Area firms boosting sales from Web sites

Consumers shop online for a number of reasons. Some aren't able to get out much, some feel they're too busy to go to the store and others simply prefer to shop from home.

Whatever the reason, more are going online to find what they want. The Department of Commerce said in February that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for last year were estimated at $108.7 billion, an increase of 23.5 percent from 2005.

Over the years, local stores such as My Daddy's Cheesecake and area outlets of chains like Wal-Mart and Schnucks have made their merchandise available in cyberspace.

Chris and Stephie Belle of Cape Girardeau shop online because it works with their lifestyle. The Belles are blind and enjoy being able to select things at their leisure. They also find shopping from home more efficient than relying on transportation services.

"We do a large part of our shopping online these days," Chris Belle said. He and his wife use speaking software on their computer so they can browse catalogs from Web sites of places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy and purchase goods from grocery stores like Schnucks.

According to Dennis Marchi, manager of Schnucks in Cape Girardeau, his store accommodates a dozen or more online shoppers a day. "Internet shopping is getting more and more pop," he said. "We had a lot of customers start using the service when gas prices went up."

Schnucks offers pick-up and delivery service. Marchi said a lot of people pick up their bagged groceries on the way home from work, in particular married couples with children or parents with newborns. He said the service saves them a couple of hours a week.

"Everyone has less and less time, and they're always looking for ways to complete a task as quickly as possible," said Schnucks spokesman Paul Simon.

Online shopping also allows customers to avoid impulse buys and get exactly what they need, according to Tammy Hill, store secretary at the Cape Girardeau Schnucks.

The Internet helped My Daddy's Cheesecake in Cape Girardeau gain a national reputation.

According to Kevin Stanfield, one of the owners of My Daddy's Cheesecake, he's shipped cheesecakes from their Broadview Street location to every state in the country since they began the online service around the year 2000.

The Internet has helped franchises like Best Buy and Wal-Mart continue to expand their market.

Wal-Mart announced a Site to Store distribution program last month, where customers can select from thousands of online products not available in their local Wal-Mart and have them shipped there without an additional fee.

So far more than 100 Wal-Marts in Missouri, including the supercenters in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, are part of the program, according to Wal-Mart spokesman Ravi Jariwala.

"Our vision is to be the premier multichannel retailer, and we want to make it easier for customers to shop from Wal-Mart," Jariwala said.

Forrester Research Inc., an independent technology and market research company, predicts online business-to-consumer sales in the United States will top $200 billion in 2009 and grow to more than $270 billion in 2011.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137