E-commerce from your home

The partnership will offer AOL members the chance to set up a small e-business via the free Web space already available to them. Virtual Internet offers a range of services and packages to help with this, including a simple wizard to make set-up easier and domain name registration for under £30.

Virtual Internet believes there is huge potential in the "home" e-commerce business and is keen to get involved. It marks a new departure for the company which has previously concentrated on big business, offering e-commerce solutions to companies like BurgerKing, Nestle and Ladbrokes.

According to AOL UK's partnership manager Richard Smith, home users are "quickly becoming Internet savvy and demand increasingly sophisticated solutions to website ownership".