Cyberspace is real. Tens of thousands of businesses prove it by generating billions in trade. Dozens of new e-commerce sites go online every single day. The question for traditional businesses is not whether to go online, but how best to do it.

That was the dilemma facing the venerable National Wildlife Federation. The NWF is a conservation education group which offers thousands of nature-related items for sale including apparel, items for the home and garden, holiday cards and children's toys. The money raised goes to the programs and missions of the NWF.

"We had a print catalogue for thirty years," said Winston Foley, Director, Information Technology NWF. "We realized that we needed to be on the web. We'd heard horror stories about the startup costs for an e-commerce website. We needed a fast and easy solution that wouldn't break our budget."

http://www.shopnwf.org went online in 1999 using a basic Yahoo! Store platform. "It was off the shelf, but we were up and running in a matter of weeks," said Foley. Internet sales began to grow, each year compounding the year before. The problems compounded too. "We struggled with pagination," recalls Foley. "Customers couldn't tell if products were in stock. We needed the ability to track orders and confirm shipments."

The National Wildlife Federation contacted Solid Cactus early this year. "We found the dynamic pagination we were looking for," said Foley. "Solid Cactus completely revamped our site. They changed how it looks, how you navigate it, how to manage inventory. But we still control nearly all the style elements like background colors, fonts and so on.

"We hear from our customers that it's easier to get around the site now. They like the new features such as "check availability" for inventory and the click to enlarge button that gives you a better look at products."

The NWF says about a quarter of its sales now come over the web, and they were able to go with fewer holiday temps because of online efficiencies. The NWF's Winston Foley sees pluses and minuses. "The internet is a more cost-effective way to advertise, and we want to drive more traffic to our web site. The web is the easiest way to take orders. But we like our customers, and we want to talk to them too. For us that part will never change."