eBags Reviews in Denver, CO Area

Pros

Great benefits, inlcuding time off, health, vision, options, dental, etc
Great people
Good benefits for bags and partner companies
Work from home if weather is bad

Cons

Limited opportunity for advancement in company
Salaries are not high in exchange for other things, such as benefits, casual work environment, good balance if that is what you are looking for

Advice to Senior Management

Influence the teams to work harder
Performance based bonuses
Increase opportunities for advancement within the company
Negotiate higher pay for less benefits with new employees (if they want)

Pros

eBags is a great company founded by a great all around guy, Jon Nordmark. Many of the existing comments on this site address the upside of working there. The people are passionate, the work ethic of many departments is laudable, and it's fun to be part of a company that's widely considered to be an internet pioneer. There are not a ton of other ecommerce opportunities in Denver, and eBags is probably one of the best.

Being respected in your industry for holding a position at a leading e-retailer like eBags is great. Meeting industry peers, luminaries and counterparts also a plus.

When it was still around, the international part of the business was excellent experience for all involved.

Cons

It's pretty clear from the existing reviews that eBags has had troubled times in senior management. Although Jon Nordmark's enthusiasm and passion for the business was great, his leadership skills were questionable at best and his ability to eliminate focus and distract the work force were unquestionably the worst I've ever seen.

Recently, eBags turned over much of its executive staff, losing its head of merchandising, two CTOs (one of which was also head of marketing), and its CEO. The board of directors probably acted with relief when Mr. Nordmark resigned...

I am not aware of the facts surrounding the previous assertion that the former CTO's relationship with the HR staff was a problem, but I did find eBags' former HR team to be exceptional and was amazed at the business results the prior CTO was able to achieve when taking over marketing. Personal and / or professional differences aside, it was a sad day when marketing lost that individual.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the founding CEO (done). Replace with a competent, turn-around CEO (remains to be seen). Eliminate under-performing executives . Reduce turnover. Be more open and honest with the employees.

Pros

It was a great place to learn more and challenge oneself. Always some way to make an improvement. The CEO's open door policy and his every-day involvement with all of the staff made it seem like a much smaller company than it was. The discount was awesome!

Cons

The 60 hour work weeks were lousy. There were also some pretty drastic changes with middle and upper management that greatly altered the personality of the company. Now that the changes have had a chance to sink in, I hope that the company continues to be successful.

Advice to Senior Management

Let the bright and intelligent people you have hired do their jobs, and let them tell you what's in their way. The bottom line may be important, but the customer is the most important.

Pros

The way eBags has aggressively expanded, yet managed the profits. Working at eBags has been like getting an MBA in emerging technologies. Being part of an environment that has grown every single year has been a positive too.

Cons

Not everyone trusts HR. Rather than building the company, that area has succeeded in silo-ing departments and creating a political environment. The emphasis in the past year has shifted away from building culture. The IT area has struggled, too, partly due to the former CTO's close tie to HR.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a strong replacement for Jon, who left in April 2008. Someone who will be a rock solid CEO who has a moral compass and integrity, not to mention strong online insights. Concentrate on building a good HR area, where everyone feels comfortable giving feedback, where HR cares about company values and culture, and where HR is focused on everyone, not just their friends. Move HR away from Finance. Build up the IT organization again, as it struggled under the past CTO who had a tight bond with HR.

Pros

Creative company known for executing some breakthrough ideas on the internet. The company has fought through all the toughest times, including 2000 and 2001. The way the business model works, with drop ship, is why the company operates so well today. That is a credit to the company's founders. The company also is one of the best at generating consumer feedback, and was one of the first to ask shoppers for ratings and reviews.

Cons

IT needs to be improved. The company is operating on old technology that needs to be updated.

Advice to Senior Management

The current top management is transitioning. Need more leadership in marketing, IT and operations which is slow to progress. Former CEO Jon Nordmark's enthusiasm and vision will be missed, as he moved on months ago.

Pros

Working for a winner is what I liked about eBags. eBags record speaks for itself. Over nine years, it grew from nothing to about $100 million in revenues on very little money. It became consistently profitable in 2002. During a time when so many heavily funded e-retailers and Internet startups went bankrupt (Webvan, PlantRX, Boo.com, MVP.com -- you name it), eBags thrived. It never had to go back to the well for new financing, preserving all the stock option value for past and current employees. Sure, eBags made a few mistakes, but it also pulled the plug fast on ideas when they didn't work. Some of the real innovations eBags propelled, which I think are notable include: first to do drop ship in bags, one of the first five e-retailers to capture consumer written product reviews, one of the first to manage promo emails, one of the first to do an inhouse photo studio, one of the first to do video within a retail environment. The company was very nimble and capable of moving from one marketing trend to another, as spam filters came up, Google overtook Yahoo, and other gyrations rocked the online world.

Cons

You need to be able to roll with the punches if you work at eBags. Internet trends change fast, and you need to be able to adapt to them. SEO changes. Google algorythms change. You just need to be an open minded thinker.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to drive toward the company vision. Become the world's leading seller of bags.

Pros

Nice hard working people, company culture. Good turnaround of IT group from being totally unproductive to a professional group of developers.

Cons

Politics and infighting between top execs. Still run as a start up but real professional leadership is required. No strategy. Priorities change every week.

Advice to Senior Management

Come up with a long term strategy and follow it. Eliminate the infighting by creating clear responsibilities, and respect these. Fire people who do not deliver.