Computer retailer CompUSA Inc. this fall will relaunch its Web storefront, relying less on cut-rate discounts and more on building one-to-one relationships with customers. But CompUSA's approach is distinctive in other ways. CompUSA is maintaining the wall between its traditional and Web businesses, and keeping the two IT departments and infrastructures separate. The delineation affects customers as well: Online buyers can't return purchases to brick-and- mortar locations, something many E-retailers have begun to accommodate.

CompUSA's E-commerce venture, created in March under the name CompUSANet.com, remains a wholly owned subsidiary that has a separate management team and looks well-positioned for a public stock offering. Indeed, the main site (www.compusa.com) is little more than a window into two separate sites: www.compusanet.com for online sales, and www.compusastores.com for information about the company's physical locations.

The online subsidiary, in Marlboro, Mass., is using the back-end IT infrastructure, on a legacy enterprise resource planning system, of CompUSA Direct, the company's former catalog and direct-to-corporate business. The company has bolted a Microsoft Site Server-based catalog onto that back end. Later this fall, it will add Broadvision One-to-One personalization and commerce. An existing call center is also being outfitted to handle Web inquiries via E-mail and chat.

That system will create and store individual customer profiles, purchasing behavior, and customized content and applications. In addition to Broadvision, CompUSANet.com is tapping CGN Marketing & Creative Services to redesign the Web site and IBM's Global Service's group to create the site's underlying architecture and user interface.

CompUSANet.com's fall relaunch comes amid hard times at its parent company. In June, CompUSA said it would close at least a dozen physical locations and cut as many as 1,500 of its 21,000 jobs. In April, its Net.com unit cut 200 jobs that didn't directly support the new focus on E-commerce. The company posted a $4.9 million third-quarter loss in May on $1.69 billion in revenue.