eBags Adds Two High Profile Executives

"More good news for eBags going forward." Eliot Cobb

eBags Adds Two High Profile Executives to its Strategic Advisory Board

PR Newswire

December 09, 2015

Mike Edwards, eBags President and CEO, announced that Faisal Masud, Executive Vice President, Global E-commerce at Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) and Scott Henry, Chief Financial Officer at Magic Leap, have joined eBags' Strategic Advisory Board.

Edwards commented, "We are excited to have Faisal and Scott join our Strategic Advisory Board. Both bring a wealth of entrepreneurial and operational experience as well as an understanding of what it takes to excel in the fast-paced technology environment. Faisal and Scott have held senior leadership positions at some of the most progressive and disruptive global brands, including Staples, Amazon, eBay, Magic Leap, and Beats by Dr. Dre."

Masud has over a decade of digital experience, building global e-commerce solutions that drive growth and improve the customer experience. Prior to leading the digital efforts at Staples, Masud was vice president and general manager at Groupon, Inc., where he managed Groupon Goods' strategy and execution in more than 35 countries, and directly coordinated all functions for that unit, including merchandising, inventory, marketing, engineering and operations. Masud also held executive positions at eBay-PayPal and Amazon.

Henry is currently CFO at Magic Leap, a startup that has raised more than $540 million, and which is developing a Mixed Reality computing platform that will enable people to interact with the world in ways never before possible. Prior to Magic Leap, Henry held CFO roles at Beats Music and Beats by Dr. Dre. He joined Beats in 2011 and led the company's transition from a licensing company to an independent global manufacturer. In early 2014, Henry transitioned to the CFO position at Beats Music, the company he played an essential role in forming within Beats, where he helped lead the company through the launch of the Beats branded music streaming service, the overall transformation from an application development company to operational business and the ultimate acquisition of the company by Apple Inc. in 2014.

Before Beats, Henry served as CFO at several major companies, including Borders Group and Las Vegas Sands. Earlier in his career, Henry worked as an investment banker for some of the world's largest financial institutions including Salomon Brothers, ABN Amro, ING Barings and Prudential Securities.

eBags also announced that the first week in December established a new company sales record and Cyber Monday was its highest sales day ever. eBags credits its holiday success to partnering with brands to offer exclusive deals, strong demand for eBags branded product, and a commitment to the mobile site experience which saw huge sales gains.

About eBags

eBags is the leading online retailer of handbags, luggage, backpacks, and accessories. With over 25 million bags sold and 3.2 million customer reviews, eBags features 67,000 products from 600 brands, including Michael Kors, kate spade, Tumi, Samsonite, Travelpro, Fjallraven, Kenneth Cole, The North Face, Patagonia, and more. For more information, visit www.eBags.com.

Wikipedia: Eliot Cobb

Eliot Cobb is a Co-Founder of eBags.com (started in 1998), and the original CFO and Secretary. Prior to eBags, Cobb was the Vice President of Finance for Wherehouse Music, a national record retailer with over 300 stores located in Los Angeles, CA.


Source: wikipedia
eBags is an online retailer of handbags, luggage, backpacks, laptop bags, and accessories based in Greenwood Village, Colorado near Denver. The main website, eBags.com, carries bags and accessories from more than 500 brands including Samsonite, JanSport, Kate Spade, Fossil, and Nike. eBags also operates both Handbags.com and the eBags Corporate Sales site and offers its own private label products under the name The eBags Brand.

History

Five people founded eBags in the late spring of 1998: Jon Nordmark, Peter Cobb, Frank Steed, Andy Youngs, and Eliot Cobb. The first four worked more than 50 years collectively at Samsonite. Eliot Cobb worked as VP of Finance at Wherehouse Music, a national music retailer.

The company purchased two domains, eLuggage.com and eBags.com, not knowing which domain they would use. Ultimately they chose eBags.com because it lent more opportunity to expand into multiple categories. The website eBags.com launched on March 1, 1999 with seven brands including Samsonite, JanSport, and Skyway luggage. The focus was primarily on luggage due to the backgrounds of the founders.

From summer 1999, eBags' starting experiencing rapid growth. Much of the early success of eBags can be attributed to three strategies: a drop ship model, customer reviews, and an outsourced call center. eBags drop-shipped most products direct from manufacturers to consumers. This reduced the company's inventory risk. The company still drop-ships products, but a portion of the business has moved to an inventory model which has allowed them to work with a wider selection of brands. In addition to lower inventory costs, eBags lowered operating costs by outsourcing their call center outsourced to the Philippines, although today it is back in the U.S. Finally, the company focused on garnering customer reviews which was a relatively new concept in e-commerce in 1999.

Following the website launch, three events caused cash to dip: the "dot com bomb" of 2000, the recession of 2001, and the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. September 11 specifically caused eBags' luggage sales to slow to 2% growth for the next six months. To recharge the growth, eBags diversified into handbags and purses, business cases, sport bags, and backpacks. This allowed the company to rely on more daily use brands like Kathy Van Zeeland, Tignanello, Perlina, Stone Mountain, and Eastpak.

In October 2004, eBags launched eBags.co.uk with the intent of expanding further into Europe at a later time. The eBags UK offices were located in Cambridge, England. That year marked eBags' expansion of its brand representation to more than 600 total in the United States and Europe. eBags.co.uk was later closed in December 2008 and the company focus returned to growing the main site, eBags.com. By the end of 2008, eBags passed $100 million in annual gross orders.

In Fall 2011, prior to the start of holiday season, eBags moved its call center operations back to the U.S. They currently use in-house employees to handle calls, and contracted with HGS Ltd. to handle overflow. The shift allowed the company to shave about 34% off its customer care expenses because the U.S.-based customer service representatives were able to resolve customer complaints more efficiently. American customer service reps shaved about a minute and 20 seconds from each call and resolved customer issues on the first contact 80% of the time, compared with 69% for calls handled in the Philippines.

Today eBags.com continues to sell bags from over 500 brands but now also offers accessories including jewelry, hats, scarves, and camping gear. As of 2015, they have sold over 23 million bags and have over 3 million reviews on the website. i.e. brands such as Samsonite, Tumi and Travelpro.

Eliot Cobb: eBags Reaches 25 Million Bags Sold Mark

Subject: eBags Celebrates 25 Million Bags Sold - Congratulations to the founders Jon Nordmark, Peter Cobb, Frank Steed, Andy Youngs, and Eliot Cobb - You had the vision !

DENVER, Feb. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- eBags.com, the largest online retailer of luggage, backpacks, handbags, and accessories, announces delivering its 25 millionth bag sold, a North Face Borealis backpack, to a customer in Laurel, MD.

Peter Cobb, co-founder and EVP of eBags said, "Hitting the 25 million milestone is remarkable. It's gratifying to enhance our customers' lives, whether via their vacations, business trips, or everyday commutes to work, school, or the gym.  A fun fact: if each bag sold was placed side by side, they would extend 7,000 miles, or from San Francisco to Athens, Greece."

eBags, which launched March 1999, also announced finishing 2015 with record sales. According to President and CEO Mike Edwards, the company's momentum remains strong.  He said, "The progress we made in the fourth quarter with 20% more products, launching Innovation Destination, improvements to our website, and the focus on mobile optimization, has led to positive first quarter results as well. Customers are responding to our team's efforts."

About eBags

eBags is the leading online retailer of handbags, luggage, backpacks, and accessories. With over 25 million bags sold and 3.2 million customer reviews, eBags features 67,000 products from 600 brands, including Michael Kors, kate spade, Tumi,Samsonite, Travelpro, Fjallraven, Kenneth Cole, The North Face, Patagonia, and more. For more information, visit www.eBags.com.