MERCHANDISING: TURNING BROWSERS INTO BUYERS.

Despite the buying frenzy that occurs on a few auction and day-trading sites, most Web stores actually have a hard time creating a sense of urgency. Customers know it's easy to come back later or to visit competing sites; there's no cyberspace equivalent to "We've driven ten miles to get here, so we might as well spend our money now."

To give buyers a nudge toward the cash register, Web store managers have developed a variety of merchandising tactics:

* Trialware: Try-before-you-buy downloads have become an especially effective way to close sales. Ulead Web site producer Joe Leitenberg says his WebUtilities site generates "several thousand" trial downloads a day, many of which turn into high-margin sales when customers decide they want to keep using the software. Leitenberg has found that short trial periods seem to produce the best results; currently, Ulead's trial downloads time out after just 15 days.

* Bestseller lists: Most reseller sites (including Beyond.com, Buyonet, Chumbo.com, KBkids.com, and SmarterKids.com) now include a prominent list of top-selling titles, and it's not unusual for sales to rise by a factor of five or ten as soon as a product hits the list. Bestseller lists have less impact on sites hosted by individual publishers, but a few publishers (notably Corel) use these lists to suggest that their titles have exceptional sales momentum. (Showcasing a product on the home page even without a best-seller ranking will increase sales by 10%-15%, reports Lotus Web store manager Jim Gerace.)

* Giveaways: "Free" is a potent word in retail, and giveaways usually have more impact than an equivalent reduction in price. The KBkids.com and SmarterKids.com sites both advertise free shipping on orders over $30, and KBkids.com sweetens the deal by handing out free Pokemon cards. Airline frequent flyer programs are another model for giveaway merchandising; Buyonet's Buyobonus Club rewards customers with "bonus coins" that can be traded for later product purchases.

* Pre-release offers: Perhaps because vaporware announcements are so notorious, publishers often forget that at least some buyers want to be first in line to buy new products. To satisfy the early birds, a few Web stores start selling downloadable versions as soon as a new title goes to manufacturing, in effect adding a month or more of pre-launch sales. Similarly, at least two resellers, Chumbo.com and Beyond.com, encourage customers to pre-order new titles. This is a risky tactic if the ship date isn't rock solid, but pre-release offers are otherwise a good way to take advantage of publicity and reviews that appear before a product has reached distribution channels.