The tool moves Oracle Corp. The Oracle services have emerged only in the past six months. The service has about 15,000 corporate users, the company said. In February, the database developer unveiled a similar Web application for customer-support activities.
Customers can access it free during a trial period.
Those services have set the stage for more. The move puts Oracle in competition with vendors that offer applications to develop online stores, as well as with portal sites such as Yahoo. Development of the service is still in the definition stage, but Andersen said it should be available to users this summer. He said Oracle officials haven't determined a price for the service, though it won't be free. Rather, pricing will be competitive with similar services that let users upload product catalogs and establish an online store as part of an online marketplace.