Portland, Ore.-Based E-Tailer of Athletic Goods to Add Off-Line Sales.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Aug. 1--As analysts and investors cool on Internet retailers, Portland-based Lucy.com is preparing to branch out into catalog and store-based sales.

The year-old seller of women's athletic goods is also redesigning its Web site, hoping to let customers order products more quickly and easily. The new site design, introduced today, also offers a feature that suggests clothes to shoppers based on their body shape, said Kate Delhagen, Lucy.com's vice president of business development.

Lucy.com is adding off-line sales because some shoppers dislike browsing and buying online, Delhagen said. The company will mail its first catalog and start taking phone orders in September.

Delhagen said executives will probably add store space in about a year but haven't decided whether to build or buy stores or get space in a store some other way.

Both a catalog and a store should drive up sales, she said, adding that the company would hope to eventually persuade catalog or store patrons to shop online. Delhagen would not disclose Lucy.com's sales. She said more than 300,000 people looked at the Web site in June.

The downside to adding a catalog or stores is that doing so vastly increases costs. Online retailers originally became corporate darlings by promising to avoid many of the costs of traditional stores so they could offer lower prices and bigger profits.

Instead, many "e-tailers" have racked up huge debt. Some have shut down in recent months, including online sporting goods seller Boo.com.

So retailers are diversifying beyond Web sites, stores or catalogs, said J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Tom Wyman. Selling through all three channels will become "the new world order" for retailers, he predicted.

Executives said Lucy.com is planning other changes as it adds employees and products. This month, the company will move from the 5,000 square feet it rents at 1634 S.W. Alder St. to 14,125 square feet of rental space at 1400 S.W. Fifth Ave.

Lucy.com has also ended a deal to have Portland catalog retailer Norm Thompson ship its orders, since Lucy.com started stocking more products than Norm Thompson's warehouse could handle. A Martinsville, Va., warehouse run by NewRoads Inc. has shipped Lucy.com goods since July 26.

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