Esquire Technologies, the award winning broad-based distributor – including technology, digital lifestyle, consumer and mobile products – has reported that it has invested a total of R10-million in its virtual reseller network (VRN) thus far.
The VRN is a world first in the technology space , which not only allows the company’s 12 500 resellers a service that enables them to trade on-line with Esquire, but fundamentally turns them into fully-fledged e-commerce businesses using Esquire’s infrastructure and backend that has taking eight years to develop.
Mahomed Cassim, CEO of Esquire, says that the company’s resellers do not have to invest a cent in stock, adding that they have 24/7 access to the company’s entire stockholding, with the VRN e-commerce sites being updated every three to five minutes.
“Over the last few months we have also upgraded the VRN’s servers, thereby allowing us to handle the overall capacity- which is growing by the week. We have also updated our software, giving the VRN far more features to allow for user-friendly e-commerce on all levels. Additionally, we have hired more staff, including technicians and graphic designers, to keep up with the demand for this system.”
Commenting further, Cassim said that international vendors and manufacturers are now also showing considerable interest in the company’s VRN system after it won an award in Monte Carlo earlier this year for its world first innovation.
“This opens major opportunities for us. We are already working with a number of vendors and manufacturers to discuss VRN opportunities with them. We are not in a position to comment more on this – except to say that these talks will be highly strategic and could have a major impact on Esquire, including from a monetary point of view.”
He adds that the company would be adding more product lines as part of a major product drive.
“We are rapidly expanding our product range. Although we started out in business as an IT components distributor – and if you knew us 14 years ago – you would know that we only had a handful of products.
“Now, however, it is a totally different ball game as we are increasingly adding to our product range, and are already taking a more focused approach when it comes to which products to bring on board. The VRN websites will eventually become premium e-commerce stores with premium brands that have not been offered before in South Africa.”
