eBay Seller of Specialty DVDs Sees Brisk Growth

Receiving Volume Discounts One Reason for Boon

NEW YORK, NY -- Unless you're an experienced eBay user or avant-garde film buff, you may not be familiar with Glacier Bay. This three-year-old company is the largest seller of DVDs on eBay (glacierbaydvd.com), selling new, specialty and hard-to-find DVDs and soundtrack CDs.

Randy Smythe, Glacier Bay founder and president, began dabbling on eBay in the late 1990s, selling his son's rejected Pokémon cards. Today, Smythe sells specialty and hard-to-find DVDs and CDs to collectors and aficionados nationwide and internationally, boasting more than 300,000 customers and hosting 10,000-20,000 auctions per week -- with sales increasing 22% in 2004 and forecasted to increase over 50% in 2005.

Here's how Glacier Bay's business model functions: it lists a DVD on eBay for live auction. When the auction is complete and the bidder's payment method is confirmed, Glacier Bay processes the order the same day.

Up until two years ago, "processing the order" involved picking the item from their warehouse, packing it, applying postage and then transporting multiple bins of packages to the U.S. Postal Service. "We didn't sort the mail to achieve discounted postage rates," Smythe said. "We just metered each mail piece and dropped it off at the post office for delivery." With a 200% sales growth projection and mail volume exceeding 700 small parcels per day in 2003, costs were beginning to add up. To remain competitive on eBay, Smythe wanted volume pricing, better speed and most importantly, the ability to track his packages.

With DHL Smart & GlobalMail, Glacier Bay could consolidate its shipments with other mailpieces bound for the same destination and benefit from USPS volume discounts -- an immediate cost savings.

Additionally, DHL Smart & GlobalMail reviewed the contents and weight of Smythe's deliveries and suggested alternative delivery methods. A DVD and its packaging weighs approximately 5 oz. and qualifies for SmartMail Lightweight Parcel service. With this service, Smythe would save 10% on each mail piece and achieve delivery within 2 to 5 days.

Though a majority of Glacier Bay's orders are single DVDs, it has a large percentage of people who purchase multiple DVDs (up to 40) -- a package that qualifies for SmartMail Media Mail service. With DHL Smart & GlobalMail's drop shipment capabilities, Smartmail Media Mail deliveries arrive within 4 to 9 days, an improvement on the delivery times for Glacier Bay. Because of Glacier Bay's efficiency and the partnership with DHL Smart & GlobalMail, the company is enjoying speedy delivery, cost savings and package tracking on all their media mail and parcels -- which now numbers approximately 1,000 pieces daily.

For more information: 1-866-616-MAIL (616-6245) contact@dhlglobalmail.com www.dhlglobalmail.com