What we also found was that people were using BeHOME for preshopping. People would walk into the Benchmark Home Furnishings Stores in Kansas City, sponsors of the BeHOME Web site, with printouts from the Web pages asking to see those sofas or rugs and then buying them at the store. In the beginning we carried a lot of unique merchandise on the Web site that the stores ended up carrying as well because so many people walked in the stores asking where those products were. Benchmark promotes the site in their local newspaper and television advertising, so people in that area don't see BeHOME as an unknown quantity, but an extension of a store that has been a part of their neighborhood for 29 years, which is a tremendous advantage. It's easy to forget sometimes that the Web is worldwide, for we get frequent international orders as well.
Many users are wary of sending their credit card information through the Web.
People can place their order through SSL on a Netscape Commerce Server, but if they are uncomfortable giving their credit cards over the Web, they may fax their order in, dial a 1-800 number, or even mail a check. The interface here needs to be as simple and easy to understand as possible.