Alternative payments and more inventory are planned for eCost.com

The metamorphosis continues at eCost.com, which is trying new and different strategies to stop a long period of declining sales and return to profitability.

In December, eCost.com redesigned its home page to make it easier for shoppers to find merchandise. The new home page features larger graphics, better navigation and an improved one-click, drop-down navigation tool. The redesign also includes text and graphics and a “Bargain Countdown,” which features 10 daily specials.

ECost, No. 58 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide and a business unit of PFSweb Inc., which acquired eCost.com last year, is adding payment options and drastically expanding its online inventory.

The retailer expects to add multiple alternative payment options, including PayPal, Google Checkout and Bill Me Later from I4 Commerce, during the next several months.

ECost also is working with a yet-to-be-named provider of syndicated content to expand the retailer’s supplier base and increase the number of available SKUs from 120,000 to at least 360,000. “We are expanding the capability of eCost to handle more scale and transactions,” says PFSweb chairman and CEO Mark Layton, who also is speaking at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 4-7 in San Jose, in a session June 5 titled Making E-Retailing Music: When IT and Marketing Harmonize.

When the new programs are in place, the initiatives will help eCost.com expand its base of selling "close-out" and manufacturer recertified brand-name technology and electronics for consumers and small- to medium-size business buyers. “Going forward eCost will have more scalable capacity,” Layton says.