OTTUMWA – How do you convince 100 area business leaders to pack themselves into a classroom that is nearly as hot as the temperature outside? Offer them the keys to what one organizer called the “least expensive store you’ve ever opened.”

Monday’s seminar on building business on the Web drew businesspeople from Ottumwa and the surrounding region with the promise of an Internet edge. Sales of goods over the Internet are a booming, $30 billion annually. The range of sales is stunning, ranging from small sellers on eBay to multinational corporations. Web sales are big enough that they have become part of the political debate. Both the federal government and the states wrangle over how, and whether, to collect sales taxes on Internet sales.

Kurt Peters, editor of “Internet Retailer” magazine, told the audience there are both opportunities and risks on the Internet. The Web allows people to reach massive audiences, but it also allows competitors to reach into a small-town business’ backyard. Peters did a Google search for “RC cars” as an example. It returned a staggering 13 million hits.

“That’s a lot of pages. I don’t know how many are retailers,” Peters said. “But even if it’s 10 percent, that’s 1.3 million retailers.”

To Peters, that level of competition is both risk and reason for Internet retailing. He said an Internet presence lets business owners keep up with competitors they may not even realize are there. A Web site does not guarantee sales, but the absence of a Web site guarantees a loss of sales and an inability to attract new customers beyond a small geographic territory. It’s a new concept for retailers whose businesses have been around for decades, but making the leap into Web sales can mean the difference between increasing revenue and closing the doors.

“As I was putting together this presentation, I asked my colleague … what she would say if she was here. She said, ‘Embrace change,’” Peters said.

Lauren Freedman echoed that sentiment. As president of the e-tailing group, she keeps a close eye on Internet trends. She said in many cases an online look at a business results in an in-store purchase.

Even when shoppers stay online, they look for deals. Internet shoppers look for breaks, even if they’re a bit different than what they might find at the mall. Free shipping is a big draw.

“It’s well worth an extra day to get free shipping,” Freedman said. “I’m a free shipping junkie. Most people are.”

For Rob Hammann, a senior partner with Arrow Quick, an Oskaloosa business, the Internet is more than just an opportunity. Arrow Quick literally wouldn’t exist without it. The company builds Web sites, particularly sites based around the idea of Internet commerce or “e-tailing.”

“We’re actually here because we offer some of the services these people are talking about, e-commerce and e-services,” Hammann said. “We’ve got it from all over southeast Iowa and outside as well. California. We’ve been doing it for about five years.”

Hammann said there was some demand for Arrow Quick’s services when the company started, but that demand mushroomed over the past 18 months. That time frame is about the same as when broadband service first became widely available. He doesn’t think that is coincidence. Broadband allows people to rapidly move between web pages. That, in turn, makes it easier for companies to shift from static Web pages with a handful of small pictures to dynamic sites with shifting images.

The Internet’s impact goes well beyond the obvious. Rich Gaumer, president of the Ottumwa Area Development Corporation, is an attorney. He said large law libraries were once the sole province of large law firms. That has changed.

“I have more access to more things than those people did in 1963 with their large amounts of money,” he said.

The world has moved on. Monday’s seminar showed area businesses want to keep up.