You lost your car keys. You have a cold. And you have books to buy for next quarter.

Don't panic. And don't go outside. The online bookstore at UC Davis offers reliable and fast shopping as close as your computer.

Last summer the UC Davis Bookstore launched a redesigned Web site, http://bookstore.ucdavis.edu, that allows people to order books and have them delivered to their front doorsteps.

Prior to the redesign, the online site brought in exactly zero dollars, as is the case with static sites offering no e-commerce options.

Since last July, online ordering has yielded about $388,000 in direct sales, said Carol Swafford, manager for general merchandising.

"The online is helping to speed up our lines and to allow people to buy items in advance," said Swafford, noting that 3,400 orders have been placed since the Web site was redesigned.

Historically, students on college campuses all across the country find themselves waiting in long lines and paying big bucks for textbooks. However, the UC Davis Bookstore alleviates both of these problems.

At UC Davis, the bookstore has grown to offer 135,000 book titles in 163 book categories. Beyond general books, some niches include agriculture, campus authors, campus and local interest, viticulture and enology, and medical and veterinary books, to name a few. It also offers clothing, school and office supplies, gifts and souvenirs, and computers.

Textbooks are also available on the online bookstore, where books can be preordered and picked up in the Memorial Union before classes begin. Students also now can jump online to reserve graduation caps and gowns.

Offerings to expand

One of the advantages of the online site is the uniformity and consistency across all the merchandising levels, said Web and database programmer Megan Richmond, who was in charge of the redesign.

"The word has been getting out about the site," said Richmond, noting that online sales boomed during last year's holiday season in November and December. Currently the site averages about 1,023 visitors each day.

"We get about 10 orders placed per day throughout the year and that jumped up to around 30 around the holidays and graduation. We have been noticing a steady growth so I expect that they will be higher in the future," Richmond explained.

Richmond said that last year the bookstore had 3,700 incoming students participate in the textbook reservation program. Currently, students have made about 2,500 cap and gown reservations.

She said the online site is currently expanding its offerings to include health sciences books and additional products to meet the professional demand created by medical center employees who may not make it to the bookstore in Sacramento before it closes by early evening.

Future plans include allowing students to use their student accounts to pay for books -- which must currently be done with a credit card -- and enabling campus departments to purchase items through their accounts in DaFIS, the UC Davis Financial Information System. These improvements may be a couple years away, she said.

Not just for students

The online store is not just for Web-headed students.

Charles Kratochvil, director of the UC Davis Bookstore, said both students and older generations buy online these days. That's important, considering that the bookstore's secondary audience beyond faculty, staff and students are campus guests, visitors and parents.

Bookstores can tell one a lot about a particular campus, and Kratochvil points out that the UC Davis Bookstore in the Memorial Union is one of the first places a guest or parent visits. And he says this is holding true for the Web version of the bookstore as well.

A common shopping basket

The idea behind the new site was to develop a "common shopping basket" that reflected the brick-and-mortar store and allowed for immediate credit card transactions, Kratochvil said. So far, the feedback is encouraging.

"It's been very positive for our faculty, staff and students," he said.

Perhaps best of all, ordering books through UC Davis can be more cost-effective than through mega-Internet book retailers.

"We're highly competitive in terms of cost," Kratochvil said.

And just like other online retailers, order confirmations are sent to buyers automatically via e-mail when the order is placed. An additional e-mail is sent once the order has been shipped.

It's true that one issue with buying books online is not being able to see the books before purchasing them. Still, all merchandise ordered online can be returned within 14 days of the ship date printed on the packing slip. And online buyers can view the status of their orders at any time by visiting the "My Account" section of the Web site.