A local company is hiring more than 100 people in anticipation of the holidays and a facility expansion.

ShopHQ Fulfillment Center, 4811 Nashville Road, hosted two career fairs this week to fill about 140 positions. ShopHQ has 100 seasonal job openings and 30 to 40 full-time jobs in the customer solutions center.

Amanda Costellow, human resources manager for ShopHQ, said the company is trying to prepare for the usual holiday rush of business.

“We’re doing another last push before Christmas,” Costellow said.

ShopHQ is a 24/7 distribution direct-to-customer facility and customer solutions center – or call center. The company had a job fair Wednesday for seasonal hires, which include positions in order packing, order picking and the inventory control department. The Thursday job fair for customer solutions team members will help prepare ShopHQ for its expansion, which will include a new call center.

The approximately 300,000-square-foot expansion is expected to add more than 100 part-time jobs and up to 150 full-time jobs, according to a May news release from the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce. The project will bring a total capital investment of $25 million to the region.

Skeletal framing for the expansion – which will include warehouse space and amenities, such as a new cafeteria – stands beside ShopHQ. The project is expected to be complete by late spring 2015, Costellow said.

ShopHQ employs about 550 people at the Bowling Green facility, Costellow said. In addition to the fulfillment center building, ShopHQ is also using warehouse space at a separate location a few miles away. Once the expansion is complete, Costellow said ShopHQ can move everything under one roof.

“It’s like when a family gets a new house,” Costellow said. “Our family has outgrown the current house that we’re in.”

Those who are hired as order pickers will have to be comfortable using power equipment, and order packers will be required to match merchandise to invoices.

Customer solutions team members help customers place orders.

“It’s very customer service-oriented,” Costellow said of the customer solutions center. “You’re not seeing the customer face to face, but you still have to have the nice customer service relationship.”

The jobs could pay between $9.76 per hour to $11 or more per hour, Costellow said.

Costellow said employees have various opportunities at ShopHQ, including earning premium pay for working weekends, third shift or in the warehouse when call volume is down – known as a dual-skill opportunity.

Rachel Billa has been with ShopHQ for two and a half years and has been an assistant manager of customer relations in the customer solutions center for a year and a half. She said the company provides employees with resources to help customers to the best of their ability. Call center team members’ duties include looking up items online that have already been shown on TV that day, watching a TV screen to see what items are being showed at the time and matching product numbers to the item the customers refer to.

“Your job is to find solutions for your customer by any means possible and making sure the customer leaves with a premium customer experience,” Billa said. “I don’t just answer phone calls. I find solutions for my customers.”

The call center has more than 100 customer service agents who address questions or concerns after an order is placed. There are also about 90 at-home agents, Billa said, who specialize in “order capture” from their home and place an order for a customer.

Billa said she’s excited about the expansion, the new call center and getting more employees.

“Every company has goals, and we’ll continue to get quality applicants and employees here who can get us to where we want to be,” Billa said. “There’s so much stuff we’re doing now to prepare us. I think there’s a lot of things in the next six months that we’re all looking forward to.”

As more employees come to ShopHQ, Billa said she thinks they will be just as pleased with the atmosphere and environment of the workplace as she has been.

“It’s like coming to work with your family and your friends,” Billa said. “It’s coming to work and knowing that your work is appreciated and there’s always someone in your corner.”

— Follow business reporter Monica Spees on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.