UK: COMING UP FAST - A SECTION FOR ENTREPRENEURS - GETTING SHIRTY.

CoZmiK shirts, a tiny two-man online retailer, has increased its revenues by 70% after introducing a secure ordering and payment system on its site (www.cozmikshirts.co.uk). 'Taking online payment has been critical to securing sales,' says co-founder Mike Price. (Orders were taken by phone until May this year.)

The Farnborough-based retailer, which was set up in May 1998, sells unusual T-shirt designs to a global audience. Many of the T-shirts, which come from a range of designers and sell at between £7 and £13, are difficult to obtain elsewhere. The average order size is £20, the highest around £50, and delivery costs £2.

Being such a small company, the purse strings are tight and its marketing budget minuscule. The company attracts traffic to the site through alliances with similar web sites such as T-shirt Shopper (www.t-shirtshopper.com) and T-Shirts! Around the Web (www.circle-r.com/teering) or sites selling complementary products. 'So far, our growth has been achieved through internet-based promotion only,' says Price. These links allow users to search for a particular design across a range of T-shirt retail sites. CoZmiK shirts itself carries a link to amazon.com.