Frustrated by the lack of easy-to-use electronic shopping cart programs, Shawn Roop hired a software consultant to create a customized e-commerce program to sell his mother’s toe rings online.

“A few days later, he called me back and said he read about a site where you could set up an online store for free,” said Roop. “He said, ‘I know I’m going to lose business, but this will really help you.'”

A grateful Roop still paid the consultant $300 for his help. Then, in less than 10 hours, Roop created a simple online store using a template-driven program offered by Freemerchant.com. The firm, which was recently acquired by Network Commerce in Seattle, has set up free stores for about 100,000 companies, according to a company spokesman.

Shelby’s Foot Jewels, founded by Roop’s mother, Shirley Elliot, in 1991, now reaches a global market with its handmade silver and gold toe rings, thumb rings, waist chains and “Shoewels,” the beaded barefoot jewelry originally designed by his mother for herself.

“We’ve gone from serving people who are very liberal to grandmas wearing toe rings,” said Roop. “We sell to all ages, primarily women 32 to 42 years old.”

Shelby’s Foot Jewels has evolved from a small seasonal, tourist-oriented business in Laguna Beach to a year-round jewelry empire. Web sales accounted for 19 percent of the company’s business this year, up from 4 percent in 1999. Roop declined to reveal total sales for the privately held company, but said they were under $5 million.

“At first, all I wanted the Web site to do was $50 in sales a day, then $100. Now I look for $350 a day,” said Roop, noting that Christmas and Valentine’s Day sales were especially strong on the Web.

Selling in Saudi Arabia

“Our most remarkable customer is a Saudi Arabian businesswoman who sells in a mall that sells only to women,” he said. “The mall allows women to let loose and become a bit Western for a few hours while shopping.”

He said the mall owner now orders thousands of dollars worth of jewelry on a wholesale basis.

“I’ve never spoken to her, we communicate with e-mail and faxes,” said Roop. “That pretty much sums up what the Web can do for a company.”

Roop, who joined the family business after serving in the military, admits he thought his mother would starve after she announced she was going into the jewelry business full time.

But, Elliot, who had already built and sold a very successful cake business in Orange County, was convinced there was a market for her offbeat, decorative jewelry.

“The biggest thing is our toe rings,” said Elliot. “We have been selling them for nine years, and it just grows and grows.”

She said their rings are popular because they are custom-fitted, rather than adjustable. When a toe ring fits well, she explained, it can be worn barefoot or with shoes, all year round.

Elliot and her husband, Roger, started selling her handmade creations on a card table set up on a bluff overlooking the beach in downtown Laguna Beach.

“When we drove home down the coast after selling rings all day, I’d say to him, ‘I can see a store full of Shoewels,'” she said. Their shop, which recently expanded, was still too small to fit all the people who lined up outside this summer to buy toe rings and waist chains.

Today, her daughter, Loree, manages the store. Roger custom fits thumb rings, and Shirley’s sister is one of the several home-based workers who make beaded products for the company. An uncle recently opened a store in Carlsbad.

“We have a lot of competition now,” said Shawn Roop. “There are cheap rings sold in malls for $3.50 each, but we’ve made our business on a sized toe ring.”

Help going online

Shelby’s Foot Jewels is just one of the small companies relying on Freemerchant.com to sell online. Founded in 1998 by Serge Wilson, the company provides free site hosting, free credit card processing, free inventory control and export of sales data to QuickBooks.

Wilson said the company, which he sold in April to Network Commerce, makes its money by selling banner ads directed toward the merchants to view when they sign on to check sales and add new inventory.

A visit to the site makes it clear that if you can read and type, you can probably set up and manage your own online store.

“You can take pictures of your products, send the roll to a company that develops and posts the images on the Web, and we’ll pull them down for you,” said Wilson.

Wilson and his team of “hard-core programmers” were initially hired by big companies to develop major e-commerce software programs. When their clients’ constant need to update the information began to drive them crazy, they came up with tools that allowed the users to make the changes quickly. Later, they decided to give away their software for free to help small companies sell online.

“I started programming when I was 12 years old,” said Wilson. “When the Internet came on the scene, there were no tools. I just jumped at the chance to develop these tools.”

Wilson said he spent only $650,000 to build and grow the company over two years before he sold it. He’s now an executive vice president at the 700-employee company, working on new ideas.

There are other low-cost shopping cart programs for business owners, including an Amazon.com offering called zShops. Check with the company that hosts your Web site for information on their available shopping cart software.

Jane Applegate is the author of “201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business,” and is founder of ApplegateWay.com, a multimedia Web site for busy entrepreneurs. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].