Window shopping: Two new offerings give ISPs a taste of e-commerce

Internet service providers that aren't ready for a full-fledged investment in electronic commerce now have an option to start a little smaller. Two new products, introduced earlier this month at Fall Internet World in New York, offer a chance for ISPs to step into on-line retail at their own speed.

OpenShop Internet Software Inc., based in both Chicago and Germany, has introduced FreeShop, which allows ISPs to build-at no cost to them-10-product on-line stores for their business customers. The program is a smaller ve rsion of OpenShop's Rent Shops, which allow companies to sell 50 items, and Professional Shops, which allows the sale of unlimited items.

"We found that ISPs don't always want to start off with high-end e-commerce," said Thomas Koch, key account manager for OpenShop in the United States. "With this we can just start them out with 10 items, and if it's successful, they can upgrade to a higher-end solution."

Despite the item limit, FreeShop allows an ISP to develop fully operational stores. An ISP can completely tailor a store to a particular business-and create as many FreeShops as the businesses want.

"It's like a starter kit, but with full shopping cart functionality," Koch said. This means that users, much like customers in a grocery store, can select several items and then pay for all of them when they're finished shopping.

The company hosts the service, so ISPs only have to set up the stores, Koch explained. Because it's free, it should be a good incentive for companies to try it, he added.

The service is new, so Koch could not reveal any ISP customers, but he said the response has been "tremendously good." "We have so many questions from ISPs-people coming up to us saying, 'Get us up, but don't make it a $10,000 project," he said. FreeShop is not offered to end users directly, he added.

Services such as FreeShop are a good way to help an ISP diversify its offerings, said Ned Brody, who heads the Internet division of Mercer Management Consulting. "Anything that spreads the services in different areas is a good thing," he said. But companies that sign on should understand it is not a full-blown e-commerce store unless there's heavy advertising, he added.

Meanwhile, Teleglobe-which has headquarters in McClean, Va., but provides carrier services out of Montreal-offers a service that allows ISPs and Web content providers to sell telecommunications products and services on-line.

"E-commerce is going to be so successful," said Andrew Burroughs, vice president of global marketing and product management for Teleglobe. "It's so global in nature."

Teleglobe's e-commerce platform helps ISPs put a button on their Web sites so customers can order services.

The ISPs can brand the services in their own names and offer prepaid calling, voice over IP and long-distance service to 240 countries, Burroughs said. "We're a global telecommunications company. Now we can market services to anyone, without geographic boundaries." He added that Teleglobe is the second largest terminator of international Internet traffic.

"I believe we're the first to do this globally," Burroughs said. "This is great incremental revenue for ISPs who don't have enhanced platforms that can provide e-commerce services."

Teleglobe's idea is a logical one, Brody said. "It's good business," he said. "They're getting revenue without the marketing cost." He added that because most Internet users leave their ISP home page as their opening page, it's a good place to sell services and products. "The greatest asset an ISP has is its home page," he said. "It's a great mechanism for advertising as well as selling products"

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