smart was the first car manufacturer to offer its customers the option of ordering a vehicle via the internet. The car manufacturer is now broadening this service to enable customers to order the very latest, highly functional smartware collection online, too.

The products can be accessed either directly via www.smart.com or at www.smart-store.com. The online shop is open 24 hours. "We have developed the new smartware online shop with due regard to our customers' high level of brand loyalty and their pronounced affinity to the internet. This complements the range available from smart's sales partners by additionally enabling customers to buy at the click of a mouse," says Anders Sundt Jensen, the member of smart's management board responsible for Marketing and Sales.

The range covers virtually every travel and leisure need, from sunrise to sunset: The cappuccino cup for breakfast on the balcony or the large fleecy towel for the fitness studio. Flip-flops for the walk to the beach and sunglasses for a shopping spree. A jacket for evenings on the patio; a trolley to hold souvenirs - designed to fit perfectly into the smart roadster's luggage compartment. And of course the unique metal or rubber clockware - the watch created by smart's design team especially for the smart forfour and available exclusively from smart. The "Hot Deals" section contains special offers at special prices.

The online shop will go live in Germany on 20 April. The other European countries - Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, England, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg - will follow on 15 June. Payment can be made by credit card, direct debit, advance payment and, of course, with the smart card Visa. Deliveries will be carried out in Germany by the logistic partner DHL, and a maximum delivery period of seven working days is guaranteed.

smart customers have an extremely high affinity to the internet. Almost half of all smart drivers use the internet both at home and at the office. Following the option of buying a car via the internet, it was thus a logical development to offer the highly popular smartware collection via this medium, too. Of course smart's sales partners will continue to sell the smartware collection as before.

Two figures highlight the success of the smartware collection, which first went on sale at smart Centers in 1998: Sales have more than doubled in the past four years and the number of articles available in the range has grown by almost 250 per cent over the same period.