‘Tis the Season

For a while, it appeared he would do just that. Starting the company with “a balance of about $50 to my name,” Harris helped guide it to $5 million in annual sales, offering 10,000 SKUs and mailing more than 2 million catalogs. But one major error brought it all crashing down.

Because the company grew so rapidly, it quickly outgrew its own in-house fulfillment capabilities. So Harris chose to outsource fulfillment. “We went with a new company that promised us a turnkey solution for inbound telesales as well as fulfillment,” he recalls. But problems began almost immediately.