By Rachel Beck
AP Business Writer
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1999; 12:10 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK –– Amazon.com is making its biggest move yet to become an online shopping superstore as it starts allowing anyone – from major manufacturers to creative housewives – to sell merchandise through its Web site.

Starting Thursday, more than 500,000 new items, including vacation packages, buffalo steaks and maternity clothes, will be available on Amazon.com through its new zSHOPS program.

Amazon.com shares soared on the news of the new service, which was announced today, climbing $9.93¾, or 15 percent, to $75.81¼ in early trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

"Amazon has said all along that their goal was to provide people with access to every product that they could possibly want," said Ken Cassar, an analyst at Internet research firm Jupiter Communications. "This is getting them closer to that goal."

Founded just four years ago, Seattle-based Amazon.com has grown from being exclusively an online bookseller into an Internet shopping hub offering music, videos, auctions, toys and consumer electronics.

The company has also poured millions of dollars into outside ventures, such as online pharmacy drugstore.com and Internet pet shop Pets.com.

As it has expanded its offerings, its customer base has grown dramatically. More than 12 million shoppers have bought something on its site, up from 10.7 million just three months ago.

But Amazon.com is still a fairly specialized retailer and doesn't carry everything that shoppers want. Its new services, however, are intended to change that.

"The No. 1 complaint with e-commerce today is that people can't find what they are looking for," said Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com. "But we want shoppers to be able to find anything online," he said. "If we don't have it, we'll still try to help you find it."

With zSHOPS, almost anyone – regardless of size, product or location – can sell online. Amazon.com will only prohibit the sale of guns and live animals.

ZSHOPS lets Amazon.com add thousands of items to its site overnight, without huge start-up costs.

Sellers pay $9.99 a month for Web space on Amazon.com to sell up to 3,000 unique items through zSHOPS. If a seller only has one thing to offer, it costs just 10 cents to list each item for two weeks.

When an item is purchased, Amazon.com also receives a fee, which is gauged according to the price. For instance, there is a 5 percent fee for anything under $25; a 2.5 percent fee for anything $25 to $999; and a 1.25 percent fee for anything above $1,000.

Sellers are required to stock the items they are offering and are responsible for shipping the products promptly.

Shoppers can pay zSHOPS sellers directly by credit card, money order or check. Amazon.com will also allow zSHOPS buyers to use its proprietary 1-Click payment feature, which stores shoppers' credit-card number and address so they don't have to re-enter them with each purchase.

To protect consumers from unscrupulous merchants, Amazon.com will guarantee refunds of up to $250 for any item that is broken or not as the buyer expected. Those shoppers who use 1-Click payments are guaranteed up to $1,000.

In addition, shoppers can write in reviews and rate each of the zSHOPS sellers.

For the small merchant, zSHOPS is a way to get products to a huge buying audience without the costs of developing and marketing a separate Web site. ZSHOPS sellers also have the option to cross link their products with items Amazon.com sells itself, such as toys, books and music.

For instance, a shopper who searches for a list of books on knitting will see other related products, such as how-to-knit videos and handmade knitted sweaters a schoolteacher from Iowa was selling on zSHOPS.

"Amazon is not the only site out there to host small businesses on their site," said analyst Cassar, noting that Yahoo! and Lycos offer similar services.

"What makes them different is that Amazon attracts more shoppers than any other site on the Web ... and provides a major thoroughfare that many shoppers will come through," he said.

In addition to the zSHOPS launch, Amazon.com also will unveil a new Internet search engine this week. That means if shoppers can't find something, they can search other sites directly from Amazon.com.

The search program also lets shoppers compare products and prices found on Amazon.com with those offered by other Internet merchants.

Although Amazon.com receives no commission for referring shoppers to other online retailers, the company still benefits indirectly because its new services will attract additional Web surfers to its site.