The 3,000-square-foot cyber gallery will be supported by a store-incharge accessing a small inventory of the Archie product range. Specific products from each of the Archies' cards and gifts division will be shifted to the cyber gallery. Dedicated on-line personnel will then confirm Net orders via telephone and delivery boys--sporting brand Archies attire and motorbikes--will be responsible for despatch of orders and collection of money from Delhi-based customers.

``We expect e-commerce to add to our kitty in a significant way,'' says Anil Moolchandani, CMD, Archies. ``Once on-line verificationof credit cards comes into place there will be a boom in the greetings card business.''

India's average per-person purchase is at half-a-card a year--which is much less than the 42 card average in the UK and 35 in the US. ``Even if we can increase it to four cards a person, it would result in a phenomenal business,'' says Moolchandani.

In an interesting trend, Moolchandani discloses that of all the orders booked on the Net so far, 80 per cent originated in the US. ``There is a tremendous cards and gifts market among the oversees Indians and NRIs, which we intend to capture,'' said Vijayant Chhabra, director, Archies. In the US, e-commerce has boosted the cards industry from $6.5 billion in 1998 to $7.2 billion in 1999.

Once the concept becomes operational in Delhi, Archies would expand cyber galleries to Mumbai and other metros--in addition to tying up with express and courier companies. Unlike Archie Gallery franchises, customers will not be able to directly shop at a cyber gallery.

While remainingfocussed on exclusive galleries--it is opening 25 Vision 2000 Galleries in the next six months in addition to the existing eight in India--Archies is now considering expansion through exclusive tie-ups with departmental stores, particularly in the South.

Realising its strengths in pulling in consumer traffic, especially teenagers, Archies is also mulling strategic retailing tie-ups. ``We're closing studying modules like Color Plus' tie-up with Nike for common retail shops,'' said Chhabra.

To popularise its own site--the address will be finalised shortly--Archies plans to launch a raft of contests. ``Since we'll be charging the retail price even on the Net, a portion of those margins could be easily passed on to the consumer in terms of gifts and prizes,'' said Chhabra. ``Once our site becomes popular, we stand to attract a good band of advertisers who would like to place banners on our site.'' Archies is also in the process of identifying new sites to promote the Archies brand.