Dreams Inc.

Star quality┬áDreams Inc. believes that building a talented team and designing an innovative game plan works as well in selling sports gear as it does in sports itself, Keith Regan learns. Thanks to an almost insatiable appetite by consumers for the apparel and related gear of their favorite teams and players, the sports licensed product and memorabilia business is a massive one, worth approximately $14.5 billion a year. But the traditional nature of the business has often made it a challenging one as well. Because demand for products is spread out geographically and across such a wide range of products, the licensed products business has suffered from relatively low velocity, creating challenges for retailers and manufacturers alike. Through its various channels, Dreams currently sells more than 229,000 individual SKUsÔÇöfrom shirts and hats to shower curtains and doormats, license plate holders and autographed baseballs. With such a wide array of products bearing scores of different team logos from the National Football League and Major League Baseball among others, and an even larger universe of individual player names and numbers, even the best-selling item accounts for less than one-tenth of one percent of total sales. Dreams Inc. has sought to overcome these challenges and in the process has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the space and on the Internet as well. DreamsÔÇÖ retail division was named one of the fastest-growing e-commerce concerns in 2007 by Internet Retailer magazine. The publicly traded, vertically integrated holding companyÔÇöbrands include FansEdge, Field of Dreams, Mounted Memories, Star Struck, Pro Sports Memorabilia, Fandalia and Unique ImagesÔÇöoperates across multiple channels, running catalogs and brick-and-mortar stores in addition to some 40 Web sites, including several it operates for top Internet brands. Kevin Bates, president of the retail division, says what has made the company successful is the quality of its team and the passion all the members shareÔÇönot necessarily for sports and sports-related products, but to ÔÇ£be the absolute best at retailing within our specific marketplace.ÔÇØBates recognized early on that the Internet offered a way to aggregate demand that had traditionally been spread out or had been unfulfilled. ÔÇ£If you were a Florida Gators fan and you moved to New York or Chicago, you might have been out of luck getting your hands on a hat or a jersey until the Internet came along,ÔÇØ he says. ÔÇ£Through our back-end technology, weÔÇÖre able to share inventory across the multitude of brands that we own and channels that we operate in. In that respect we have overcome many of the traditional challenges associated with low-velocity inventory. We took that to the next level when we started our syndication business, as we now run many other Web sites where people can shop for these items, which can completely change the economics of the business,ÔÇØ Bates adds. ÔÇ£As long as weÔÇÖre the best at what we do in our niche marketplace, there isnÔÇÖt a company in our market who would be better off without us.ÔÇØThose companies include radio stations and Web portals, magazines and newspapers such as AOL, Sporting News and the Baltimore Sun, Majestic Athletic, and even the sites for specific athletes such as Dan Marino, Ben Roethlisberger, Larry Bird and Pete Rose. Dreams Inc. serves them with a retail model built on experience and extensive in-house technological development that has given the company a significant arsenal of specialized software to run its retail operations. The companyÔÇÖs in-house software development has created customized E-commerce, WMS, CRM (customer relationship management) and order-routing systems that boost efficiency and are inherently scalable. ÔÇ£As we continue to strive for constant improvement, itÔÇÖs good to know there isnÔÇÖt anything we canÔÇÖt do, because we built our back-end and front-end system to be flexible,ÔÇØ Bates says. The spirit of always trying to grow and stretch is evidenced in the companyÔÇÖs operations. In its brick-and-mortar stores, it recently deployed a fleet of high-definition, touch-screen kiosks that enable shoppers to access the companyÔÇÖs full array of some 229,000 separate product SKUs. Those stores often host athlete signing eventsÔÇösome 270 were staged in 2008ÔÇöand soon Dreams will partner with AOL to create virtual versions of those events, enabling Web viewers to see an athlete signing an item for them from wherever they may be. The company is constantly improving its own marketing efforts as well, using its systems to enable highly personalized and customized messages to be sent through e-mail. For instance, a shopper who buys a toddler a size 3 Boston Red Sox jersey this year will receive a promotional e-mail in about a year with a special offer on a size 4 jersey for the most popular Red Sox player. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre always looking to reach the customer at the right time with the right message,ÔÇØ says Bates. Reaching for excellence is preached from the top of the company all the way down. Every Friday, customer service representatives who handle incoming phone calls have 360-degree reviews in which they critique their own calls as well as those of fellow workers, with the call center manager and quality assurance manager on hand. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve gotten great feedback on that. At first it can be a bit awkward, but people soon realize they can learn a lot from that process,ÔÇØ adds Bates, who joined Dreams Inc. when it bought his online licensed products and memorabilia company, FansEdge, which he founded after working in the technology consulting field for ten years.DreamsÔÇÖ Web sites offer same-day shipping up to 5:00pm Eastern time on most purchases, making it unique in the industry as well, says Bates. And a culture of fun is bred at the companyÔÇÖs headquarters outside Chicago, where Dreams recently moved into a former Crate & Barrel facility, where employees have ample space for recreation in their spare time, including an under-construction fun room with table tennis, pool, large HDTVs, Xbox 360s and a climbing wall. The culture is a big reason why Bates believes the company will still manage to record double-digit growth rates this year, despite an ailing economy. ÔÇ£We believed from the start that if you focus on building a great team with the right attitude and people who believe in the company and the vision and get enough of those people all pushing in the same direction, you can make anything happen,ÔÇØ says Bates. ÔÇ£It all stems from the roots of the company. The deeper the roots, the taller the tree can grow.ÔÇØ ÔÇô Editorial research by Amber Russo┬á