Given equal products, pricing, selection, and quality, convenience will carry the day in the competition for sales. To use convenience as a weapon, develop a customer-centric attitude about your manner of doing business. Constantly evaluate your business from the customer's point of view and think about how you can make your business relationships better or easier for them.

Let's walk through the stages of customer interaction and look at some ways to improve convenience along the way.

Initial contact.
Make it easy for customers to learn about your business without being intrusive. Ideally, your company name should come to mind at the exact moment when your customers need that type of product or service, and they should know or be easily able to learn how to contact you. The only way to develop that kind of identity in customers' minds is by repeating your company name and basic marketing message.

But the need for repetition doesn't mean you have to bore or bludgeon your prospects. Rather than forcing your advertisements on unsuspecting netizens by posting blatant ads to discussion groups, participate regularly by posting useful replies or comments to relevant discussions and affix a well-designed signature to each message. People will read your messages because of their information content, and they'll remember your company because of the signature.

Aside from discussion groups, there are other ways to gain repeated visibility.

• Be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to add your company name to online business directories.

• If you have a Web storefront, look for opportunities to trade Worldwide Web links with related sites, so your links appear in more and more places.

• Publish informative documents in places where you customers are likely to find them.

• Offer to contribute a column to online newsletters related to your business.

• Hold online conferences or chat sessions in forums related to your business, or where your customers are likely to congregate.

Each of these locations is an opportunity to tell people what you know and to tell them who you are and how to reach you. When combined, these tactics give you the online visibility and repetition required to give your company a position in the customer's mind without overstepping the bounds of netiquette.

Information requests.
Be prepared to learn about and respond to further requests for information as quickly and effectively as possible. Consider using a mailbot to provide instant responses to initial requests for more information about your business. Prepare a mailbot document in advance, and study the mailbot's server log once every couple of weeks to find out who is requesting your information. If you don't use a mailbot, check your e-mail two to four times a day, every day, and prepare electronic brochures in advance so you can fire off information quickly. If your company is large enough, delegate information requests to the appropriate person, so the most knowledgeable and helpful employee handles the customer contact.

Orders.
Devise an ordering system that meets your customers' needs by thinking about who those customers are, where they're located, and how they might pay for your products or services.

If you're seeking international business, for example, your order form should allow for payment in internationally-accepted methods such as Eurocards or JCB Cards as well as Visa and Mastercard. Make your shipping and handling rates adjustable so people overseas pay their share of the costs, but not more. Work out the best possible deal on shipping so your customers in remote locations aren't penalized unfairly.

Shipments.
Most customers will worry about their order until they receive it. Confirm every order via e-mail within 24 hours. Find a way to get any item to a customer within a week at most. Many mail-order firms use second-day or overnight delivery as standard practice. If you can't afford this as a standard shipping method, offer it as an option so your customers know they can speed delivery if they choose. Inside each package, include further marketing information, your guarantee, and instructions about your return procedure.

Repeat business.
Repeat business is more profitable than new business because it costs less to develop. Your customers should benefit from their status as repeaters, as well. Schedule periodic mailings about new products or services (or advice about using existing ones), and send them to existing customers. Pack as much useful information into those mailings as possible, rather than simply making them ads. Both types of information serve to remind customers you're still there, but with useful information the reminder comes in a package that says you care about their needs, rather than yours.

You can also make repeat online sales more convenient for your customers by assigning each one an account number after their first order. Make a point of telling repeat customers that they can identify themselves on your order form by simply entering their account number, rather than having to retype the same name, address, and credit card information. Mail order houses use this tactic all the time to make it easier for repeaters to do business with them.

The Net won't become a favored place to shop until it's more convenient than shopping through other means. The suggestions above will help you make it so.