Started in December 1998, `Chennaibazaar.com' has close to 2,000 customers. The facility will soon be made available in Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Calcutta.

This increasingly popular cyber bazaar is promoted and managed by Net Avenue, a web designing and hosting services company, floated by two young MBAs, Rajesh Nahar S and K Ritesh Katriya.

Net Avenue also offers virtual shopping facility to retailers, distributors and manufacturers and "to all wanting to sell anything". Anyone can open a virtual shop on the Net to display, describe, demonstrate and even distribute his products.

`Dishnet' or internet through cable TV is another venture of Net Avenue. It would make internet browsing very cheap at Rs 1.80 an hour, Rs 3,500 for a year. (The current VSNL rate is Rs 30 an hour).

Shopping online with Chennaibazaar.com (the name is registered withInternic, the US name registration firm), is simple and easy. One just has to log in to the site and a virtual shopping mall is unfolded for the consumer to surf through for choosing and ticking goods one wants to buy.

"We will soon start railway and airline ticketing also," the duo announced.

Once the goods are ordered online, Net Avenue reconfirms the order over telephone. The goods are then delivered the next day when payment is made.

Some of the big names in the city are associated with Net Avenue "and this is only the beginning. We are surfing the real world to get many more retailers on board".

Chennaibazzar.com was rated the best site of the day on March 11, 1999 by www.khoj.com, the Indian search engine.

Detailing the marketing methodology of a virtual shop, they said, "the super market consists of a lot of avenues for placing page links to give maximum advantage to the virtual shop. Every new shop included has an inauguration ceremony which becomes the limelight website and this opening isannounced much in advance to invite customers to the site."

Already RPG paid SIM card, Noway for cockroaches, Parrys Spirulina and Sidekick have set up virtual shops on Chennaibazzar. Other shops planned are Shefali Enterprises, Aditya Enterprises, Trishna Sanitaryware, Light Studio, Polo Chair and Indian Marble Company.

Rajesh said there is the possibility for the birth of several such bazaars all over the country with the rapid spread of internet. The methodologies of selling and the buying decisions are undergoing tremendous changes. "Net Avenue is the first step of the new avenues in marketing and management," he added.