Fairfield, Connecticut, Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co., the second-largest U.S. company by market value, said it plans to create a World Wide Web site to sell mortgages and other consumer services and products.
GE will work out details of the site next week, at a meeting of electronic-commerce officials from the company's consumer businesses, said Chief Information Officer Gary Reiner.
The online consumer store is the latest effort by the maker of appliances and light bulbs to do business electronically. Chairman John F. Welch Jr. is pushing all of GE's 11 main divisions to embrace the Internet, which he has called the biggest business event since the Industrial Revolution. ``We want to have one sign, on one shopping cart, with one credit card,' Reiner said. ``My hope is all transactions to consumers be done at the store.'
Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE has yet to work out, for example, whether individuals can apply for a mortgage at both the credit division's web site and the new consumer web site, or just the consumer site, Reiner said. He didn't disclose any further details, such as what other consumer products might be offered.
GE, for example, doesn't sell appliances directly to consumers over the Internet now in part because of its relationships and agreements with consumer distributors such as Home Depot Inc. The company does sell directly to homebuilders. ``Whatever consumer transactions we choose to allow ultimately will all go through one (online) store,' Reiner said.
The site is in addition to one GE Capital Corp., the company's finance arm, plans to debut later this month, as well as other GE web sites.
The date of the new site's debut hasn't been set and depends in part on next week's meeting, he said. GE also didn't disclose the name of the new consumer store, which will be linked to the company's recently revamped main site, ge.com.
GE's shares rose 2 3/4 to 120.
¸1999 Bloomberg L.P.
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