Internet Sales Easy With Ready-Made Store Site

Dell Computer sells up to $6 million a day on the Internet.

Amazon.com sold more than $148 million worth of books in 1997.

About 10 million people purchased something on the Web last year, according to one survey.

Still not convinced about selling on the Web? Forrester Research predicts that Internet sales will reach $327 billion a year by 2002.

Those numbers don’t necessarily mean that selling on the Web will be profitable for your business, but they do suggest that setting up a Web-based “storefront” might make sense.

Trouble is, setting up a Web store can be expensive, time-consuming and downright confusing. Most of the options require that you spend money on a consultant or invest a lot of time learning to be an Internet expert.

Now there is an easier way to sell your products or services online. Best of all, it’s free for anyone who has 10 or fewer items to sell.

iCat allows anyone to create a free online store to sell books, T-shirts, coffee beans, widgets or anything else. The only criteria for a free store is that you list 10 or fewer products. If you want to sell 11 to 49 items, you pay $49.95 a month. Businesses that sell additional items pay a bit extra.

Aside from being free, an iCat store is easy to set up. You don’t need special software or skills, and it doesn’t matter what type of computer you have, as long as you have access to the World Wide Web. You can manage your store from the office, from your home or from a cyber cafe, a library or someone else’s office.

To create an iCat store, begin by visiting the iCat Web site at https://www.icat.com and clicking the “build-it” icon. That takes you to a form where you enter the name of your store and choose a Web address such as “www.icat.com/store/plumbing.” Later I’ll tell you how to reserve a more meaningful custom Web address.

To register, choose a user name and password and enter basic contact information. You also have to enter a valid credit card number, but your card isn’t charged.

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After the registration process is complete, you go to another Web page to design your store. You may use canned graphics provided by iCat or import your own graphics, such as your company logo. Your new online store may not win any design awards, but it might win you more customers.

Once you have your design in place, you answer a series of questions, such as whether shoppers will be able to place electronic orders or send you e-mail from your store. You also have the option of displaying your name, address and a welcome message and including a search engine on your page.

The next step is to enter information about each item you wish to sell. You can break your store into sections, with each getting a name and description. For each product, you may specify a name, product number, manufacturer, price, color, size and other information. You can also add your own custom fields.

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The final step is to specify checkout options, such as what, if any, credit cards you accept. Tax and shipping information may vary with a shopper’s residence.

The service automatically checks shoppers’ entries to see if they enter a logical credit card number and expiration date. But if you want online credit-card validation and fund collections, you must apply and pay for a merchant account. Otherwise, iCAT will include customers’ credit card information with the data it reports to you, and you can process it manually.

Once you’re done with this process, you “open” your store and you’re in business. If you already have a Web site, you may link your site to the store. When your visitors click on the iCat link, they probably won’t even know they’re leaving your site.

At any time, you can enter your user name and password to see if any shoppers have visited your store and if they’ve bought anything. You can download an on-screen report to use in database, spreadsheet or word processing programs.

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Whether or not you’re ready to set up an online store, you should consider getting your own Web address, otherwise known as a URL, or domain. You can use the address for a Web site, such as https://www.latimes.com, or an e-mail address, such as magid@latimes.com.

You don’t have to use it right away, but you should secure the address you want before someone else takes it. Companies typically use their name followed by “com,” such as “disney.com” or “ford.com,” but just because it’s the name of your company doesn’t mean that someone else can’t use it.

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Currently, the cost for securing a URL is $70 for the first two years and $35 for each additional year. At the moment, all URLs are registered through a private company called Network Solutions, which operates under a contract with the National Science Foundation. That contract will soon expire, opening the door for other companies to register domains.

The primary way to register a domain is to visit https://www.internic.net and select “registration services.” From there you can access the “whois” database from the pull-down menu to see if the name you want is available. You may register online, although the process is a bit complicated and requires that you have an Internet service provider who will operate as a host for your site.

There are easier ways to register a domain that anyone--even those not yet on the Internet--can use, but they cost more. Network Solutions’ new “dot com people” service at https://www.thedotcompeople.com, for example, lets you register by filling out a simple form and providing a credit card number. You’ll be charged $119 for the first two years and $35 each additional year.

Name Secure ([800] 299-1288 or https://www.namesecure.com/) charges $49.95 for the first two years, plus Internic’s $70 fee. Name Secure won’t host your site but will point to it. You could create a free site on iCat, AOL, GeoCities or anywhere else and, through Name Secure, have users access your site by typing in your Web address. The company will create unique e-mail addresses for you, so the address can include your company name, even if you get your mail on AOL or one of the free e-mail services such as HotMail.com, RocketMail.com or NetAddress.com.

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You can e-mail Lawrence J. Magid at magid@latimes.com.and visit his Web site at https://www.larrysworld.com. On AOL, use keyword “LarryMagid.”