Australian online retailer City Software today announced it is changing its name to eStore. The new name is reflective of the company’s move over the years from selling primarily software to selling over 15,000 quality IT, technology and digital products today.
First established in 1991, City Software was the first company in Australia to sell software via mail order, enabling customers to buy over the telephone with a credit card. The business expanded online in 1998 providing live product availability and pricing.
Following the acquisition of International Software Warehouse (ISWH) in 2001 and Sydney-based online e-tailer ‘eStore’ in 2003, the company has continued to trade as both City Software and eStore. Only eStore will continue, reinforcing the brand as Australia’s largest independent online IT retailer.
According to eStore’s Chief Executive Officer, Lorenzo Coppa, the rebranding was done to more accurately reflect its current business model. “While City Software will remain for our government and corporate customers in the form of CSW-IT, we’ve decided to change the name of our retailing division to reflect our increasing presence as an online retailer,” said Coppa. “We believe the eStore brand will serve our customers even better in the coming years.”
eStore provides a fast, reliable and efficient service with over 80% of orders dispatched the same day, resulting in next day delivery to capital cities across Australia. The company has over 60 employees based in Melbourne and Sydney, offering consumers and businesses a dedicated Australian call centre to answer and deal with customer queries and returns.
Coppa sees a trend by more consumers and businesses to shop online for commodities as it offers greater convenience, saves time and money. “Online retailers don’t have the overheads traditional retailers do and we’ve certainly seen the major share of our 50 per cent growth over the past year coming from customers changing their behaviour and shopping online,” said Coppa.
“Furthermore, the online retailing model enables more efficient stock management enabling us to provide a larger range of products that can be effectively managed with lower inventory holding costs,” added Coppa.
“We’ve also made a significant investment in the new eStore website in response to feedback from our customers,” said Coppa. “Our goal is to help Australian consumers make a better purchasing decision, by offering more information from vendors, customer feedback and videos as well as trained staff in the call centre.”
