Eight months after its launch, iChristian.com sold
BEAVERTON -- Only eight months after it was launched nationally from the Portland area, a Christian Internet commerce company has been sold and is moving to the East Coast.
iChristian.com, the locally based e-commerce company that opened for business last November, has joined forces with Christianbook.com, the online home of Christian Book Distributors (CBD) of Peabody, Mass.
A news release on July 20 announced the acquisition of iChristian.com by CBD, which will take over marketing, fulfillment, and customer service functions as quickly as possible. iChristian.com’s current operations in Beaverton, will be relocated to CBD’s headquarters in Massachusetts.
Stephen Hendrickson, president of CBD, said his company has been impressed with iChristian.com’s aggressive growth and marketing programs to date, and looks forward to the strategic acquisition to further expand CBD’s leadership psoition in the Christian e-commerce market.
Chris Williams, chief executive officer of iChristian.com, said he is very pleased to be part of CBD. “Not only will their emphasis on customer satisfaction be appreciated by our customers, but my family and I look foward to purchasing books, music CDs, and gifts at Christianbook.com.”
CBD began as a small family business in l978 when a Bible college student started selling a few books out of his parent’s garage. From this humble beginning, CBD has grown to become the world’s leading catalog-based provider of Christian products. Christianbook.com went live on the Internet four years ago and has become a recognized leader in online commerce in the Christian market.
In late July, iChristian.com’s web site showed a blank screen, but an addendum to the Christianbook.com site welcomed customers of iChristian.com. The Christianbook.com site stated that orders in process with the Beaverton company will now be fulfilled by Christianbook.com For more information, call (778) 977-5010.
iChristian.com offered more than 100,000 family-friendly resources -- books, Bibles, videos, tapes, and CDs -- and interactive communities. Its mission was to be the best source of Bible-cemtered materials on the globa Internet. Their major customer base was the United States, but customers are also in Eastern Europe, South America, Canada, and Australia.
The Beaverton company had 55 employees and served customers in seven warehouses nationally.
iChristian.com made the news last May when it sought unsuccessfully to buy television advertising time on CBS “Jesus” mini-series. Since then it concentrated more heavily on Christian radio.
The sale to CBD cancelled iChristian.com’s booth at Portland Festival 2000 with Luis Palau this month on Portland’s Waterfront Park. |
