Personal Creations

Retail Online Integration's fifth annual list of the leading women executives in omnichannel retail features some of the brightest minds in the industry. This year's nominees were chosen for being in a top-level position within an omnichannel retail organization, along with several other criteria, including their scope of responsibility, achievements within their own companies, and their involvement within the retail industry. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn about the career paths of some of today's leading retail experts, as well as find out what they believe will be the top tip for omnichannel retail success in 2015.

FTD Companies Inc. will acquire the Provide Commerce floral and gifting business from Liberty Interactive Corp. for $430 million in cash and stock. FTD will obtain Provide Commerce's e-commerce brands, including ProFlowers, Shari's Berries and Personal Creations. FTD says the efficiencies and resources created by this acquisition will allow it to further invest in new products, services and technology. The combination is expected to generate more than $25 million in annual synergies within 36 months of closing, with a goal of creating incremental value for FTD stockholders over time.

Catalogers’ Updates • Gander Mountain: Twelve years since it last mailed a catalog, this hunting, fishing, outdoor apparel, and lifestyle products and services marketer has returned to the catalog industry. In late April, Gander mailed a 324-page catalog from its Overton’s subsidiary containing products from Overton’s, Gander Mountain and others to more than 2 million customers. Plans call for catalogs carrying exclusively Gander Mountain products to be mailed later this year. The company also expects to convert its informational Web site into a transactional one later this year. • Dell: The personal computer marketer continued its recent cost-cutting initiative by laying off 250 workers

Problem: Executives at Personal Creations catalog were unhappy with the performance of their outsourced e-mail marketing program. Solution: They implemented iBuilder to manage e-mail marketing internally. Results: Annual e-mail sales increased 70 percent, sales per e-mail went up 10 to 15 percent and e-mail marketing costs were reduced by more than 50 percent. After outsourcing to various e-mail service providers for two years, officials at Personal Creations were displeased with the performance of their program, including production time, distribution methods and service costs. They decided to bring their e-mail marketing program in-house. “We felt we could do a better job managing