CitySearch Stepping Up E-Commerce Campaign

Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch plans to convert its Web-based city guides into local portals for electronic commerce and is stepping up its efforts to build cyber-stores for small and medium-size merchants.

The Pasadena company is expected to announce a series of initiatives today aimed at luring smaller businesses online, where $30 billion worth of sales will be made next year, according to Commerce Department estimates.

The new CitySearch Commerce service will allow companies to ease into e-commerce with pre-programmed systems for listing products and services, taking orders online, processing transactions and shipping products. American Express and other firms will contribute to CitySearch Commerce service, said Charles Conn, chief executive of Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch.

Times Mirror Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, is an investor in the company.

CitySearch has accelerated its embrace of online commerce since its merger last summer with Ticketmaster Online. The company launched its first transaction-oriented city guide--for Denver--last month and is in the process of reformatting its other 22 sites, Conn said.

E-commerce generates 40% of the company’s revenue, Conn said. Another 40% of the firm’s revenue comes from building Web sites for local merchants that link CitySearch sites. Proceeds from advertising banners--traditionally a mainstay for content-oriented Web sites--account for a mere 5% of revenue, Conn said.