Isle companies open
Internet mall

Liberty House, Bankoh and Oceanic Cable
jump on the Web-retailing bandwagon

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin


There's a new shopping mall in Hawaii. But at this mall, you don't have to wait in long lines at checkout counters or navigate through crowded parking lots. All you need is a personal computer and access to the Internet.

It's called MarketPlace Hawaii, and it's part of the growing wave of malls on the Internet's World Wide Web.

An alliance between Liberty House Stores Inc., Bank of Hawaii and Oceanic Cable, MarketPlace Hawaii hopes to capitalize on the fledgling but potentially lucrative Internet shopping business.

"The potential for future shopping is enormous," said Jim Famalette, chief executive officer of Liberty House. "We will be able to present our store, our products and our services to more than 45 million Internet users around the world."

Using Internet technology, shoppers can browse MarketPlace Hawaii for the merchandise at Liberty House and the mall's other retail tenant, Hawaiian fashion retailer Hilo Hattie. Home-accessory retailer Paradizzio also plans to join as a tenant.

They can then make their purchases on line using a credit card.

Web browsers also can read reports on the latest economic and technological trends as well as visitor and cultural information about Hawaii.

Piia Aarma, spokeswoman at Bank of Hawaii, said the operators are considering a foreign language version.

They have other expansion plans as well.

"It'll be a place to shop, learn about traffic conditions, stroll through the Bishop Museum, buy your groceries, and make a golf tee time" says Don Carroll, president of Oceanic Cable.

Aarma said the MarketPlace Hawaii system, which cost about $500,000 to develop, is owned by Oceanic Cable, whose parent Time Warner Inc. is a pioneer in the Internet mall business.

Liberty House is the manager of the mall and Bank of Hawaii manages the credit-card transactions, she said. CyberCom Inc. developed the site, and Outrigger Hotels & Resorts is a partnering tenant.

Retailing analysts see a rosy future for Internet shopping.

"Once you have enough people raised on the computer as a household appliance, a tremendous amount of merchandise will be sold on the Internet," said retailing consultant Walter K. Levy.

Besides Time Warner, companies such as IBM, Microsoft Corp. and America Online Inc. have put up or are building Internet malls, while AT&T is looking into such a plan.

"Internet retailing will play an important role in the future so that 10 to 15 years from now, the American retail center of gravity will swing from stores to screens," said Levy.

One potential stumbling point: security. In the past, consumers have expressed concerns about unauthorized access to their credit card or account information.

To allay those fears, Bank of Hawaii, which manages the payment system for MarketPlace Hawaii, encrypts or scrambles customers' credit card information, making it difficult for unauthorized use, Aarma said.

As a further security measure, the bank's computers will process credit-card transaction on a separate computer, she said. Currently, many Internet merchants process their credit-card accounts on the same system, raising the potential for tampering.

MarketPlace Hawaii's address on the Web is http://www.marketplacehawaii.com

Reuters news service contributed to this report.



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