Despite the tough economic conditions Australian retailers are facing at the moment, e-commerce site eStore has signalled its intentions to acquire local firms to expand over the next year.
With many traditional retailers struggling to boost sales this Christmas season, it’s rare to hear of a small e-retail startup attempting to boost local market share by acquiring firms, but eStore has revealed that’s exactly what they’re planning to do next year with the hopes of becoming a bigger part of the online technology market.
Australian startup eStore reveals expansion plans for 2011. (Credit: iTech Report
“We intend to be the market leader for technology products online. Unlike the physical retailers this is our core focus, so this is a market we intend on winning,” an eStore spokesperson told iTech Report.
“Our goal is to continue providing our customers with a diverse range of quality technology products at the very best prices, giving our customers greater choice and value for money.”
Formerly known as City Software, the site — that now lists more than 15,000 products and employs 60 people across the country — recently unveiled an all-new name and design in a bid to “better reflect” the company’s offerings.
“The reason for this was to better reflect the company’s move over the years from selling primarily software to our current business model of selling over 15,000 quality IT, technology and digital products,” the company representative said.
The company has one warehouse in Australia, found in Victoria, but says having just the one “provides us significant cost efficiencies,” with the organisation working “closely” with couriers to optimise delivery times across the country.
The site meanwhile has around 100,000 unique visitors each month, with the spokesperson confirming that number has grown by almost 50% since last year. eStore however, wants to grow even faster in order to achieve their market-winning goal and is now on the lookout for local companies they can acquire.
“Financially, eStore.com.au is in a very strong position and we’re currently on the lookout for potential companies selling technology products online that we can add to the eStore.com.au portfolio,” Lorenzo Coppa, Chief Executive Officer of eStore.com.au said in a statement on Monday.
“We will be mainly looking at online based companies selling technology based products. In terms of niche, size, location and profitability we are keeping an open mind.”
While the company was unable to disclose sales figures for the Christmas season so far — which is expected by many to be the biggest yet for online retailers — they were able to disclose that it is looking very “strong for us.”
And when asked if the recent news that traditional retail giants such as Myer and Harvey Norman were looking at creating offshore online stores to avoid paying GST therefore allowing for cheaper prices would affect or worry eStore, iTech Report was told they company themselves were investigating undertaking exactly the same thing.
“Like Harvey Norman it is something we are exploring the viability of,” the spokesperson said.
