While Internet ventures around the world go belly up, bermudagrocer.com is celebrating its first year in business and Ralph Saints - managing director of Atlantic Imports Ltd., the company behind the online grocer - says the future looks bright.

The online grocer officially opened on August 8 last year and the list of products and services quickly grew.

Mr. Saints said initial online orders were slower than they expected, but during the last year the company has enjoyed relatively slow but steady growth.

Mr. Saints said: "Last month was our busiest ever."

He said the company had done several customer surveys which showed that shoppers were generally happy with the service and the e-grocers took on board several suggestions consumers made.

Mr. Saints noted that one of the keys to the success of his business was the need to constantly change and update its Web site in an effort to make it more user friendly and encourage more people to use it.

Mr. Saints explained that they had recently changed the shopping cart function on the site and now the last order a customer made will reappear when they log on to the site and they can edit the list rather than starting from scratch each time.

Special offers also entice shoppers to the site and in October last year the grocer started offering fruit and gift baskets including champagne and wine delivery and in March of this year they jumped on the popular sushi bandwagon and offered delivery of the raw delicacy from the Omakase Sushi bar at Hamilton's Primavera Restaurant.

Mr. Saints also announced yesterday a new deal whereby customers buying $100 worth of groceries would be entitled to a 30 percent discount at the Carriage House Restaurant in St. George's.

And to celebrate their first anniversary, shoppers can enjoy ten to 40 percent off selected items until August 25.

Mr. Saints also promoted their referral plan - which he said few people take advantage of - whereby customers get a discount if a friend they have referred to the site places an order.

Mr. Saints said they were trying many different things to make the experience of shopping online more of a service rather than just a grocery store.

The last year has been far from smooth sailing however, and the business ran into a major hurdle soon after opening when the Transport Control Department (TCD) refused to give them permission for another delivery van.

However, Mr. Saints yesterday cleared up some confusion surrounding the matter and said the company already had two vans and wanted two more, but TCD would only allow them one more. The matter has now been resolved and they now have four delivery vans in total.

Mr. Saints said there were approximately 500 regular customers signed up to the site who ranged from very loyal customers making an order once a week, to those who are more casual, making an order every month or more.

Mr. Saints also said there are those who try the service once out of curiosity, but do not come back and Mr. Saints said he feels it is a "good mix", but added: "I would like to see more regular customers."

One market Mr. Saints capitalises on is the visitors who come to Bermuda and stay in small guest houses and rental properties and order groceries online.

And it seems no one is out of delivery range, as Hinson's Island residents can conveniently meet their groceries at Darrells Wharf and take them over to the Island.

As far as plans for the next year, Mr. Saints promised major changes would soon be made and said he would like to get more variety on the site.

Service is one of the company's greatest assets and currently, if an item a customer wants is not on available through the site, they will go and pick up whatever a customer requests and include it with the order.

There are currently more than 5,000 items on the site, a number Mr. Saints hopes to expand.

When asked what his biggest challenges had been last year, Mr. Saints said: "Getting the deliveries to their destinations was a challenge and things got really interesting when bottlenecks occurred."

But Mr. Saints added: "The biggest challenge is convincing people to get online."

When asked what success they had enjoyed, Mr. Saints said they were happy to still be in business and said: "Webvan has gone and we are still here."

Mr. Saints was happy with the steady progression of the site but said: "We could always use more business but I'm glad its going in the direction its going."

Groceries can be delivered Island wide and they now offer a popular evening delivery service from 6 to 9 p.m.

The delivery schedule is also changed from time to time to fine tune the optimal delivery system for the business and currently no deliveries are made on Monday morning and afternoon, Tuesday morning and Friday morning.

For all other days delivery is from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The company employs seven people with a few being part time and has increased business recently by accepting phone and fax orders.

Surveys have indicated that almost 65 percent of households in Bermuda have an Internet connection and approximately 25 percent these households actively shop online both locally and overseas.

Order your groceries online at www.bermudagrocer.com or call 293-5977 or fax 293-5976.