Small retailers get online with free e

Small retailers get online with free e-commerce from Excite@Home

Excite@Home launched Freetailer (www.freetailer.com), an e-commerce storefront service that enables users to create and manage a fully functioning store on the Internet at no cost. Freetailer makes Excite@Home the first major Internet company to embrace a free online-store model. A move made even more pronounced by the recent increase in rates on Amazon.com's zShops.

``Freetailer is a key step in our strategy to be the leader in e-commerce innovation and to help entrepreneurs and small businesses successfully establish themselves in the Internet economy,'' said Mark O'Leary, executive vice president, Excite@Home Business Solutions.

Freetailer includes:

25 megabytes of storage, which enables placement of thousands of different types of products;
1 gigabyte per month of bandwidth;
The ability to showcase unlimited products in an e-tail store, all of which will automatically be searchable within the Excite shopping services;
Customized storefronts and logos;
A virtual cash register, shopping cart, and an e-wallet feature that stores a customer's credit card information means greater convenience during return visits;
Secure order management -- real-time reporting of customer orders and order/visit statistics within a secure online back office;
Business-boosting tips -- sales and marketing tips and services are offered via a merchant resource center.

As customers' needs grow, Freetailer will grow with them. A variety of commerce upgrades -- most of which can be ordered and enabled in real-time -- are available at www.freetailer.com in an online upgrade zone. Such upgrades include domain name registration, POP e-mail accounts, a credit card merchant account and a payment gateway. Other options include integrated advertising programs, expanded search capability, extended FTP capability, additional disk storage space and extra bandwidth.

In addition, upgrades that use the latest technologies are available through Excite@Home partners, including live customer interaction through RealCall, merchant Web site verification and consumer protection services through WebAssured, and merchant sales analysis services via One Channel.

12/07/00 SOURCE: Excite@Home