Online sales up dramatically at Esquire

Any aversion to online purchasing seems to be rapidly dissipating if online sales at Esquire Technologies are anything to go – with the digital lifestyle and technology distributor reporting that it had notched up more than 10 000 on-line sales in the last six months, an increase that has been described as “meteoric”.

This is according to Esquire CEO, Mahomed Cassim, who said since the company launched online sales three years ago, around 18 000 sales had been notched up. “While this might not sound like a lot,” said Cassim, “it must be noted that around 60% of these sales have been concluded in the last six months.”

He said Esquire’s Online Ordering had been launched three years ago as a “cyber salesman” function.  “Sales started slowly but we are definitely seeing a rapid increase. For resellers in a hurry – and who cannot get through to us via normal buying channels – buying online is a logical solution. They can see our entire product range online – including all product specs and features. This makes purchasing easy.”

Cassim said online sales had also increased since the launch of the company’s ‘world-first’ Virtual Reseller Network (VRN), an Internet –based purchasing and distribution solution aimed at its resellers that is expected to turn the traditional distribution market on its head. The idea behind the launch of the company’s VRN is to get as many of the 12 000 Esquire resellers as possible “to sign up and make use of our VRN”.

He said he believes the VRN is a world first in the ‘technology marketplace’, saying that it provides any participating reseller with immediate access to the company’s entire stockholding.

Since its launch of its VRN in the fourth quarter of last year, Esquire has signed up a number of resellers, and is expecting this number to rise to by the end of the year as the company concentrates more fully on its VRN reseller campaign.

“ It must be noted that a year ago there was only a handful of online traders trading in IT goods. However,” Cassim added, “with our VRN we have just added whole lot more to this space – and we are signing up new VRN users at a rate of five a day.

“Online selling is definitely catching on and we will see this growth continue in the marketplace  in general – and at Esquire. With our existing online ordering system – combined with our recently-launched VRN – we believe we can form the vanguard of this rise.”