Imagine you just walked into a toy store.

The usual racks of army men, jax, and yo-yos greet you at the door. You walk past the unattended cash register toward the sporting goods toys. The weather is getting nice and you thought you'd buy a Frisbee to take with you on picnics.

The first thing you notice is that it's not so easy to actually get to the Frisbees. You have to walk through a bunch of big cardboard advertising stuff -- life-size figures of the new Action Man -- and every now and then, you have to push a little display for toothbrushes and insurance out of the way.

You finally get to the Frisbees, wondering what all that promotional junk is doing in a toy store. You don't spend too much time thinking about it because you realize that there isn't just one kind of Frisbee, there are many: 110 gram, 140 gram, 150 gram, and the deluxe 165-gram tournament size. There are even little tiny ones for playing golf. You're thinking "Hmmm golf with a Frisbee?" Then you decide you'll need help choosing one.

You look around for a sales associate with no results. So, you start to wander through the store looking for someone. When you get to the end of the isle you notice a sign that reads, "If you have any questions about our products, leave a note and we'll get back to you." Okay, so this is a little odd but you play along and leave a note about choosing a good Frisbee for picnics.

You look around again and still don't see anyone. Finally, you decide you'll just get the one that looks the most like summer. You pick up your Frisbee and head to the cash register.

There is still nobody around. But, you see another sign that reads, "If you would like to make a purchase, please fill out the form on the counter. Include your credit card number and drop the form and the product you'd like to buy in the box by the door. We'll ship your item as soon as the form is processed."

Now would any of you actually do this? I didn't think so. It sounds absurd to run a store that way. Yet in cyberspace, many stores are run just like that with promotional junk standing in the way of products, impossible customer support and interaction making customers uneasy, and a bizarre checkout making purchasing difficult.

But there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to be a successful online retailer:

• Be descriptive
• Make customers comfortable
• Offer easy checkout

  First, be as descriptive as possible about the items you sell. Include information about the size, weight, color or anything else that will help your customer create a mental image of that item. Include pictures whenever possible. You may need to have more than one picture of each item to show all sides.

  Second, the only way customers are going to buy that item from you is if you make them feel comfortable about shopping at your site. So don't bombard them with excessive advertisements. A few are expected, but too many will make a customer leave.

  Finally, the most important part of the sale is ringing up an item. Make this as simple as possible. Don't force your customer to look for the register. Make the checkout link very obvious, and keep the process as simple as possible. If you can collect all the information on one page, then do; don't force your customer go to five different places just to buy one item.

Market analysis shows that around 70 percent of online shoppers will leave if they have any difficulty using or understanding the checkout process. If you have any questions about how many people visit your site compared to the number that actually make a purchase, I recommend using SuperStats. This will give you detailed information about who has been to your site and where they went on your site. Then you can compare those figures to the number of sales you make and find out what percentage of your visitors stay long enough to make a purchase.

A word of support to those new to e-commerce sites, if you find that only 2 percent of your visitors actually make a purchase don't be discouraged. That's a good start. Just try to figure out what encouraged that 2 percent to buy and duplicate it all over your site.

Brian Schneider is a freelance Web, print designer and creator and the head of the P.M. Cast Project.