Technology for business: set up shop on the Web.

E-commerce solutions for business of all sizes

If you're finally convinced that selling your wares on the Internet is a viable option, but don't know how to get your electronic storefront off the ground, take heart. There are now several products on the market designed specifically to let small companies with little Internet experience and limited resources tap into the growing volume of sales taking place on the Net. Once you've established that your audience is on the Net, the only prerequisite for getting a piece of that action is having a Web site equipped for e-commerce.

"If you're thinking about selling via the Web, make sure you enlist the four Ps," advises Kim T. Folsom, president and CEO of The Business Source Technology Solutions Inc. (TBSTS), a San Diego-based Internet commerce provider. "Good Product, great Prices, Placement materials (efficient modes of distribution such as mail order or retail) and Promotion (communicating your products' value to the Netizens most likely to purchase them)." Once you've nailed down those factors, it's time to look for a secure e-commerce solution that fits your needs and budget.

Your choice should be dictated by your existing technology and level of technical proficiency. For example, companies that would prefer not to get involved with HTML coding or any part of Web site management can outsource the entire process by signing on to a virtual mall or e-commerce hosting service. Folsom created The Online Marketeer (www.onlinemar keteer.com), a subsidiary of blackowned TBSTS, to provide secure encrypted Web stores for small businesses. "Most of our customers see a 10%-20% increase in sales as a result of opening a store online," says Folsom.

The Online Marketeer offers a complete Web store solution including design of the store, maintenance, hardware and software, and the conversion of catalogs and order forms into online marketing materials. Prices range from $1,000 to $7,000 per year depending on the complexity of the store. The setup cost is $750, plus fees of $ 50 per month for up to 100 products plus 50 cents per processed order. Folsom also hosts her clients' stores on a secure e-commerce server. "If you're going to sell online, you have to provide your customers with a secure place to buy. Otherwise, you can't expect people to enter personal information on your site," she says.

ViaStore is another hassle-free solution. It's a service provided by ViaWeb (www.viaweb.com) that lets business owners advertise and sell products on their own Web site, which ViaWeb will host, upgrade and keep secure. Merchants simply log on to ViaWeb's site and design a store online; the rest is taken care of by the company. The service costs $100 per month for up to 50 products, and the fee for 1,000 or more products starts at $300.

Another option is to enlist an Internet service provider (ISP) to run your site for you. ISPs typically work with e-commerce software vendors like iCat and Mercantec, two market leaders, to create and host sites for a fee. You pay an initial fee for use of die software, sometimes as much as $1,500, and a smaller monthly licensing fee for the service, about $100. Here again, you eliminate the burden of having to code or manage your site.

For shopkeepers with a little more tech no-savvy and an existing Windows NT server, products like Shop Zone, by Breakthrough Software in San Jose, California, et you flex your creative muscles. The software gives you a lot of design options without requiring a lot of HTML coding and technical skills. Adobe's Pagemill 3.0 ($99) provides the tools to design and post your own Web site. It also incorporates a shopping cart icon that enables online shoppers to cruise your site and add desired merchandise to their cart as they go. Pagemill 3.0 includes a link to ICentral's ShopSite Manager software that takes care of the transaction. It's an entry-level product that lets you sell up to 200 transactions a month for a fee of $ 100. (Purchased separately, ShopSite costs about $200 more.)

A couple of rungs up the ladder, Domino Merchant 2.0 Server Pack by Lotus offers a substantial mix of' product functionality, but requires more technical aptitude and a lot more money. At $3,496, Merchant installs from a Web browser or Notes client and comes with several customizable templates that let users build their Web sites by responding to a series of intuitive prompts.

For example, Merchant's Site Creator feature has templates for building your own product catalogs that can be personalized with logos and original product literature, and then viewed by online shoppers. You can post products in a showcase area on your site under a Featured Products banner. A feature called the Design Center provides a bevy of graphics that let you design a Web site with an original look and feel, or you can import art to match your existing corporate art. A UPS track-and-trace feature lets users check the status of product deliveries.

To get Merchant 2.0 up and running, you first have to have a server running Lotus Notes, which is included in Merchant Pack. That could pose two problems: if you already have a different server running, you'd have to install a second one to run Merchant. What's more, installing Notes requires a bit more than a casual understanding of the product. David Marshak, vice president and senior consultant with Boston-based Patricia Seybold Group, a management technology consulting company, advises. "You'd do well to have someone [on staff] trained oil Lotus Notes.". in addition, you might need a Web master to manage the site depending on the level of traffic it generates.

Companies with NT servers and Web experts on staff have the option of running products like Microsoft's Site Server 3.0. For Internet newcomers, however, Erica Rugullies, an analyst with Giga Information Group in Norwell, Massachusetts, recommends virtual malls or ISPs.

Lotus' Merchant 2.0 user Bruce Crosley, president of LANminds in Hampshire, New Hampshire, points out that the lower-end options don't give you the same flexibility as Merchant and other high-end products. For example, you could create a site for fixed merchandise like clothing, prepackaged greeting cards and fine china with no problem. But selling customizable merchandise like computers and business cards wouldn't work because the low-end solutions don't have the ability to accept requests for custom orders. Although the investment to get started is not prohibitive, it's prudent to start cautiously and then upgrade as demand and skills grow.