Azlan plays e-commerce card

Networking distributor Azlan is to offer free delivery on orders placed online when it launches its e-commerce Web site next week. Azlan.com will open its virtual doors to the UK on 14 December, and the service will be rolled out in the remaining 12 European countries the company operates in by 2001. The site will offer real-time availability and prices -– with orders logged directly onto Azlan's main computer system. The company also aims to cross sell products, training and support in packages to its existing 2500 UK resellers. Features include 24-hour delivery from the time orders are placed, and a call-back facility for resellers nervous of using the Web. The free delivery offer will only apply to orders placed in December. Azlan has spent £3 million on the site, which uses the Broadvision platform. According to Barrie Morgans, Azlan chairman, the pan-European service will not run into problems in recruiting resellers to order online. "It is a natural evolution in the growth of the business. This service is what resellers have been asking us for," he said. Only last month, broadline distributor Computer 2000 was forced to introduce a similar free carriage incentive scheme, after admitting that reseller uptake of its online ordering service had been slow and was bringing in less than ten per cent of UK sales. It has started offering free delivery on online orders and says demand for the Web service has increased. Azlan's shares were up just 3.5 pence at 140 pence on the back of the news this afternoon. ®