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24 Aug 2000

Dear Dr. Ecommerce,

I'm in the process of due diligence in my business plan for a line of baby and children's furniture products. I have investors interested in the line if the numbers work. Ecommerce can reach a vast consumer public for relative low cost and therefore would help toward developing good, viable numbers for the investors review.

I know that starting our own web site for a few products would be time consuming, costly and probably not profitable. Therefore, I'm looking for an already established site that accepts outside product lines. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you for your help.

Steve

Dear Steve:

There are several possibilities.

There are a number of online shopping centres which offer
complete infrastructure, including web space; templates and tools
to set up your online catalogue; advice; and marketing support.
Yahoo shopping is probably the best known, but there are others. At Yahoo, rates start at US$100/month for a small store (less than 50 items) and increase from there. Other shopping centres offer similar pricing. Before you sign up with anyone, I suggest you contact some of the merchants on your choice shopping centre for feedback.

Some merchants do considerable sales by selling their products largely or exclusively on the online auction sites like eBay or Amazon Auctions (click on link for auctions). This would be a very low cost method of getting started.

Finally, some merchants have done well by teaming up with a web design firm and either giving the web design firm a cut of the sales or equity in the business.

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce