eCost.com is an online retailer based in Torrance

Torrance, California

Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Founded in 1999, the retailer sells a variety of products, such as electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

, jewelry, and household

Household

The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....

 items.

The retailer was started as a subsidiary

Subsidiary

A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...

 of PC Mall, Inc.

PC Mall, Inc.

PC Mall, Inc. is a value-added direct marketing company that offers computer and electronic products, services, and solutions to individual consumers, small and medium businesses, large enterprises, as well as for government and educational institutions...

 in 1999. On April 11, 2005, eCost.com was spun off from PC Mall, Inc. In 2006, eCost.com was subsidized

Subsidiary

A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...

 by PFSweb

PFSweb

PFSweb, Inc. is an international provider of integrated eCommerce and business process outsourcing solutions most well known as a leading business-to-business and direct-to-consumer order fulfillment and call-service provider.Services offered by PFSweb include:*processing and shipping...

 for US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

29 million. PC Mall reacquired eCost.com for $2.3 million in early 2011.