No more e-xcuses! New Web tools make
selling online faster and easier than ever
By Dana Dratch • Bankrate.com

OK, you didn't get around to launching that Web site in time for the Christmas shopping season. Bah, humbug.

But if you're a small business owner with big dreams, there's still time to make an e-store one of your New Year's resolutions.

That's because a host of Internet giants have begun catering to small business owners, making it easier and faster than ever to set up shop on the Internet.

Yahoo!, Excite, Bigstep.com, MindSpring and others offer services to help entrepreneurs who don't know a bit from a byte build their own store in a matter of hours -- complete with photos, logos and a good selection of merchandise. For an extra fee up front, providers will also work with business owners to custom design a site.

Cyberstore 'rental' prices
Monthly store "rent" on the Web can range from about $30, sometimes less, for a simple brochure -- showcasing the company but offering no commerce capabilities -- to $50 and up for a full-fledged e-store where customers can browse and buy.

Depending on the service package, business owners can display merchandise, accept credit cards, ship orders, track sales and plot more effective marketing -- all online.

Some of the new tools for building an e-store promise incredible speed. Yahoo, for example, says you can be accepting orders in 10 minutes or fewer. Take those claims with a grain of salt. While that speed may be possible for a very simple site, that doesn't include the hours it takes to scan photos into a digital Web format, or the days it takes to register a domain name.

Which leaves no excuses and one really tough question: Who needs a Web site?

For the answer, look at your business and its customers. "If your traditional means of selling is people walking by a store, and you're only selling in that geographical area, it's probably not effective for you to have an online store," says Patrick McQuown, president and co-founder of Proteus, a large Internet consulting and development firm.

"But if you're already doing a lot of mail-order business or business-to-business, you can cut out a lot of the interim costs. That's when the Internet becomes a far more efficient tool."

Examine your e-store deal
If you want to use one of these e-store services, experts say you should ask specific questions to determine exactly what you're buying.

• Flat fee or percentage? Shy away from services that charge businesses a percentage of their sales.
• Who pays the banking costs? Small business owners also need to ask if the company will charge for each transaction or pass along any of the banking costs associated with the site.
• How is sales tax handled?
• What relationship does the e-store provider have with search engines or shopping portals? (Web sites that consumers visit to find products.) Often, Internet services submit all of their site addresses to a selection of engines or portals. Some companies even charge an extra fee to guarantee the staff at a particular search engine will review the site. But that doesn't guarantee a prominent placement -- or even any placement at all. Shop around -- and beware of long-term contracts. There are plenty of terrific services that let businesses rent by the month.
• Does the provider have a help line in case you get stuck -- and is it a free call?
• What are the guidelines and policies on graphics? While you're on the subject of graphics, ask your provider what size pictures they recommend to produce fast-loading pages. Shorter downloads equal more potential customers.

Once you've picked an e-store provider, here are some of the points to consider in setting up your site.

• Domain name -- Decide whether to buy your own domain name -- that's the part that comes between the www and the .com in a Web address.

Registering a name and purchasing all rights to it costs $70 for two years. Some providers will allow you to use your own domain name, others don't.

While many small business owners hesitate to shell out extra cash for a site name -- especially when they don't know if the store will succeed -- there's a big advantage.

It makes your Web site portable, so you can move your site and your store to another host without having to redirect Web users or reprint stationery.

"You definitely want to have your own domain name," says Gerry Goldsholle, CEO of DoItYourself.com and FreeAdvice.com -- Web resources that cater to small businesses. "Owning your domain name enables to you to take your customers and your good name with you," he says.

• What to sell -- A Web store mirrors a freestanding business in that 80 percent of sales will come from 20 percent of the products, Goldsholle says. "Those are the products you want to put online."

• Who are your online customers -- Web demographics might be a little different from your store's regular customer base.

Internet shoppers tend to be younger, more spontaneous and more affluent. "A very good thing if you're a merchant," Goldsholle says.

• Trademarks -- Be careful about using trademarks or trade names on your site. If you're selling a product or line, make sure that you have the right to use the names and trademarks on your site before they goes up. You may have incorporated trademarks in your print ads for years, but Giant Corporation Inc. has never seen your ad in the community newspaper. It can see your Web site.

• Who will build your site? -- A closely related but separate decision is whether to let the e-store provider build your own Web site -- usually from a set of pre-set templates -- or hire a professional Web designer for a custom site. Either path can be successful.

Atlanta-based Heavenly Cheesecakes Inc., for example, had already carved out a $2 million-a-year niche selling gourmet desserts to restaurants across the Southeast. When executives at the 15-year-old firm wanted to sell online, "We sat down and discussed it, and none of us had the time or the education to do the professional job we wanted done," says retail marketing manager Maggie Steiner.

They went to MindSpring and had the company craft a simple site. The cost? $2,000 to design the store -- which shows off their 12 top-sellers -- plus $50 per month rent. "We've had great response," Steiner says.

The company's Web business increased slowly at first. But now, they're licking their chops, thanks to an extra $2,000 to $5,000 in online retail sales.

Another way to the Web
Paul Hoge went another route -- building his own site with expert help.

He admits he knew nothing about the information superhighway eight months ago when he launched Candlevision.com, a one-stop shop for consumers that links 20 different candle companies, including his own.

"I had never even been on the Internet before last December," he says.

The e-store showcases 900 products, gets more than 650 hits a day -- and generates several hundred sales a week.

He hired a Webmaster to design the site and run it for the first few months, which cost him more than $8,000. Rent on the store goes for $280 a month. He recently started managing the Web site in-house -- and enjoys the feedback he's getting from clients.

"It has not recouped the investment," Hoge says. "But I didn't expect to recoup the investment the first year. This is long term."

That's a wise attitude, says says Craig Harkins, the marketing manager for MindSpring Biz. "The thing that I stress is, 'Know what you're going to consider a success.' Some people come to the Internet with dollar signs in their eyes, but don't know what they want to get out of it."

"You kind of have to have a plan."

Dana Dratch is a freelance writer based in Georgia
To comment on this story, please e-mail the Bankrate.com editors

-- Posted: Dec. 30, 1999