Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Belk Renews Partnership with eBay Enterprise Leveraging Omnichannel to Manage Customer Service

December 22, 2014

As those of us in the contact center solutions business are almost painfully aware, the term de jure in our community is for better or for worse OMNICHANNEL.  It rapidly displaced “Multi-Channel” to describe being able to interact with customers according to their preferences, i.e., phone call, chat, text and now video.  In fact, isn’t it amazing how the adoption of jargon in our industry is so much faster than the adoption of the solutions they describe? To be honest, I have always had an affinity for 360 degree touch points, but one word descriptions always win the marketing vocabulary wars.


The reason to bring this up is that the omnichannel business is big and growing bigger and not just in size of market, but also size of customers and size of vendors looking for engagements of their own.  A case in point is news that King of Prussia, PA-based eBay Enterprise, an eBay Inc. company, has an extended multiyear agreement with Charlotte, NC-based Belk Inc., the nation’s largest privately owned department store company.

This is both an extension of an existing relationship as well as an extension of capabilities provided. As part of the agreements, eBay Enterprise will continue to provide Belk with multi-site customer support to scale with Belk’s continual growth. “eBay Enterprise has exemplified our southern hospitality motto and has helped us drive customer satisfaction over the years.”

Belk first partnered with eBay Enterprise in 2008 with the launch of Belk.com. Since then, Belk has increased its online business significantly and eBay Enterprise has continued to support that growth by providing customer sales and service solutions through various contact channels.

For those who might be unaware of eBay Enterprise’s omnichannel capabilities, the company is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa. and has offices in Austin, Barcelona, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Shanghai. It owns and operates 3 million square feet of fulfillment space and four call centers domestically and internationally and focuses on four operations solutions areas for retail customer: omnichannel operations, fulfillment, customer care and store-based fulfillment. Any of its solutions can be provided on a standalone basis, or bundled together in a larger suite of commerce solutions.

“We pride ourselves on providing an excellent shopping experience and unparalleled customer service,” said Ivy Chin, Belk’s Senior Vice President of Ecommerce. “eBay Enterprise has exemplified our southern hospitality motto and has helped us drive customer satisfaction over the years.”

eBay Enterprise ensures a consistent Belk branded experience by using proven management tools and leveraging best practices in the service center. “Customer service can enhance or destroy the consumer experience, which is why we continually focus on providing the leading technology and resources to provide exceptional service in the client’s brand voice,” said Tom Barone, Head of Omnichannel Operations, eBay Enterprise.

With the pace of order to delivery picking up thanks to things like one-hour service delivery being pioneered in major urban centers by several companies, the latest being Amazon who has started with one zip code in the heart of New York City in Manhatten, reliance on operational solutions that are fast and scale are only going to become more critical for retailers.  After all, speed of delivery is a major part of customer consideration and the overall customer experience so leaving the heavy lifting to the experts in customer care and logistics is going to be another big trend to follow in 2015. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle



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