By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Cyber Monday wasn’t all it was cracked up to be for some small Maine businesses, but having an online presence is still a boon for many.

Don Little and Randy Ogden of DLRRO Stained Glass in Auburn, for example, didn’t get a rush of online orders last Monday as employees returned to work after Thanksgiving. However, they’ve had a Web site for five years, which enabled them to move from Arizona to Auburn last spring without losing their entire customer base.

“(Customers) can purchase anything from my Web site through the shopping cart and it’s totally secure,” Little said Friday. About 90 percent of his products, including stained glass artworks, lampshades and picture frames, are available online.

Having a Web site is a smart move for businesses as Internet shopping grows in popularity, especially at the holidays. According to two Shop.org surveys, 77 percent of online retailers experienced surges in online purchases the Monday after Thanksgiving last year. About 37 percent of consumers, or 51.7 million people, said they will use Internet access at work to browse or buy gifts this holiday season.

A Web site may not always result in stunning sales figures for smaller businesses, but it helps customers research products even if they don’t buy online, Don Little said.

Brett Wickard, president of Portland-based Bull Moose Music, agreed. He said many shoppers will browse the Web site before traveling to one of 10 Maine retail locations to buy.

Also, Wickard said, “The Internet’s kind of worked as a second-tier place for us to sell stuff.” His company often unloads used, outdated or out-of-print products to overseas customers through sites like eBay.

For some Maine companies, the Internet brings in more than a few casual customers.

Colleen Foss, a partial owner in the family run Maine Made Christmas in Columbia Falls in Washington County, said that when they first started selling balsam wreaths and other holiday decorations through fliers and a Web site, they thought they would do more business through the mail. But their Web site, www.balsambuddies.com, quickly outpaced mail-order sales.

“We do get a majority of our orders through the online Web site,” she said.

As a result, the homegrown business has gone national. Foss said they frequently ship products across the country and even to Alaska and Hawaii.

Some Maine companies have taken a far different approach. When Mark Woodbury and Mark Eidsness decided to start Sparkability in 2003, the Portland-based business partners went straight to the Web.

“Online is relatively inexpensive,” Woodbury said Friday, noting that he and Eidsness run the business and update their Web site without any outside help.

Their products have gone global with little investment. The pair rely on word-of-mouth, blogs and even e-magazine and newspaper write-ups to get the word out about their modern child-care products and toys.

Sparkability may eventually have retail store locations and even a glossy print catalogue, Woodbury said, but for now they are continuing to grow a customer base online.

Even larger companies with strong catalog sales have turned to the Internet. Clothing and outdoor equipment retailer L.L. Bean has been watching its online sales steadily grow.

“L.L. Bean is about 80 percent consumer-direct – that’s mailed to your home,” spokesman Rich Donaldson said Thursday. That leaves only 20 percent of the products sold through retail stores.

According to Donaldson, catalog orders “only slightly outpaced Internet sales at the moment.”

If the trend continues, L.L. Bean will see more Internet than catalog sales in 2006.