An email to Petopia went unanswered. The first phone call netted no result. Finally someone emailed to say that remaining three bags in their order have been placed on hold until April first. But that's April Fool's Day and outcome remains to be seen.

Failure to plan for success What's going on? It would seem that drugemporium.com has a problem with its secure server and petopia.com has a problem with its shipping procedures. Actually it's a good bet is that they both had same problem - they skimped on back ends of their sites in a rush to get online. My company and many others do a good trade in re-doing web sites that were skimped on first time around.

Companies that sell online need to seek out expertise of ecommerce integrators to design and implement an intelligent infrastructure for their sites. The days of having a brother-in-law who "knows a lot about net" design a site have gone way of dinosaur. The ecommerce stakes get higher every day and budgets must follow.

Instead of planning for success, a lot of companies throw up a site and figure they will beef up back end once money starts rolling in. And sometimes that happens a lot faster than anyone planned.

We are likely to continue to live with a variety of snafus caused by poor planning. The way your site can avoid these problems? Plan for success. Build a system set to grow with your business. Or pay price later. Like poor Ester in Kentucky. And Duncan in New York City.

SCRIPTS

If you're at all good at programming with CGI, there are limitless scripts you can download for free or low cost. If you're all thumbs you could hire someone to configure script for you. One of best online programmers I know of is David Black. He's fast, reliable and his prices are fair. You can contact him at mailto:DavidBlack@thewavecave.com

1) CGI EXTREMES: http://www.cgiextremes.com/Scripts/Shopping_Carts/

You'll find a variety of CGI shopping scripts here ranging from free up to 300.00 in price. They'll work on a variety of platforms. Each one is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for guidance in selection.

2) CGI Resource Index: http://cgi-resources.com

To find goodies here you'll need to drill down to appropriate category. Click on programs and scripts, then Perl, then shopping carts.

3) PERLSHOP: http://www.arpanet.com/PerlShop/perlshop.html

This CGI script is for sites hosted on a Unix system. It is free to use with their logo on pages.

4) PAY PAL SHOPPING CART http://www.cstafford.com/ppalstore.shtml

Check out this free CGI Shopping cart script that passes all of your credit card sales over to PayPal for easy processing.

SOFTWARE

1) SALES CART: http://www.salescart.com/

Specifically for FrontPage users. Cost is 179.00. Easy to set up using their step by step wizard.

2) PDG SHOPPING CART http://www.pdgsoft.com/cart.htm

Completely customizable to fit your needs. Integrates easily with FrontPage software or Dreamweaver. You can also use this cart to set up your own associate program. Works on Unix, NT servers and others. It is a little pricey at 750.00, but worth it for features you get.

3) Your E-Ware: http://www.youreware.com/home/

Fast and easy to use, with a low price that gives this software an edge. It will hold up to 2,500 products in up to 20 product categories. Works on Win 95.98 and Mac. Download free demo and take it for a spin. Final cost is under 100.00

There you have some of various options to choose from when setting up your online storefront. Before jumping into e-commerce waters, make sure you weigh your options and choose one that best fits your needs and your budget.