Sam's Club to offer Web hosting sites [June 7, 2004]

Sam's Club is getting into the Internet hosting market with a new service that lets small-business customers set up professional Web sites for $5 a month.

The monthly fee covers the site, a domain name and Internet e-mail.

For an extra $5 a month, customers can add an online shopping feature.

The service is managed by privately held Vista.com of Redmond, Wash., which designs Internet software geared for small businesses.

"In talking to our business members, one of their needs that continually came up was access to a Web site, and not only access, but [questions about] how do they develop their own and how do they keep it going," said Cara Kinzey, vice president of membership for the Sam's Club wholesale chain.

Customers can sign up for the service at www.samsclub.com or at (877) 725-7932 (SAMSWEB).

Subscriptions cannot be purchased at Sam's Club stores, and they are only available to business customers with a Sam's Club Plus membership.

The service provides industry-specific templates that users can customize with corporate logos, photographs and text. Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, also said it will offer custom design services beginning at $99.