Here are some statistics you should be aware of: According to Nua Internet Surveys, as of January 2000, there are approximately 248.6 million people online worldwide.

CREDIT CARD USE DOUBLES IN YEAR Dec 3, 1999: Twice as many US adults used credit cards to buy products and services online in 1999 than did in 1998, according to new research from Cyber Dialogue.

INTERNET ECONOMY WORTH $1 TRILLION IN 2001 Nov 4, 1999: The Internet economy will be worth $1 trillion by end of 2001 and $2.8 trillion by end of 2003.

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS E-COMMERCE TO SOAR Business-to-business e-commerce will show blistering growth in coming years, with worldwide market expected to expand to $7.29 trillion by 2004, more than 50 times larger than in 1999, states a market research company. (TechWeb)

When you take these facts and figures into consideration, it's no surprise that more and more entrepreneurs and businesses are feverishly rushing to establish e-commerce web sites.

On surface, concept is very simple: You set up a web hosting account with a web hosting company; you create an appealing site that sells your products or services; and you get a credit card merchant account so you can accept credit cards.

But there is more to enabling an e-commerce web site. There is a lot of uncommon knowledge regarding establishment and operation of a successful e-commerce web site, which makes difference between your site becoming a success or thousands of dollars wasted and hundreds of hours of pain-staking trial and error.

SIX DEADLY E-COMMERCE SINS I have outlined below six deadly sins that can derail an otherwise simple process of enabling an e-commerce web site.

1.Merchant account does not support e-commerce or AVS If your merchant account is not compatible with Internet processing systems, you will need to manually enter transactions and even risk losing your account due to bank regulations. AVS (Address Verification System) is required by VISA and it is a system that matches address criteria on cardholder's statement to reduce chargebacks. If AVS is not used, you can be charged up to 3.75% or more per transaction and leave yourself open to chargebacks. If you incur a chargeback rate higher than 3%, bank may terminate your merchant privileges. Once you are listed as a terminated merchant, getting another credit card merchant account is virtually impossible. Be sure your processing solution uses AVS and that your merchant account is set up for Internet processing.

2.Processing solution does not support real-time processing Processing solutions that do not work in real-time can wreak havoc on your growth and marketing efforts. Spending time entering every order manually can literally cost you more than order is worth. Also, when Internet orders are not processed in real-time, you won't know if a credit card is valid until you manually process it, at which point you will need to personally contact card holder. This can turn into a time consuming and costly process, especially if customer lives overseas.

Of all credit card orders processed by our office, about 7% are invalid or declined first time. Fortunately, since we utilize a real-time processing system, customer is able to re-enter his/her credit card number or use a different card.

Additionally, AVS is not typically used or available with manual systems, thus boosting your transaction discount rate to a whopping 3.75% on every dollar!

Think it's unlikely? Think again. It happened to restaurant broker Ray Tekosky of New York City on Friday, Jan 28. He had presence of mind to download errant order page and fax it to me. I, in turn, faxed it to a reporter at The Wall St. Journal. Was it news? You bet! On Monday, Jan 31 Journal reported that drugemporium.com had to close down site for an afternoon while it tended to its database problems.

What happened here? Something that will happen again, maybe in a much bigger way, maybe on your site. "We're still in early stages of ecommerce," says Tekosky. "There will be much bigger mistakes on a much larger scale. Who's to say it wouldn't happen with a banking situation? That could create ecommerce equivalent of Mad Cow scare."

"Donate excess to charity" Tekosky is not some ecommerce-basher. He buys online all time. He bought his Palm Pilot, his printer, many books, vitamins and other goods on Internet. And he's not only one who's having trouble with online buying.

Consider plight of web developer Ira Wexler and his wife, Barry, who is an attorney. They thought they found a great deal for dog food at petopia.com. All they had to do was pay in advance to lock in a great price for six 40 pound bags of dry dog food for their yellow Lab puppy. One 40 pound bag would be sent every 8 weeks. They would pay for first three bags and get next three free.