectly owned by PFSweb, Inc.), provide guarantees, make investments and loans, pledge assets, make changes to capital stock ownership structure and pay dividends, as well as financial covenants, such as annualized revenue to working capital, net profit after tax to revenue and total liabilities to tangible net worth, as defined, and are secured by all of the assets of Supplies Distributors, as well as a collateralized guaranty of PFSweb. Additionally, we are required to maintain a subordinated loan to Supplies Distributors of no less than $1.0 million, not maintain restricted cash of more than $5.0 million, are restricted with regard to transactions with related parties, indebtedness and changes to capital stock ownership. Furthermore, we are obligated to repay any over-advance made to Supplies Distributors or its subsidiaries under these facilities if they are unable to do so. We have also provided a guarantee of substantially all of the obligations of Supplies Distributors and its subsidiaries to IBM and Ricoh.

Debt and Capital Lease Obligations

U.S. Credit Agreement. In August 2015, we entered into a credit agreement (“Credit Agreement”) with Regions Bank, as agent for itself and one or more future lenders (the “Lenders”). Under the Credit Agreement, and subject to the terms set forth therein, the Lenders provided us with a revolving loan facility for up to $32.5 million and a term loan facility for up to $30 million.  Borrowings under the Credit Agreement accrued interest at a variable rate based on prime rate or Libor, plus an applicable margin.

On November 1, 2018, we entered into Amendment No.1 to our credit agreement with Regions Bank (the “Amended Facility”).  The Amended Facility provides for an increase in availability of our revolving loans to $60.0 million, with the ability for a further increase of $20.0 million to $80.0 million, and the elimination of the term loan.  Amounts outstanding under the term loan were reconstituted as revolving loans.  The Amended Facility also extends the maturity date to November 1, 2023.

In accordance with ASC 470, Debt (“ASC 470”), we recorded a $0.1 million loss on early extinguishment of debt in 2018 related to the Amended Facility.

As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, the weighted average interest rate on the revolving loan facility was 4.57% and 4.65%, respectively. As of December 31, 2017, the weighted average interest rate on the term loan facility was 4.05%. In connection with the Amended Facility, the Company paid $0.3 million of fees, which are being amortized through the life of the Amended Facility and are reflected as a net reduction in debt. The Amended Facility is secured by a lien on substantially all of the operating assets of the US entities and a pledge of 65% of the shares of certain of our foreign subsidiaries. The Amended Facility contains cross default provisions, various restrictions upon the Company’s ability to, among other things, merge, consolidate, sell assets, incur indebtedness, make loans and payments to subsidiaries, affiliates and related parties, make capital expenditures, make investments and loans, pledge assets, make changes to capital stock ownership structure, as well as financial covenants, as defined, of a minimum consolidated fixed charge ratio and a maximum consolidated leverage ratio.

Master Lease Agreements. The Company has various agreements that provide for leasing or financing transactions of equipment and other assets and will continue to enter into such arrangements as needed to finance the purchasing or leasing of certain equipment or other assets. Borrowings under these agreements, which generally have terms of three to five years, are generally secured by the related equipment, and in certain cases, by a Company parent guarantee.

Other than our capital and operating lease commitments, we do not have any other material financial commitments, although future client contracts may require capital expenditures and lease commitments to support the services provided to such clients.

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Debt Covenants

Certain of our credit facilities contain various financial and non-financial covenants, including covenants that restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness, create or permit liens on assets, engage in mergers or consolidations, and place restrictions on the transfer of assets or the payment of dividends between us and our subsidiaries.

To the extent we fail to comply with our debt covenants, including the financial covenant requirements and we are not able to obtain a waiver, the lenders would be entitled to accelerate the repayment of any outstanding credit facility obligations, and exercise all other rights and remedies, including sale of collateral. An acceleration of the repayment of our credit facility obligations may have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. We can provide no assurance we will have the financial ability to repay all such obligations. As of December 31, 2018, we were in compliance with all debt covenants. Further, non-renewal of any of our credit facilities may have a material adverse impact on our business and financial condition.

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

There are no off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, changes in financial condition, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources that is material to investors.

 

New Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 “Significant Accounting Policies” to the consolidated financial statements for our discussion about new accounting pronouncements adopted and those pending.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These accounting principles require us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of our financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. While we do not believe the reported amounts would be materially different, application of these policies involves the exercise of judgment and the use of assumptions as to future uncertainties and, as a result, actual results could differ from these estimates. If there is a significant unfavorable change to current conditions, it could result in a material adverse impact to our business, operating results and financial condition. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. We base our estimates on experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. All of our significant accounting policies are disclosed in the notes to our consolidated financial statements.

We have defined a critical accounting estimate as one that is both important to the portrayal of our financial condition and results of operations and requires us to make difficult, subjective or complex judgments or estimates about matters that are uncertain. During the past two years, we have not made any material changes in accounting methodology used to establish the critical accounting estimates discussed below. The following represent certain critical accounting policies that require us to exercise our business judgment or make significant estimates. In addition, there are other items within our consolidated financial statements that require estimation but are not deemed critical as defined above.

Revenue Recognition

We derive revenue primarily from services provided under contractual arrangements with our clients or from the sale of products under our distributor agreements. We recognize revenue in accordance with ASC 606, when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to our clients and customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration that we expect to receive in exchange for those goods or services.

We will often enter into contracts with clients and customers that contain multiple promises to transfer control of multiple products and/or services. To the extent a contract includes provisioning multiple products or services, we apply judgment to determine whether promised deliverables are capable of being distinct and are distinct in the context of the contract. If these criteria are not met, sales of different products or services are accounted for as a combined performance obligation. For arrangements with multiple distinct performance obligations, we allocate consideration among the performance obligations based on their relative standalone selling price. Standalone selling price is the price at which we would sell a promised good or service separately to our client and customers.

Our service fee revenue primarily relates to our order to cash, fulfillment, customer care, consulting, design, digital marketing and technology services.

We typically charge our service fee revenue on either a cost-plus basis, a percent of shipped revenue basis, a time and materials, project or retainer basis for our professional services, or a per transaction basis, such as a per item basis for fulfillment services or a per labor hour basis for web-enabled customer contact center services. Additional fees are billed for other services. For technology and digital agency services, we typically charge on a fixed cost basis based on an estimated maximum number of professional service labor hours or bill for each professional labor hour at a per hour price.  

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Within our PFS Operations unit, our performance obligations typically consist of standing ready to provide a service over a contract term. As such, our performance obligations within service fee revenue across the company are generally transferred to clients over time. A time-elapsed output measure is used to determine progress, with individual time increments representing a single series performance obligation. Variable consideration charged within these contracts is allocated to the individual reporting period in which the service was provided. Within our LiveArea Professional Services unit, our contracts are structured so that the amount the Company has a right to invoice corresponds directly with the value of our performance to date, we will elect the ‘as-invoiced’ practical expedient and recognize revenue as we have a right to invoice. If our contract is not structured such that it meets the criteria for this practical expedient, then we use an input measure of progress based on labor hours incurred to date to measure our progress to completion. The Company has determined that the above methods provide a faithful depiction of the transfer of services to the customer.

We perform set-up and integration services to support our fulfillment activities. When we determine these set-up and integration services do not meet the criteria for recognition as a separate performance obligation, any start up fees received represent a non-refundable up-front fee and are allocated to the other performance obligations within that contract. The Company recognizes revenue for non-refundable upfront implementation fees on a straight-line basis over the period between the initiation of the services through the end of the contract term. Related costs are capitalized as costs to fulfill the contract and are recognized over the expected performance period.

For contracts recognized over time, we recognize the estimated loss to the extent the project has been completed based on actual hours incurred compared to the total estimated hours.  A loss is recognized when the current estimate of the consideration we expect to receive, modified to include any variable consideration, is less than the current estimate of total costs for the contract.

In instances where revenue is derived from sales of third-party vendor services, we record revenue on a gross basis when we are a principal to the transaction and net of costs when we are acting as an agent between the customer or client and the vendor. Whether we are the principal or agent in the transaction is determined by whether we control the service being provided.

Depending on the terms of the customer arrangement, product revenue is recognized at a point in time when control transfers to the customer. This is either upon shipment of the product or when the customer receives the product. Product revenue is reported net of estimated variable consideration related to returns and allowances, which are estimated based upon historical return information. Management also considers any other current information and trends in making estimates. If actual sales returns, allowances and discounts are greater than estimated by management, additional expense may be incurred.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts

The determination of the collectability of amounts due from our clients and customers requires us to use estimates and make judgments regarding future events and trends, including monitoring our clients’ and customers’ payment history and current credit worthiness to determine that collectability is reasonably assured, as well as consideration of the overall business climate in which our clients and customers operate. Inherently, these uncertainties require us to make frequent judgments and estimates regarding our clients and customers’ ability to pay amounts due us to determine the appropriate amount of valuation allowances required for doubtful accounts. Provisions for doubtful accounts are recorded when it becomes evident the client or customer will not make the required payments at either contractual due dates or in the future. These provisions may be based on discussions with the client or customer or the age of the amount due.

In our Retail model, we also maintain an allowance for uncollectible vendor receivables, which arise from inventory returns to vendors, vendor rebates, price protections and other promotions. We determine the sufficiency of the vendor receivable allowance based upon various factors, including payment history and vendor communication. Amounts received from vendors may vary from amounts recorded because of potential non-compliance with certain elements of vendor programs. If our estimated allowances for uncollectible accounts or vendor receivables subsequently prove insufficient, an additional allowance may be required.

We believe our allowances for doubtful accounts are adequate to cover anticipated losses under current conditions; however, uncertainties regarding changes in the financial condition of our clients and customers, either adverse or positive, could impact the amount and timing of any additional provisions for doubtful accounts that may be required.

Inventory Reserves

Inventories (merchandise, held for resale, all of which are finished goods) are stated at the lower of weighted average cost or net realizable value. Under the Retail model, we assume responsibility for slow-moving inventory under certain distributor agreements, subject to certain termination rights, but have the right to return product rendered obsolete by engineering changes, as defined. We review inventories for impairment on a periodic basis, but at a minimum, annually. Recoverability of the inventory on hand is measured by comparisons of the carrying value to the fair value of the inventory. This requires us to record provisions and maintain reserves for excess or obsolete inventory. If write-downs of inventories are necessary, the cost basis of that inventory is adjusted. To determine these reserve amounts, we regularly review inventory quantities on hand and compare them to estimates of future product demand and market conditions. These estimates and forecasts inherently include uncertainties and require us to make judgments regarding potential outcomes. We believe our reserves are adequate to cover anticipated losses under current conditions; however, significant or unanticipated changes to our estimates and forecasts, either adverse or positive, could impact the amount and timing of any additional provisions for excess or obsolete inventory that may be required.

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Stock Compensation

We utilize our Employee Stock and Incentive Plan (the “Employee Plan”) to help attract, retain and incentivize qualified executives, key employees and non-employee directors to increase our shareholder value and help build and sustain growth. The Employee Plan provides for the granting of incentive awards in a variety of forms, such as the award of an option, stock appreciation right, restricted stock award, restricted stock unit, deferred stock unit, among other stock-based awards.

Compensation cost is measured based on the grant date fair value of the award. Depending on the conditions associated with the vesting of the award, compensation cost is recognized on a straight-line or graded basis, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period of each award.

We estimate the fair value of each option grant on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. For certain of the awards that have a market condition, we estimate the compensation cost using a Monte-Carlo simulation. The estimated fair value for awards involves assumptions for expected dividend yield, stock price volatility, risk-free interest rates and the expected life of the award.

If, in the future, we determine that another method of estimating an award’s fair value is more reasonable, or, if another method for calculating these input assumptions is prescribed by authoritative guidance, and, therefore, should be used to estimate expected volatility or expected term, the fair value calculated for our stock-based compensation could change significantly.

Income Taxes

The liability method is used for determining our income taxes, under which current and deferred tax liabilities and assets are recorded in accordance with enacted tax laws and rates. Under this method, the amounts of deferred tax liabilities and assets at the end of each period are determined using the tax rate expected to be in effect when taxes are actually paid or recovered. Valuation allowances are established to reduce deferred tax assets to their net realizable value when it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. In determining the need for valuation allowances, we have considered and made judgments and estimates regarding estimated future taxable income. These estimates and judgments include some degree of uncertainty and changes in these estimates and assumptions could require us to adjust the valuation allowances for our deferred tax assets. The ultimate realization of our deferred tax assets depends on the generation of sufficient taxable income in the applicable taxing jurisdictions. Although we believe our estimates and judgments are reasonable, actual results may differ, which could be material.

Because we operate in multiple countries, we are subject to the jurisdiction of multiple domestic and foreign tax authorities. Determination of taxable income in any jurisdiction requires the interpretation of the related tax laws and regulations and the use of estimates and assumptions regarding significant future events such as the amount, timing and character of deductions, permissible revenue recognition methods under the tax law and the sources and character of income and tax credits. Changes in tax laws, regulations, foreign currency exchange restrictions or our level of operations or profitability in each taxing jurisdiction could have an impact on the amount of income taxes that we provide during any given year.

Business Combinations

We account for business combinations under the acquisition method of accounting, which requires the assets and liabilities to be recorded at their respective fair values as of the acquisition date in the consolidated financial statements. The determination of estimated fair value may require us to make significant estimates and assumptions, including estimates of future financial performance of the acquired entity. The purchase price is the fair value of the total consideration conveyed to the seller and the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of the acquired identifiable net assets, where applicable, is recorded as goodwill. The results of operations of an acquired business are included in our consolidated financial statements from the date of acquisition. Costs associated with the acquisition of a business are expensed in the period incurred.

Long-Lived Assets, Goodwill and Intangible Assets

Long-lived assets include property, intangible assets, goodwill and certain other assets. We make judgments and estimates in conjunction with the carrying value of these assets, including amounts to be capitalized, depreciation and amortization methods and useful lives. Additionally, we review long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. We review goodwill for impairment at least annually, during the fourth quarter. We record impairment losses in the period in which we determine the carrying amount is not recoverable. Recoverability of assets to be held and used is measured by a comparison of the carrying amount of an asset to future net cash flows expected to be generated by the asset. This may require us to make judgments regarding long-term forecasts of our future revenues and costs related to the assets subject to review.

Not applicable.  

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Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Index to Consolidated Financial Statements

 

 

 

 

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

 

Shareholders and Board of Directors

 

PFSweb, Inc.

505 Millennium Dr.

Allen, TX 75013

 

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of PFSweb, Inc. (the “Company”) and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for the years then ended, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company and subsidiaries at December 31, 2018 and 2017, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2018, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) and our report dated March 18, 2019 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

 

/s/ BDO USA, LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2015.

Dallas, Texas

March 18, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

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PFSWEB, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

AS OF DECEMBER 31

(In thousands, except share data)