When Pleasant Grove soap-maker Deborah Robinson launched her business nearly four years ago, she knew she needed a Web site to stay viable.

"I realized there's a whole other world out there, and I live in the middle of nowhere," said Robinson, owner of Pleasant Grove Soaps, located in the countryside of Panola County. "I would have no way of marketing my products without huge expenses unless I had the Internet."

Although Robinson still generates most of her sales by word of mouth, she said at least 35 percent of it now comes from online customers. They order her goats' milk soaps, candles, lotions and oils from as far away as Canada and Japan.

Robinson is part of a growing trend of retailers tapping into new markets through e-commerce Web sites.

In the second quarter of 2004, retail e-commerce sales generated $15.7 billion nationwide - an increase of 23 percent from the second quarter of 2003 - according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

"Retailing on the Internet continues to grow at a very fast pace," said Beth Duncan, a Mississippi State University professor and small business specialist who teaches online retailing workshops.

"It's becoming a very popular way to purchase things, even though it's still a small segment of total retail sales," Duncan said.

Online retail sales make up about 1.7 percent of total retail sales, which the Census Bureau estimated at $919 billion for the second quarter of 2004.

A necessary part of business

While nearly everything from apples to Zambonis have sold via the Internet, Duncan said most sales come from the travel industry sector - airline tickets, hotel reservations and car rentals.

And some e-commerce powerhouses, like Amazon.com, have created substantial niches in online sales of books, CDs and DVDs.

Small retailers are also getting their piece of the pie. In Tupelo, Margarete's Fine Chocolates has seen its chocolate sales increase by 10 percent since launching a Web site two years ago.

Its Tupelo Honey sales have jumped by 40 percent thanks to the Internet, said co-owner Henry Daniels.

"In two years we've had over 2,000 hits," Daniels said. "With everybody doing the computers, it was a good business decision to have a Web page, so that people can see some of the things we have."

That's the philosophy that got MLM Clothiers online. Also based in Tupelo, the company launched its site three years ago to showcase their clothes, shoes, belts and wallets. The company doesn't sell via the Internet, but rather uses the site as a virtual advertisement.

MLM also is linked to the sites of their clothing manufacturers, said office manager Kim Fly.

"If someone wants a Jack Victor suit and goes to the Jack Victor Web site, it will link back to us as a local vendor," Fly said. "So we've had some business from it. Not a ton, but people do use it."

Like Daniels, Fly said the growing momentum of the Internet made it indispensable to have an online presence.

Costs and profits

Not all retailers should rush into e-commerce, Duncan warns. It can be a time-consuming and costly venture if done quickly and without the proper research, so Duncan has a few words of advice: Business owners should develop an online marketing plan, and - if they don't know enough about computers - they should hire a professional Web site developer to help them.

Enter Red Magnet® Technologies of Tupelo. This 9-year-old company has helped numerous businesses get their products online and make a profit.

"An online store is another store, basically," said Patrice Anderson, Web developer. "A lot of times people put their products online, and they forget about it. If you do that, you lose credibility. You have to maintain it."

Anderson helps her clients open good-looking and highly functional virtual stores - and maintain them.

"If you do it through us, we'll set up whole system - from the initial Web site design, to putting the products up there, to creating the shopping cart form and our secure commerce encryption," Anderson said. "It helps if you have a professional looking interface."

But beauty and security come at a price. Anderson said it costs a one-time fee of about $3,000 to create a virtual store with roughly 10 products. Clients then pay $25 annually for their domain name - their personal Web address - and about $60 monthly for server hosting.

It's still a a lot cheaper than opening a new physical location, Anderson said, adding that most companies recoup their costs in boosted sales.

Going solo

Robinson lucked out. Her son is an Internet pro and handles all her Web site needs for free. But she agreed with Duncan that Web sites can be expensive if business owners don't know what they're doing.

"You have to pay for your domain name, space on a server, and other expenses that go into it," she said. "But it's worth it if you do it right. It seems to be a necessary part of doing business now."

That's why many retailers are entering the Internet pool, but doing it one toe at a time. Instead of launching their own Web sites, they're selling items on other people's Web sites, as eBay.

Launched in 1995, the San Jose, Calif.,-based eBay serves as an auction house for more than 100 million registered members across the globe, according to the company's Web site. In an average day, millions of items are listed, bid on and sold - many using PayPal.

Acquired by eBay in 2002, PayPal lets people and businesses send and receive payments online using their own bank accounts and credit cards.

It's a third-party service that also allows online retailers to have their own Web sites without having to worry about hosting secure shopping baskets.

"I love PayPal," said Red Magnet® 's Anderson. "That's the easiest way to do it."

Anderson also said that some of her clients - like MLM Clothiers - don't offer online shopping at all. Rather, they use their Web sites as advertisements urging visitors to call for orders.

"You don't even need e-commerce," she said. "Just getting the products out there and telling people to call is enough."