DIY chainstore Homebase took the wise decision to spend some time - and considerable money - building an online store. Now it has gone live, and initial impressions are pretty good.

You can see that the site's designers have been carefully learning the lessons of web sites that went before them, and the design is easy to understand and make use of.

Beyond the look of the site (at www.homebase.co.uk), a lot of attention has been given to what's inside it. Apart from the online shop that you'd expect, Homebase has put up plenty of DIY advice, including downloadable PDF files that you can print out for yourself.

This kind of customer-focused content is just the kind of thing that will attract plenty of users and keep them coming back to the site. Even if they don't buy something first time round, they might another time. Or they'll go to a real-life Homebase store to buy things.

Another High Street name with some interesting plans is Boots, which has launched a beta version of the new bootsphoto.com site.

Boots already makes good money from developing the nation's holiday snaps, but it has also been smart enough to spot the potential for helping people put them on the web. Now you won't even need to have a computer to put your pictures online, because Boots will do it for you.

If you have a computer, you'll be able to get more out of the service, and there will be other features for users of digital cameras too. The full service is not live yet, but you can pre-register to qualify for a special offer in the coming weeks.

Boots has done well to think beyond simply putting an electronic version of Boots the Chemist on the web. Bootsphoto.com shows they have considered what the web can do and applied it to something they already know a lot about. It will be very interesting to see how the site develops.

Browsing around...

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